During the Forney City Council meeting on April 18th there was an agenda item listed under Executive Session pertaining to the appointment, employment, evaluation, reassignment, duties, discipline, or dismissal of a public officer or employee. The employees listed were the City Manager, City Secretary, and Assistant City Secretary. This agenda item is generally used in order to review City Council hired employees, discuss hiring or firing one of said employees, or to discuss disciplinary action against one of said employees. However, after Executive Session, long time City Secretary Dorothy Brooks didn’t return to the dais which raised flags for some who were watching the meeting.
Sources later confirmed that Mrs. Brooks was “suddenly and surprisingly” forced to resign as her second option given by then Mayor Amanda Lewis. Her other option was to be fired and her decision was to be made immediately. According to the same sources the reason given was for ethics violations, though Ms. Lewis would not discuss the alleged violations with Mrs. Brooks. Was this action by the City Council retaliation? Just four days prior to the April 18th City Council meeting it was revealed by The State of Forney that Mayoral candidate Jason Roberson had failed to file campaign finance reports as required by the Texas Ethics Commission. The State of Forney received that information as part of a Public Records Request submitted through the City of Forney’s online Public Information Center. When only two candidate’s finance records were provided, TSOF confirmed directly with the City Secretary if the only records filed were those received in the PIR, to which the answer was yes. As citizens continued to ask Mr. Roberson about those reports, it was revealed that at least $10,000 had been donated to his campaign by special interest. Then, just four days later coincidentally the City Secretary was forced to resign.
Dorothy Brooks had been with the City of Forney since 2008 and was a year or two away from retiring. Neither the City of Forney nor Forney City Council have announced her departure and no reason has been given for their decision. Now the Forney City Council is faced with decisions pertaining to the City Attorney they hired in April of 2022 after her arrest for DWI made news across DFW. So far, there has been no announcement by the City of Forney or newly elected Mayor Jason Roberson on the matter. Both the City Secretary and City Attorney are positions hired directly by the City Council who are elected by the citizens of Forney. It remains to be seen if they will provide the transparency they all promise during their campaigns pertaining to these matters.