Democracy may be under threat nationwide, but it is thriving in the small Texas city of Godley, whose mayor—once called a “narcissistic dictator” by a local talk radio host— resigned this week.
Now-former Mayor James Acy McGehee could not be reached for comment. One of the five members of the Godley City Council suggested what prompted his departure.
“First of all, he arrested a political enemy on a bogus charge,” council member Scott Yarbrough told The Daily Beast. “Well, that’s more than incompetence. That’s just un-American right there.”
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Yarbrough added, “And he had basically kept the city in pretty much almost a standstill for six months because he was waiting for an election to happen.”
McGehee, known to all by his middle name, apparently hoped that the electorate would not recognize his tactics for what they were.
“We all knew that was what was going on,” Yarbrough said.
The political enemy in question was Jennifer Thompson, who was then on the council. She began asking unwelcome questions late last year, after a departing police chief gave the council what became known as “the blue folder.”
As has been reported by the Fort Worth Star-Telegram and confirmed to The Daily Beast by a resident who has a copy, the folder was filled with diary entries and texts and other papers. Thompson studied the contents with the eye of a small business owner who runs a pizza shop and saw proof of a municipality in administrative and financial disarray. The town had no formal inventory of its assets. Expenses were rounded off. And the budgets seemed haphazard.
“Lots of red flags,” she told The Daily Beast.
That led to lots of resignations. The city administrator, the city attorney, and the city secretary departed en masse. City Hall itself shut down and one Godley resident described the situation as “like Parks and Rec, but for real, and less funny.”
Any replacements for the suddenly vacated positions had to be approved by the council, and Thompson was part of a 3-2 majority that was likely to oppose the mayor’s choices. McGehee and his two allies simply did not show up at the next two meetings, on Dec. 27 and Jan. 13, thereby depriving the council of a necessary quorum. The Jan. 17 meeting was canceled when the mayor failed to post the agenda 72 hours in advance, as required by state law.
But the Feb. 7 meeting seemed sure to go ahead, and Thompson arrived a half-hour early to make sure she was well prepared. She noticed a police car was outside and two officers stepped out to arrest her for supposedly altering a municipal document—a draft of a council agenda.
Thompson was being strip-searched and ordered to spread butt cheeks in the Johnson County jail when the remaining council members met and voted on a new city attorney the mayor had chosen. Her absence meant the outcome was 2–2, with McGehee nudging his allies when he wanted them to vote a particular way. And in Godley, the mayor breaks a tie.
As reported by The Dallas Morning News, the arrest warrant states that the police “spoke to Acy McGehee who is the city of Godley mayor,” who told them the city secretary “was the only one responsible for assembling items for [a] council agenda.” Thompson subsequently told The Daily Beast that she had restored items that were deleted from a draft and that she had informed the secretary in advance. The charges were dismissed.
Thompson’s term was expiring and the city rejected her paperwork on a technicality just before the deadline for filing to run in the May election. But the questions she raised persisted, and more than one person felt the jailing of a political opponent on a bogus charge was un-American.
When the newly elected council met on May 23, McGehee was left with a single ally. The new 4-1 majority included Misty Rodriguez, who recounted coming to City Hall when she was seeking information about running.
“The doors were locked,” she recalled at the meeting. “I sat out in front of the City Hall for 45 minutes, knocking on the door. I called, I sat. After 45 minutes, I finally got in touch with someone and I was told that per the mayor's instructions, the City Hall was to be locked down even though we had an employee inside and it was not to be open.
“That, to me, is interference into the election process because when other candidates or people may have came to the door looking for information, those doors were not open and someone may, in that moment, [have] decided to change their mind and said, ‘I’m not gonna do it.’”
Council member Michael Papenfuss, who serves as mayor pro tem, voiced the sentiment of the majority.
“The past six months have been a dark cloud over our little town,” he said at the meeting. “We have been on news stations nationwide in those six months, not for things that we have done great, but rather for things that made our city and the governing body look like fools.”
Papenfuss directly addressed the mayor.
“The actions that you have exhibited over the past year have been appalling,” he said. “We have witnessed you tapping on council members to get them to make a motion, second a motion, and even vote a certain way. We have seen you yell at members of the public during meetings and go as far as threatening and motioning for officers to remove members of the public when they did something you didn’t like, but were completely within the law.”
Papenfuss reminded the mayor of Thompson.
“You have excluded the City Council from a majority of decisions, even going as far as having a City Council member arrested for charges neither the district attorney nor the county attorney would touch just so that the agenda items would result in a tie and you could break that tie.”
He concluded by saying, “This is just a small sampling of how you have shown incompetence, official misconduct, and total disregard for the city and the community. A truly sad scenario we have found ourselves in.”
Yarbrough also spoke.
“Either work with us or go home to Mrs. McGehee and your, your children and your grandchildren,” he said. “Take the legacy that you have and let’s let the city move on. Let’s do some work and get some stuff done.”
He added, “You hoped that things would return back to the way they were… But it’s just not gonna be that way anymore.”
At the June 13 meeting, an envelope awaited the council. Paperfuss read aloud the letter inside.
“I, James Acy McGehee III do hereby submit my resignation as mayor of the city of Godley, Texas. I thank those who have encouraged me and regret that it has come to this.”
McGehee could not be reached for comment. Yarbrough expressed some sympathy for him and said that in the end he had done the right thing.
“He’s a man of pride and it took a lot for him to resign like that,” Yarbrough said. “I applaud him for it. I think it was a good move for the city, a good move for him. I think he’ll be happier. I know a lot of the people are gonna be happier.”
Yarbrough added, “I don’t have anything against him personally,” he said. “It’s all business.”
But McGehee’s troubles may not be over. Thompson told The Daily Beast on Thursday that she has retained an attorney to file a lawsuit as a result of her ordeal.
Meanwhile, there is a Facebook fan page called Jennifer Thompson for Mayor 2024 - City of Godley.
“That is going to be an option,” she said.
