If members of the Willow Park City Council and city staff seemed tired on Tuesday morning, it’s because they had just participated in the Willow Park Marathon the night before.
The council meeting on Monday, Nov. 17 lasted almost five and a half hours, with much of it consisting of Mayor Teresa Palmer and several of her supporters feuding with members of the council.
At one moment in the meeting, former Tarrant County Justice of the Peace Roy Kurban — who had opened the meeting with a prayer — addressed the council with personal attacks in defense of Palmer, calling them “knuckleheads” and even addressing one in particular as “big boy.”
This drew a response from Place 4 Council Member Scott Smith of “I’m not going to be name called,” and asking Palmer, “Are you gonna call him on it?”
Instead, Palmer pounded the gavel and called for a five-minute recess.
The incident stemmed from Palmer repeatedly suggesting the council is trying to keep her out of involvement with city business and insisting that she be written into policy. Council members and interim Co-City Manager Toni Fisher (with Michelle Guelker) reminded her several times that this is not the case and that, while the mayor and staff make recommendations, it is the council who gives final approval.
“Do you want us to change the name to mayor and city council meetings?” Mayor Pro Tem Nathan Crummel asked Palmer. “I don’t see why it’s so controversial.”
Fisher commented to Palmer that the council is there to “benefit the many, not the few” in a debate about alternates Palmer placed on the planning and zoning board, reminding the mayor that no other board has alternates.
When Palmer defended her decision and asked if perhaps there should be more P&Z board meetings, Fisher said, “I don’t call them in to read minutes.”
At several points in the meeting, when it came time for someone on the council to make a motion, there was awkward silence, as if no one really wanted to give Palmer her way. In fact, one agenda item, Palmer’s request for a Citizen Financial Oversight Committee, did not get a motion and a second, therefore did not receive a vote.
“Can you tell us some cities where this has been successful?” Place 1 Council Member Eric Contreras asked Palmer, who had no answer. He then asked the audience and those watching online, “Why is the mayor trying to make Willow Park more like California?”
Palmer said she was offended, responding with “Are you saying I’m a socialist?”
When Palmer pushed more on the agenda item, Smith reminded her that citizens already have access to the city’s financial information via the city website.
“We don’t want them to have a voice?” Palmer said, adding, “I said you can name someone.”
Palmer had opened the subject by suggesting she name a committee member and each council member do the same.
Smith said, “I just named 8,500,” referencing the population of Willow Park.
Having approved a quest for funding at its Oct. 28 meeting, the council heard Erick Macha of Hilltop Securities speak on how to acquire funding and the time frame for the Squaw Creek Road Project.
The project cost is estimated to be $9,910,000 - with $3,560,000 for water line replacement and $6,350,000 for the streets.
This price is with the recommendation that Squaw Creek be done in concrete.
Macha said examples of possible financing options include:
Macha reminded the council that the city’s debt service is going down by almost half a million dollars in the 2026-27 fiscal year. If no additional debt is taken on, the project could be accomplished with virtually no tax impact to citizens.
Resident Marcy Galle addressed the council and recommended the project be put to a vote on the May 2026 ballot. Palmer, who campaigned — with the help of Galle and others — on repairing the roads in that area of the city, agreed.
“I think roads are tricky. They’re only popular with the people who use them,” Crummel said, reminding Palmer that if a vote failed, it would be another three years before the issue could be addressed again, per rules connected to GO bonds.
“It’s a roll of the dice,” he added.
Place 3 Council Member Buddy Wright said, “I don’t want to put this off. We are representatives of the citizens and this is good for the city.”
Contreras then noted that a vote would allow a large water leak to continue to be a problem until the election is held — and perhaps beyond.
“We can’t put on the GO that we have a million gallon leak,” he said.
“You don’t want to put it before the citizens?” Palmer asked Contreras, to which he replied, “Do you care about water?”
Then, Scott Karen, a resident in the Squaw Creek area, spoke of brown water coming out of his faucets and asked who voted Galle as the spokesperson for the area, shouting, “Hard no on this! Do the street!”
Macha noted a 20-year level debt repayment for certificates of obligation would assume issuance in early 2026 with the first debt service scheduled for fiscal year 2027.
Home Rule Committee Chairman Gene Martin gave another update to the council. He said on Nov. 7 a current draft of the framework for the change from general law (which Willow Park currently is) to home rule was posted on the website.
However, the next step has hit a snag. The meeting that was to be held on Nov. 19 had to be canceled.
The next meeting isn’t until Dec 3, after which the final draft will be given to attorneys to look over. That will not likely allow enough time to get it to the council for their Dec. 9 meeting.
“We may not have a meeting until January to finalize it,” Martin said.
The deadline for the council to approve putting it on the May 2026 ballot is in February.
Palmer has been pushing for the city to change from general rule to home rule since she campaigned for mayor.
Some basic differences between general law and home rule are:
General law - Has no charter and may only exercise those powers that are specifically granted by state law.
Home rule - May do anything authorized by its charter (which is voted on by the citizens) that is not specifically prohibited or pre-empted by the state constitution or state/federal law. A charter is essentially the constitution of the city.
In a home rule city the mayor can have more power than in general law, depending on the type of charter drawn up. The mayors of many home rule cities also vote at council meetings, along with having veto power and the ability to force reconsideration.
Under the current system in Willow Park, the mayor can only vote to break a tie - which isn't often, given the council has five members. The mayor is a CEO and budget officer for the city.
Other things a switch to a home rule city could bring include the ability of citizens to remove officials through recall elections; allowing for the removal of council members for such things as absences and intentional violations of the charter; and term limits.
General law cities have no right of recall. To remove officials they must file a petition in the district court and have a trial.
Council approved the firm of Messer Fort to provide legal services for the city, per a request from Palmer. Andy Messer now serves as the city attorney for Willow Park following the resignation of Pat Chesser in July after serving the city eight years.
Palmer chided city staff, saying there had been too many inquiries from them to attorneys, particularly since she took office She suggested there be one point of contact concerning legal requests and asked Wright to help organize this.
“I do want to make sure we don’t short change our staff when it comes to legal counsel,” Wright said.
Palmer said the number of consultations with city staff has created a budget problem with $55,000 budgeted for the fiscal year and $114,000 already billed. Fisher reminded Palmer that part of the budget overrun is around $28,000 in unexpected expenses, some of which is connected to the exiting of former council member Greg Runnebaum (one of two council members to resign since Palmer took office, along with Lea Young), along with Chesser and former City Manager Bryan Grimes — who is now the director of strategic projects for Parker County.
She also reminded Palmer that this is all connected to the 2024-25 fiscal year budget, not this year’s as the 2025-26 fiscal year budget started on Oct. 1.
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