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Abilene resident urges more transparency in police chief hiring; council recesses into closed session
Summary
Tammy Fogel, a resident of Abilene, told the Abilene City Council on Tuesday that the city has provided insufficient information about its police chief hiring process and that a recent council meeting was not advertised on the city’s social media channels.
Tammy Fogel, a resident of Abilene, told the Abilene City Council on Tuesday that the city has provided insufficient information about its police chief hiring process and that a recent council meeting was not advertised on the city’s social media channels.
Fogel said she believes there were “three finalists for the last two police chiefs” and that “there’s been mention of someone being considered for this position before Robert Hanno was hired.” She told the council she had “no information to present” beyond her concern and asked for greater transparency so residents can “track it and we could let the city, the citizens, actually know what’s going on.”
The Mayor (name not specified) opened the meeting at 9:30 a.m. and invited Senior Councilman Shane Price to lead the invocation. The Mayor then moved the meeting to the public comment period and, after public remarks, announced the council would recess into an executive session “to preserve the Open Meetings Act section 551.074, personnel matters.”
The council remained in executive session until it reconvened at 12:13 p.m. The Mayor said no votes or formal actions were taken during the executive session and that agenda item 2 would not be considered at this time. The meeting was then adjourned.
Fogel’s comments were limited to the public comment period, which the Mayor said does not allow the council to take votes or formal actions on items raised orally. The transcript shows she was the lone public commenter during that period.
No staff presentation on the police chief search, candidate list, timeline, or next steps was recorded in the public transcript. The council offered no public response to Fogel’s request for additional transparency during the open session recorded in the transcript.
The council’s invocation of Open Meetings Act section 551.074 indicates the executive session was held for personnel matters; the transcript does not record what was discussed in the closed session, nor does it show any formal motions, votes, or directives resulting from it.
The meeting record ends with the Mayor saying the council reconvened, that no action was taken in executive session, and that the meeting was adjourned.
