The Granbury City Council will hold a special meeting next week to conduct public hearings over recall petitions targeting five of the city’s six elected council members.
The meeting is scheduled for September 28 at 6 p.m. at Granbury City Hall, according to the city’s official calendar.
The agenda provided to The Dallas Express lists separate public hearings concerning petitions seeking the recall of Mayor Jim Jarratt, Mayor Pro Tem Bruce Wadley, and Councilmembers Gary “Skip” Overdier, Zeb Ullom and Greg Corrigan.
The five officials currently hold those respective positions, according to the city’s website.
The hearings mark the latest development in an ongoing dispute over efforts to remove the officials from office.
The City of Granbury announced in July that recall petitions had been submitted against all five officials. However, the city secretary and city attorney declined to certify them, saying the petitions failed to satisfy requirements for valid signatures or sufficiently specific allegations under the Texas Election Code and Granbury City Charter.
The September 28 agenda states that the hearings are being conducted pursuant to Article 4.08 of the Granbury City Charter.
Local GOP Precinct Chairman Calls For Accountability
Kolton Krottinger, a Hood County Republican Party precinct chairman, told The Dallas Express that he views the controversy as fundamentally about whether Granbury residents believe their government is listening to them.
“At the end of the day, this is about whether the people are being heard,” Krottinger said.
“When citizens believe decisions are being made behind closed doors, when transparency is missing, or when elected officials stop listening to the people who put them in office, trust in government breaks down,” he added.
Krottinger acknowledged having personal relationships with some of the officials involved in the controversy.
“I consider some of these officials friends, and that makes this unfortunate, but friendship cannot come before accountability,” he said.
Krottinger then leveled broader criticism at the city’s governance.
“Backroom deals are not acceptable. Government overreach is not acceptable,” Krottinger said. “The people deserve a government that listens to them, answers to them, and remembers who it works for.”
Krottinger’s statement did not identify a specific alleged “backroom deal,” and his comments represent his characterization of the dispute.
The recall campaign grew out of months of controversy surrounding Project Patriot, a proposed large-scale power generation and artificial intelligence data center campus at the roughly 2,000-acre Knox Ranch property.
Residents launched the recall effort in July amid concerns about the city’s handling of the project, including transparency, potential environmental impacts and infrastructure demands. Organizers have also alleged officials violated the Texas Open Meetings Act and improperly handled the annexation and rezoning of Knox Ranch. Those allegations have been disputed and have not been proven in court.
Recall Fight Continues
The five targeted officials make up most of Granbury’s current elected governing body. The city identifies Jarratt as mayor, Wadley as mayor pro tem, Overdier as the Place 4 council member, Ullom as the Place 5 council member and Corrigan as the Place 6 council member.
The special meeting is scheduled at 6:00 p.m. on September 28 at Granbury City Hall, located at 116 W. Bridge St. The city also provides online access to its council meetings.
