The group returned for Tuesday’s meeting to ask city council members why their request to sign a resolution declaring Brownwood a constitutional city was not on the agenda.
Speaking during the citizen comments portion of the meeting, Howell said, “I’m a little disappointed that the constitutional resolution isn’t on this morning’s agenda. We the people have not heard from these elected officials from their heart and their feelings on making this city a constitutional city.”
Addressing Brownwood Mayor Stephen Haynes, Howell continued, “We’ve heard yours crystal clear, so we understand your position, but I have no clue about the council members and I would like to hear from them.”
Howell stated he reached out to the council members and the only one he spoke with was H.D. Jones. Ed McMillian and Walker Willey stated they returned phone calls that went unanswered by Howell and Draco Miller stated he did not receive a phone call for Howell.
Council members then shared their thoughts with those in attendance.
“I will tell you why I didn’t request it to be on the agenda,” Willey said. “The first thing is, I do applaud the grass roots effort to rally people together with a cause you believe in. I agree with the mayor that we did all vow and swear to uphold the constitution when we took office. I don’t believe signing another piece of paper or slapping something on a website does anything that would hold water. I don’t believe this local government infringes on people’s rights.
“I think that we do uphold the constitution locally, but we’ve got 18,000 people in this city and you’ve brought maybe 75 to 100 like-minded individuals. That to me is not an accurate representation of the full population of Brownwood. Furthermore, at the last meeting five or six speakers stood up and not a single speaker lives in the city limits of Brownwood. I’m not holding it against you, but for a city council to pass relatively a small group’s wishes that are not speaking as being citizens of Brownwood, that’s why I personally did not ask the mayor or city manager to put it on the agenda. ”
Miller added, “I echo what Councilman Willey says. There’s over 18,000 people here and I applaud what y’all do, but when you say we the people, we the people means Brownwood, Texas and all people who live here, not just a few. I want to hear from all the people, and if we get that call, if we get all the people to come out, then we can listen. The council is up here doing what we can do. We can’t please everybody, we’re just trying to do the due diligence we need to do for the citizens of Brownwood.”
McMillian stated, “The request that you presented last time that made me totally against the resolution is the fact that y’all requested us to go to the industrial park and tell them if they carried through their mandate, you want us to tell them we’re going to pull local funding. And y’all requested us to go to private businesses and tell them they can’t require a mandate for a mask. I’m not going to do that. They own that property and I was against it because y’all are asking us to the do the same thing [President Joe] Biden is doing over at 3M. I can’t do that.”
Council member Melody Nowowiejski said, “We have already sworn an oath to uphold the constitution. We are in a city that is under state laws that abide by the constitution and federal laws that abide by the constitution. We’ve done what you’re asking.”
Howell concluded, “If we can’t unify as county, as a municipality, that house divided, it will fall. I don’t think you’re being fair about the whole issue here of what we’re asking you to do because this is about who can we trust in this. We will not be bothering you on this constitutional issue for this council again, but we will see you again, soon.”
Seven other speakers addressed the council with similar concerns, from what happens to those who refuse COVID vaccines with their jobs at stake, to how far potential government overreach could extend in the future.
Haynes said, “I met with 3M and Superior Essex and the city manager (Emily Crawford) spoke with Kohler to find out what all they were doing and what their issues were. We passed on to them a possible resolution that we have agreed to fund and have already set up a COVID testing facility. I hope testing will be offered in lieu of vaccinations at our cost. All the facilities were told that, that we would make that available to their employees. The bottom line is we said if there’s anything we can do to prevent the mandates locally, through testing or otherwise, would you please let us know. And we left the ball in their court.”
A story on the group’s first appearance before the city council can be found here.