The Whitesboro City Council appointed Phil Harris as the new City Administrator and Lieutenant Kevin Dockery as the Whitesboro Police Department’s (WPD) new Police Chief on Thursday, Jan. 23.
After nearly 50 minutes in closed session, the aldermen approved each appointment unanimously.
Phil Harris has been the Interim City Administrator since October.
Lieutenant Dockery has been serving the WPD as the Interim Police Chief since former Police Chief, Alex Coss resigned in December.
Dockery is married to Whitesboro Municipal Judge Rachael Dockery.
The News-Record has filed an Open Records request with the City of Whitesboro for copies of both Harris’ and Kevin Dockery’s employment agreements.
As of press time, neither request has been fulfilled.
According to Mayor Dave Blaylock, the executed employment agreements have not been returned to the city attorney, so the terms of their employments are not public yet.
It was a busy night for the council during this special called meeting. The council moved on to speak about the Parks and Recreation Department (PARD) and repairs that needed to be made. Penny Renfroe, PARD Director, provided the council four different companies and the different prices to compare. Renfroe recommended they go into contract with Premiere
Roofing, as the most inexpensive choice.
The company is offering to repair the shingle part of the lower roof for $25,835. This price includes gutters as well. After much discussion, the council voted. Mayor Pro-Tem Carla Woolsey motioned, and Alderman Mike Pack seconded. The motion carried.
Regarding a few ongoing city projects, Harris discussed and demonstrated a page from the budgets for the 2023-2024 and 2024-2025 fiscal year. Harris said this was simply a page the council can look at and see the different numbers.
He said he does need to speak with the auditor about the numbers. He said what is important to him is the integrity of the data.
“I don’t know if the numbers match,” Harris said.
Next, Harris spoke about the Utility Rate Analysis. He said Synergy Texas is currently working with the City of Whitesboro. They are looking at what the city has done in the past five years. They will be gathering the data and bringing it all back to the city. Harris said Synergy Texas has given an estimate of February for that data to be complete and brought to the city.
Then, regarding the Electrical CCN (a certificate of convenience and necessity) boundary, Harris said the Whitesboro Independent School District (WISD) didn’t get to choose Whitesboro as its supplier for electricity in the past. According to www.pcu.texas.gov, a CCN gives a retail public utility the right to provide retail water and sewer services to a specific, identified geographic area.
Harris said the WISD will be building a new facility soon. The school board has demonstrated a desire to utilize Whitesboro as the school district’s service provider, but because of the location of the property a boundary established back in the 1970’s will not allow Whitesboro to be the school district’s utility provider.
Moving on, when council members asked Harris if he had any concerns regarding the audit, he said yes. He said there is one audit violation that concerns him: an opened audit.
Harris said that a past audit was opened and it should not have been. Harris explained after an audit is performed and completed, the audit is to remain sealed. He said he is not sure if any changes were made, but it is a red flag.
Next, Alderman Ronnie Fielder said all City departments did an excellent job at restoring the catastrophe that happened last week with the main water break and the electricity being out.
Those in the audience, including the council, took a moment to applaud all those involved.
Lastly, Harris said during Wednesday’s water and electrical emergency, many citizens took to social media to share their concerns about not being notified right away (or at all) about the incident.
Harris said the city would like to encourage all citizens to join ‘Code Red’ at the bottom of the city’s website.
By clicking on the icon, you will then be redirected to a community notification enrollment form to fill out. You can enroll to receive immediate text messages, emails and a call to get notified when any emergencies arise in the city.
For all interested in joining, go to www.whitesboro.org.
Austin Lewter contributed to this story.