The City of Tye struggles continue as the mayor and council members resign

TYE, Texas (KTAB/KRBC) – Over the past few months, Tye has experienced its fair share of city struggles.

Six months ago, the mayor, two council members, and half of the fire department resigned. One month ago, the police chief announced he was stepping down. Three weeks ago, the entire public works department resigned, leaving only three council members and three city employees, two of whom are Tye police officers.

On Monday night, June 17, citizens gathered at City Hall hoping for answers about city staffing issues and the town’s continued operations. Many residents were ready with questions, but the meeting ended almost as soon as it began when a councilman walked out and put a halt to it.

Councilman Mickey Arp asked to have the floor shortly after the pledge and invocation. He addressed the room with the following.

“This is the turnout. I’d like to see you every time. I’ve had a heartfelt, long weekend going over this agenda. There are things on this agenda that I do like, and there are things on this agenda that I can’t stand for. Whenever I ran, I ran to do things the right way, ethically and morally right. I can’t be 100% sure everything’s ethically, morally 100% right, and for that reason, I cannot be in this meeting today,” Arp stated before walking out of the meeting, ending the required quorum to make official decisions.

On the agenda, the council was to take action by appointing a new city secretary and interim police chief, relinquishing the responsibilities of city administrator to the mayor, eliminating the position, and making changes to the fire department, among many other things.

Before the meeting, the Tye Fire Department took to Facebook, pleading with residents to show up and voice their concerns about the department’s potential disbandment after they were asked to turn their equipment in to the city.

A Tye area resident, Lee Jacobsen, told KTAB/KRBC that he is nervous about what could come next without changes.

“That is to the detriment of time because they need more police. After I’ve got overworked police officers, they got to talking about getting rid of the volunteer fire department, which is not city-owned,” Jacobsen said. “By the city councilman walking out and not being able to keep quorum, nothing gets done.”

Long-time Tye resident Dona Griffith said she was disappointed that city issues were being pushed back yet another week.

“I have never in my life seen anything. They’ve gone out in our town like it has the last four years ever,” Griffith said. “It’s just getting worse. So, what the outcome is going to be, nobody knows, but we need to get things straightened out and get our town back to be people-oriented.”

Mayor Pro-Tem Jason Moore says the rumor was a miscommunication in the chaos of trying to run the city.

“It’s very difficult running a city when we don’t have a city administrator, we don’t have a city secretary, and we don’t have any department heads,” Moore said. “We couldn’t take any action tonight, but we are looking to restructure our fire department. We are not looking to disband our fire department. The city will not be uncovered at any time.”

Moore says that by canceling this meeting, he hopes to get residents answers to the questions they’ve had for months.

“It’s on the employees that we do have and me to do our best to get the city through the next month,” Moore said. “We are not being annexed. We are not having articles of incorporation yet. We are looking to continue business as usual, as close to usual as possible under the given circumstances, and go one day at a time. I just ask our citizens to bear with us. We will get through this.”

City officials say they have started to make progress on water service and hope to mail out bills soon, which have been delayed for some time. However, there are still plenty of other problems to solve to keep the small town operating.