Hawkins Mayor Deb Rushing speaks during a city council meeting Tuesday at the Hawkins Community Center. (Jordan Green/Longview News-Journal Photo)

HAWKINS — Hawkins Mayor Deb Rushing failed to disband the city’s police department in January, but the department was almost shut down this past week.

Rushing admitted during a Feb. 18 council meeting that she did not have the authority to let former Hawkins Police Chief Paul Holland hire police officers without the approval of the council. As a result, the city’s two patrol officers and a part-time investigator were hired improperly and technically were not city employees, Rushing said. Their employment was effectively terminated following the Feb, 18 meeting.

Actions taken by those three officers — including arrests made and citations issued — also could be rendered void under law, Rushing and the city judge said.

The situation leaves the Wood County town with one police officer who was hired about five years ago, Lt. Eric Tuma, who said the mayor knew she didn’t have the authority to let Hawkins’ former police chief hire officers without getting approval from the council — but did so anyway.

Tuma provided screenshots of text messages he and Rushing exchanged in April, her first month in office, in which Rushing asked Tuma if he had hired a new police officer. Tuma said he had not but that he was conducting a background check. Rushing replied: “The council has to make those decisions. I want you to be covered.”

Tuma said the text exchange is “proof that the mayor lied when she said she wasn’t aware.”

“She intentionally undermined the authority of the council when she told Paul Holland that he could hire officers without council approval,” Tuma told the News-Journal on Wednesday.

After being shown screenshots of the texts Wednesday, Rushing said in a text that she “might have” told Tuma that council approval is required but doesn’t remember “the entire conversations” that she and Tuma had.

“Either way, it doesn’t matter what anybody told him,” Rushing said. “If I did tell him that, I was wrong and it was his job to look into it. And by these text messages it shows that it’s possible that all parties knew. And I accepted my responsibility and came to a solution.”

The Wood County Sheriff’s Office is assisting Tuma with responding to incidents in the city.

‘Correct the mistake and move forward’A number of residents attended the recent council meeting at the Hawkins Community Center to express support for or opposition to the city’s police department.

A meeting in January also was widely attended, as Rushing attempted to disband the police department, citing its lack of a chief. She was the only official who voted for the disbandment. She said during the meeting that officers had abused residents’ rights and had become involved in politics.

The three Hawkins police officers who are now without a job were not properly hired to begin with, Rushing said during the Feb. 18 meeting. As a result, they were not legally considered city employees, so the council did not need to vote to terminate them.

The department is also without a chief following Holland’s resignation in January.

Residents and Tuma had voiced concerns that the department was understaffed to begin with. Rushing recently opposed a measure to hire another officer.

The issue began when Rushing, a supporter of Holland when he was hired in June, told Holland he could hire officers without the council’s approval. But the city’s ordinances state that the mayor and police chief must interview applicants and bring them to the council for approval.

Rushing said at the Feb. 18 meeting that the issue was brought to her by the council and that she was wrong to let Holland hire officers without its approval.

“I should not have given Paul permission to hire. I own that,” she said. “The City Council also has a part in that, where they OK’d it. What we need to do is go back, correct the mistake and move forward.”

Rushing said she spoke with the Texas Municipal League, which provides legal services to cities, and was advised that the council would have to take several steps to remedy the situation: open the officers’ positions for hiring for 30 days in accordance with law, put them through interviews with the police chief and mayor and bring the applicants before the council for approval.

When Rushing said the process could take 30 days, several residents exclaimed: “No.”

Other Hawkins council members and Tuma, however, questioned Rushing’s assertion that the officers were hired improperly.

Place 3 Alderman Eric Maloy said he spoke with the Texas Municipal League as well and that the city should correct the issue going forward, but the officers Holland hired could remain on the job. Maloy cited the fact that Rushing swore the officers into office using a Bible. But administering the oath of office to officers doesn’t mean they were hired properly, Rushing said.

While he clarified that he was not giving a legal opinion on the matter, Municipal Judge Mitch Henderson agreed with Rushing that the officers weren’t properly hired based on city ordinance.

As a result, any actions they’ve taken in their official capacity could be void. The city as an entity — and council members individually — also could face lawsuits from people who’ve been arrested or cited by officers. Henderson also said that he’ll have to dismiss citations issued by those officers.

“Everything that (the former officers) have done at this point is technically without legal authority,” he said. “You can already be sued if somebody was arrested by an officer who’s not properly authorized by the city and the proper procedure was not followed.”

Two recent arrests include the city’s utilities director and a friend of the mayor.

A year of conflictThe Feb. 18 meeting was the latest chapter in an ongoing political saga Hawkins, much of which revolves around Rushing and the police department.

Conflict between Rushing and the department dates back at least to her first day in office, when she said she was “disappointed” with the department’s handling of an investigation into whether the city’s computer system was hacked. A Texas Rangers investigation later cleared the man who was accused.

Rushing’s relationship with the department improved after the council voted to hire Holland in June. She said the veteran law enforcement officer’s hiring was a “great day” for the city, and she gave him the authority to hire officers without the council’s approval.

Rushing’s relationship with Holland soured after he refused to take part in her attempt to have Place 5 Alderman Greg Branson arrested. Police were investigating whether Branson co-wrote or co-signed improper checks from the Hawkins Community Development Corp. to the Hawkins Chamber of Commerce. Branson serves as president of both organizations.

Rushing said she was willing to sign a warrant for Branson’s arrest based on an affidavit of probable cause written by Hawkins resident Todd Eddington, a friend of the mayor. Rushing told Holland that he would serve the warrant if she signed it, but Holland refused, citing concerns about her depth of involvement in the case and saying she was trying to supersede the authority of law enforcement.

Holland resigned Jan. 14, and the same day, City Utilities Director Mike Maberry was arrested for his role in breaking up a scuffle between Hawkins police officer David “Dave” Morris — one of the officers hired by Holland — and Eddington that took place during a Nov. 22 council meeting.

Maberry bonded out of jail and returned to work. On Jan. 25, Eddington turned himself in at the Wood County Jail on two felony charges of obstruction or retaliation for posting council members’ phone numbers on his Facebook page. Hawkins police searched Eddington’s home and conducted the investigation that led to him being charged.

Officers might not be rehired

Residents questioned whether the council could vote to rehire the officers immediately. Rushing said the city would have to follow proper procedures by posting the positions for 30 days in accordance with law, interviewing the applicants and bringing them before the council for approval during an emergency meeting.

“We’re obviously wanting to get this done as quickly as possible,” she said.

Rushing also said that the city’s officers might not be rehired. Because the positions will be posted for all applicants, there could be other applicants to interview.

The council took no action on whether to terminate or rehire the officers during the Feb. 18 meeting.

Rehiring officers according to Rushing’s plan faces a significant snag: The city doesn’t have a police chief, and Rushing has insisted that Tuma — who previously served as the department’s interim chief — lacks the statutory qualifications to serve as chief.

Tuma, however, disagrees. As long as the city is without a chief, no officers can be hired, according to city ordinance.

The council took no action on whether to appoint Tuma as interim chief, though some residents spoke in favor of him and urged the council to make him the city’s chief.

“I don’t understand why this is such a big deal because Eric is our only police officer now, and with Eric and I being able to work together to find a chief and then to be able to build, I would think that that would be the best way forward,” Rushing said.

Rushing said she would call the Texas Attorney General’s Office to discuss the issue and figure out what the city must do to move forward.

The council remained in a stalemate for several minutes during the Feb. 18 meeting, after a motion to adjourn was made. Then, Tuma said the department has one vacant officer position open. He suggested that the city’s officers could apply for that job, be interviewed and approved by the council and rehired within a matter of days. Rushing voiced support for that endeavor.

“We just have to make it right,” she said. “It’s all I’ve been saying this whole time.”

Tuma said following the meeting that he was “swamped” with work before the officers were, in effect, terminated.

“This is just a real shame that this happened tonight,” he said. “My heart goes out to these guys that I work with. They’re great guys. I can’t believe this happened. I am proud of the citizens that tried to stand up for us tonight, even though it didn’t go the citizens’ way.”

Tuma also said Rushing “has been against” certain council members since her term of office began.

‘You are going to be held accountable’Residents yelled over one another and loudly voiced their frustrations during the recent council meeting — a far departure from how it began: quietly with a prayer by Jeff Karlson.

During the discussion of the police department, resident Rodger Walker-Wheatley spoke up and reminded residents that they were being watched.

“We open these meetings with an invocation. I think that’s very appropriate. I think that’s very good,” he said. “But since we do, I will remind every single individual here, you’re going to have to be honest with yourself, as well as with others, because you have spoken the Lord into these proceedings and to your behaviors. You are going to be held accountable. And that’s nothing I can do. That’s nothing any of y’all can do, but it’s a surefire deal.”

He also urged residents to quit making their city “interesting” enough for journalists from Longview and Tyler to continue covering it.

“It would be great to have a time where we were so boring they wouldn’t waste their time,” he said.

Amber Tuma, wife of the city’s lone police officer, asked Rushing during the meeting: “Last City Council meeting, you were trying to dismantle the police department. Is this your method of doing so now?

Rushing replied: “No.” She said the issue was brought to her attention by the council.

“The first thing that I told everyone when I became mayor is that, no matter what, we’re going to go by the law. Sometimes, it’s good for me. Sometimes, it’s not that great for me,” Rushing said. “I own my part of the mistake. I wish the council would own their part of the mistake because then we could just fix it.”