Calls for resignations unmet, mayor absent for proceedings
MARFA — The citizens of Marfa flooded City Council chambers Tuesday night following the publication of a story in The Big Bend Sentinel online earlier in the day that revealed council members Eddie Pallarez, Mark Morrison and Raul Lara discussed limiting the city administrator search to men in a public meeting.
Many were also present to comment on the American Electric Power (AEP) rezone proposal. While the public comment period is always the first thing on the docket, Mayor Manny Baeza stated that the council had to “change up the agenda” because the city attorney was only available for one hour. (It was unclear exactly what the attorney was consulting on; she attended remotely and never spoke.)
After brief routine proceedings the council moved on to hear a presentation from AEP Public Affairs Manager Fred Guerrero. At that point Baeza recused himself and left the room, due to his status as an AEP employee. While it is customary for Baeza to return to the meeting to participate in subsequent agenda items, he simply never did and missed the entirety of the citizen comment period. He was facing pressure from Council Member Travis Acreman to call for the resignations of Pallarez, Morrison and Lara in the wake of their biased comments.
The rest of the council was present with the exception of Baeza and listened to criticism from several citizens — the majority of whom were women — about their conduct. Anti-discrimination comments were, at times, peppered with references to the AEP rezone issue and Pallarez’s refusal to recuse himself from that decision despite retiring after a 46-year career with the company.
Marfa resident Dana Goolsby said she has avoided getting involved with the local government since moving to Marfa in 2022, given a past experience she had while serving as the mayor of Palestine, Texas, in which she was assaulted by a man who disagreed with her on a city budget issue.
“I could not have been coaxed into these chambers for anything short of something this offensive, this outlandish and this ridiculous, but I will always, always stand up and fight against this sort of blatant and prideful discrimination,” Goolsby said.
She said the sexist comments made by the three council members are “exactly the kind of behavior that leads to women being assaulted” and called on them to take accountability and resign — triggering a special election to fill their seats — due to the fact that they could no longer fairly conduct the city’s business. “You must step down before you drag your community down,” Goolsby said.
Resident Lisa Kettyle also expressed her “anger and disappointment” at the council for their “misogynistic remarks.”
“When members of this City Council declared that they would look at males for the open city administrator position, and that they decided to do so between ‘just us men,’ you failed the community of Marfa,” Kettyle said. “The women, non-binary people and gender fluid people of this community deserve better.”
“This city is full of talented, smart, skilled women and non-binary and gender fluid people, many of which work in the city government and in our courthouse,” she added. “They are judges and clerks and administrators. Is it the position of the city council that they are unfit to fill all of those rules because of their gender?”
She cited several studies that shed light on women’s effectiveness as governmental leaders, in regards to reduced spending and corruption. Kettyle then scrutinized what the men on city council have accomplished, citing issues of dead water meters, which has yet to be fully addressed, and increased police funding, including the purchase of a license plate reader that “violates the privacy” of residents and visitors.
Calls for council members’ resignations and condemnations of their behavior were also voiced by residents Rhonda Manley, Lindsay Smith, Katie Inglis and Bob Schwab, who said the comments are not to be taken lightly and, coupled with other recent issues, lead to an overall distrust in the city’s leadership.
“While y’all might think that your discussion was funny — a joke between boys — all it does is empower other men who maybe think that violence against women or talking down to women or not hiring women is acceptable behavior,” Smith said.
“You’ve lost the trust that’s essential to doing your work,” Inglis said. “Until this behavior is addressed, how can we move forward with matters like the AEP substation or any other pressing issue in good faith?”
Schwab specifically took issue with Lara’s comment to The Sentinel that because the previous city manager — who was a woman — didn’t succeed that “maybe a man would work better.” He said her short tenure and ultimate dismissal reflect more on council members’ inability to make the right hiring decision. “It wasn’t the gender of the individual, it was your poor decision,” Schwab said. “And maybe this community wants better decision-makers on its council.”
Patrick Daly, Morrison’s partner, spoke next in defense of the council members, stating that he is appreciative of their work. He mostly addressed the gathered crowd, asking for a show of hands of who would run in the next election to serve the city. “What I hear about is everybody complaining about the council members,” Daly said. “But how many of you have chosen to run for council?”
The last time the city held an election was in 2023. Elections have been canceled for the past two years due to a lack of candidates vying for the positions. At this point, all the council members and the mayor have been appointed, rather than elected, to their current terms.
Goolsby said she would run, and she and Daly had a tense back and forth exchange during which he got upset at her for interrupting him and said, “Let me talk.” The situation escalated when he passed Goolsby, who was standing, on his way back to his seat from the podium. According to a witness and Goolsby, Daly clapped his hands together right in front Goolsby’s face, prompting two Marfa PD officers to step in and separate the two.
“It was a very forceful, aggressive move to make towards anybody but especially a woman after everything that’s transpired,” Goolsby said in an interview after the meeting.
The meeting concluded with council members’ comments. Pallarez repeated statements that appeared in the initial Sentinel article and said the whole situation was being “misconstrued.” Members of the audience called on him to take accountability for the situation and apologize, stating that they had heard the meeting recording for themselves. Pallarez said he was refusing to resign over his comments or recuse himself from the AEP rezone proceedings.
Pallarez and Morrison said they apologized privately to the women at City Hall. Morrison then apologized publicly and stated that he’s “certainly not perfect,” and hopes to do better, which was met by “thank yous” from women in the audience.
Lara, tearing up, apologized directly to his niece who was in the audience and stated that his mom was his greatest advocate who he took care of into her old age. He took responsibility for this part in the conversation, but said his actions that day do not reflect his true character. “I am deeply sorry to all the women,” Lara said. “Because that’s not the person I am.”