Killeen City Council to meet for the first time since recall

A full council was sworn in Tuesday for the first official meeting of the Killeen City Council since a recall election removed five members in November. New Killeen mayor Dan  Corbin and five council memberswere sworn in after Saturday’s election results were made official. Council members taking the oath office were Wayne Gilmore and José Segarra from districts 1 and 2; and Elizabeth Blackstone, Jonathan Okray and Jared Foster, the three at-large members.

Mayor Dan Corbin urged the council to gave city staff guidance on protocol for city meetings. Corbin suggested that all council meetings and workshops should be televised and archived online. He also requested that the start of workshop meetings be moved from 4 p.m. to 5 p.m. to allow working people the opportunity to attend those sessions.  All of these moves were made to improve municipal government transparency, lack of transparency was one of the main reasons why the mayor and five other city council members were recalled.

Prior to the swearing in ceremony, former Mayor Timothy Hancock announced that 38 voters within District 2 were given incorrect ballots that did not give those residents an option to vote in the District 2 council race, however since Segarra won the race by 80 votes, the ballots had no effect on the outcome of the election.