NEW BOSTON, Texas-The New Boston City Council will hold a special meeting Thursday evening to address whether to terminate the employment of City Secretary Darla Faulknor.
Faulknor could not be reached Tuesday for comment. A request for comment from Mayor Johnny Branson was not returned Tuesday.
A letter requesting the setting of a special meeting to consider and act on a resolution to remove and dismiss the City Secretary for lack of confidence was sent Monday to Branson and bears the signatures of Councilman Joe Dike, Councilman Richard Ellis and Councilman Jackie Laney. Notice that the meeting will be held at 5 p.m., Thursday, May 3 in the council chambers of New Boston City Hall was posted Monday afternoon.
Faulknor's continued employment as secretary has come into question since the council began dealing with issues surrounding former Chief of Police Tony King. As issues with King repeatedly put the city in the spotlight, Faulknor refused to allow members of the city council to review King's personnel file, despite their authority to do so as spelled out in a previous Texas Attorney General ruling referenced by the city's attorney, Mike Brock, at the council's regular meeting April 17.
At the April 17 meeting, Faulknor sparred verbally with councilman Dike over the personnel file issue in the crowded public meeting. She has also accused Dike of breaking into her office. That claim was debunked by a local television cameraman's capture of the event which shows Dike knocking on her door and rattling the doorknob as he walks away stating, "Well, I guess she's not here."
A New Boston citizen, Paula Cole, complained that her employer, a local funeral home, was contacted by a city employee about a general post she made on social media critical of city leadership and support staff. Cole's post does not name any person specifically and contains no profanity.
In an interview with the Gazette in early April, Faulknor said she is the one who contacted Cole's supervisor.
"I said they might not want us there if we stink," Faulknor said in the previous interview, referring to police escorts at funeral processions.
The City Council voted unanimously Friday to dismiss King. King's suitability for the position became publicly scrutinized following his decision to fire Lt. Johnny Millwood in early March without providing a written explanation as required by law for police and firefighting personnel in Texas. The council voted unanimously at its regular meeting March 20 to reinstate Millwood and to request an investigation into the city's police department by the Texas Rangers.
Millwood remains on paid administrative leave as Texas Rangers conduct the inquiry. Despite the council's vote to reinstate Millwood, King refused to restore his status with the Texas Commission on Law Enforcement to the standing he enjoyed prior to King's termination of Millwood.
At the April 17 meeting, the council voted to compel King to reinstate Millwood with TCOLE. Instead of rescinding an "F-5" on Millwood's TCOLE record, King registered him as a new hire, leaving a cloud over his record and a gap in his service history.
Dike said that since King's termination from the city at Friday's special meeting, police department staff have discovered that the hard drive on the computer assigned to King at the police station has been "wiped clean and the operating system reinstalled as if it was new computer."
Dike said an information technology specialist who contracts with the city was at the police department last week at King's direction prior to King being fired.
The meeting to address Faulknor's employment is scheduled for 5 p.m., Thursday, May 3 at New Boston City Hall, 301 E. N. Front Street, New Boston.