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In an emergency hearing Tuesday, a Fort Bend County district judge granted emergency protections to three Arcola City Council members. Through a temporary injunction, the judge ordered Arcola city officials to not interfere with the official duties of council members Ebony Sanco, Rosemary Bigby and Evelyn Jones. The order will stay in effect until a trial in May.
The order by District Judge Surendran Pattel came ahead of a planned special City Council meeting where the city attempted to replace Sanco on council.
Despite a lawsuit and protests from city council members, the mayor has begun treating Sanco’s seat as vacant. The city has removed her name and photo from the city website and has allegedly stopped paying her. An agenda item to fill her “vacancy” was the latest attempt led by Mayor Fred Burton to oust Sanco claiming that she no longer lived in the city of Arcola.
During the court hearing, the city’s lawyer confirmed that the mayor’s office hired an investigator who videotaped Sanco and her children outside of a home that the city claimed was her primary residence in Missouri City, and also obtained a lease with her name on it.
Sanco’s mother lives in Missouri City, and occasionally Sanco and her children will stay with her on the weekends, said Sanco’s lawyer, Stephen Dockery. He said that Sanco also operates a hair business outside of her mother’s home, but her primary residence is in Arcola at her sister’s house.
Burton arrived at the hearing accompanied by an Arcola police officer and other city officials. He declined to comment on the proceedings but told the Houston Landing that he was heading to City Hall to attempt to have their planned special meeting.
Sanco said she was happy with the judges’ decisions and felt excited about getting back to city business.
During the last city council meeting, Sanco and two other city council members walked out in protest of the mayor’s attempt to vacate her seat. Their departure forced council members to adjourn the meeting because of a lack of a quorum.
According to Sanco, Arcola hasn’t had a full city council meeting since early February, when the mayor began to openly question Sanco’s residency and qualifications to hold her council seat.
Upon the Houston Landing’s arrival at City Hall on Tuesday evening, the meeting scheduled that day had been canceled. A few people outside of the meeting said it was unclear why it was called off.
Sanco said she plans to call for a special meeting as early as next week. She’s hopeful the city can get through the entire agenda without interruptions. Her desire is to continue to do the job she was elected for.
“Sitting up there and fighting with the mayor is not what I want to do,” she said.
The city and the three council members are scheduled to go to trial on May 7 to determine if the mayor and other city officials did, in fact, infringe upon the official duties of Sanco, Bigby and Jones.
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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