The May 6 Brady City Council election took a couple of interesting turns this week as the deadline for filing candidate applications by 5pm Friday grew ever closer.
Late Wednesday afternoon, former Brady Mayor, Tony Groves, filed as a candidate for the Place 4 seat on the Brady City Council in the May 6th election. The incumbent, Jane Huffman, had already filed as a candidate for re-election to the Place 4 seat. Jay May had also filed for re-election to the Place 5 seat on the Council.
Groves resigned his post as Mayor in January during a City Council session in which the Council was considering whether to accept or reject roughly $600,000 in COVID relief funds from the Federal Government. Groves had recommended the Council wait to vote on the measure until a clarification of a legal ruling was obtained from the Texas Municipal League. When it became obvious the Council was not going to follow his recommendation, Groves announced his resignation as Mayor and left the meeting. The Council subsequently voted to reject the funds.
Appearing on KNEL’s Morning Program Thursday, Groves outlined his rationale for resigning as Mayor and why he decided to become a candidate for City Council. Overall, he said he was disappointed by the Council decision to insist on moving ahead with voting to turn down the $600,000 in COVID relief funds without waiting for the legal opinion. And, he was specific in pointing out that the two City Council candidates up for election this year, Huffman and May, had voted to reject the funds.
With Friday, Feb. 17 the final day for candidate filing, the election became more interesting when Jay May submitted an application to the City Secretary in the morning to have his application as a candidate for the Place 5 seat withdrawn. Then, in mid-afternoon, Jane Huffman submitted an application to have her name withdrawn as a candidate for the Place 4 seat on the Brady City Council.
Then, just before the filing period ended at 5pm, Felix Gomez, Jr. came forward to file as a candidate for the Place 4 seat where he will face Tony Groves in the May 6th election. Also filing just before the deadline was Gabe Moreno who filed for the Place 5 seat where he will be unopposed,
Another candidate filing on Friday was James Griffith who filed as a candidate for Mayor. The filing period for Mayor will end on March 6.
(Tony Groves is shown with the Head of the Texas Water Development Board during her visit to Brady in 2022 to see the new radium removal equipment being installed here.)
