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Three Arcola city council members have filed a lawsuit against the mayor and other city officials, asking the court for protection from interference with their duties as elected officials. The lawsuit comes after the same three council members left the last city council meeting March 12 in protest of the mayor’s attempt to oust council member Ebony Sanco.
In the lawsuit filed Friday by council members Sanco, Evelyn Jones and Rosemary Bigby, the council members claim that the defendants have “grossly exceeded their lawful authority and infringed upon the plaintiffs’ right to hold office.”
The lawsuit says Mayor Fred Burton and other city officials infringed upon their duties as elected officials, including attempts to vacate Sanco’s seat and not putting items on the agenda requested by Jones and Bigby.
The plaintiffs also argue that only a district judge has the authority to remove an elected official from the city council.
At a Feb. 13 council meeting, the mayor placed an item on the agenda to discuss whether Sanco lived in Arcola. The lawsuit alleges that Burton had Sanco followed by the Arcola Police Department to prove that she lives in Missouri City. At that meeting, the mayor and city attorney Debra Mergel presented a video of Sanco outside a home allegedly in Missouri City.
Sanco provided the Houston Landing photos of her mail that shows an Arcola address. She’s also reiterated that she does in fact live in Arcola to city officials during council meetings.
Regardless, Mergel gave a presentation to council, citing a city ordinance regarding eligibility to hold office, and asked Sanco to resign from office. Mergel also stated that Sanco could not vote since she allegedly didn’t live in Arcola, according to the lawsuit.
A few days later, Sanco noticed that her city council stipend was not deposited into her account. When she asked the city’s finance director about this, she was told that she would have to consult Burton and city administrator Annette Guajardo, according to the lawsuit.
The day before the March 12 council meeting, a lawyer representing Sanco, Bigby and Jones sent a cease-and-desist letter to the mayor and other city officials to prevent them from making any motions to remove Sanco. They proceeded anyway.
The discussion of Sanco’s council seat was brought up again at the March 12 meeting when the mayor put items on the agenda to declare Sanco’s seat as vacant and to discuss replacing her. The meeting was forced to adjourn after the three council members walked out and prevented a vote.
The next day, Sanco’s name and photo were taken off the city website and marked as “vacant.”
The lawsuit also alleges that the mayor, city administrator and city attorney have prevented Jones and Bigby from placing items on the agenda. According to Arcola’s Municipal Code, items that are submitted by two council members must be included in the city’s council meeting agenda.
Jones and Bigby submitted several items to be included on the March 12 agenda including: the annexation of 83 acres on Fenn Road, a resolution to the lawsuit between Arcola, a developer and Fort Bend County, and the future of Grady Randle as the city attorney and Gujardo as city administrator. None of these items were put on the agenda.
The mayor did not respond to requests for comment, but made a Facebook video in response to the lawsuit in a Facebook video to residents.
“Your city council has taken a stance that they do not want this leadership to continue,” he said. “It’s a shame that we have to come to court every time we are getting ready to do something for the city.”
Sanco expressed frustration with the events that have led to the lawsuit.
“City council’s voice has been taken,” Sanco said. “It’s a dictatorship.”
At the last city council meeting in March, Sanco said the mayor’s efforts to remove her from council were in retaliation for not agreeing with him to disannex 83 acres of land on Fenn Road slated for development. The mayor, however, said his attempt to remove Sanco was not because of how she wanted to vote, but because she no longer lives in Arcola.
While most Texas cities seek to grow through annexation, Arcola has been trying to disannex land that’s been slated for development. The mayor said that they should never have annexed the 83 acres into Arcola in the first place because it does not touch city limits. The developer feels that Arcola is trying to back out of a deal that could bring 350 new homes to the city.
The city of Arcola, a developer and Fort Bend County are currently embroiled in a lawsuit pending in the Texas Supreme Court to decide whether Arcola can legally disannex the property.
City administrator Annette Guajardo declined to comment.
Briah Lumpkins is a suburban reporter for the Houston Landing covering Fort Bend, Brazoria and Galveston counties. If you have any story ideas or tips for Briah, feel free to send her an email at briah@houstonlanding.org.
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