The Denton City Council made no nomination in this year's election for the Region 8 seat on the board of the Texas Municipal League after motions to support each of the two candidates failed on Tuesday, Oct. 27.
The candidates are Aubrey council member Mike Browning and the incumbent, Grandview Mayor Pro Tem Mary Sarver, according to city agenda documents. Each member city gets one vote, which needs the support of a majority of its council, and ballots are due at the league office by 5 p.m. Nov. 5.
Region 8 takes in cities in 10 counties: Cooke, Denton, Erath, Hood, Johnson, Palo Pinto, Parker, Somervell, Tarrant and Wise. Chief of Staff Kristi Fogle told the council that nothing requires the city to vote.
Postponed after an email
The item first came up Oct. 13. Council member George Ferrie said then that council members had received an email a few hours earlier with allegations about one of the candidates and that he did not want to decide quickly, according to the city's meeting video and its uncorrected caption transcript.
Council member Joe Holland called the email "very, very disturbing" but added, "It could be wrong." Council member Suzi Rumohr asked for time to look into it, and staff said they had not known about the email. The council voted 4-0 to postpone the item to Oct. 27.
KERA News, in a report republished by the Fort Worth Report, said a former law enforcement officer sent the email, which was about Sarver. According to KERA's account of the email, it said Sarver had faced two Medicaid fraud counts in Johnson County, to which she later pleaded no contest, and that she had been indicted in an earlier case.
KERA's report did not say how that earlier case was resolved; an indictment is a formal accusation, not a conviction. This publication has not reviewed the email or the court records. No public response from Sarver appeared in the coverage reviewed for this article.
Two motions fail
On Oct. 27, Ferrie said he still was not comfortable recommending anyone and would not support a nomination. Holland moved to nominate Browning, and that motion failed. Council member Jill Jester then said she had met with Sarver, was comfortable nominating her and believed Sarver had "done a very good job," citing record numbers of events and attendees.
