Group Aims to Recall Officials
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Matt Frazier, Fort Worth Star-Telegram, Nov. 20
Eighteen people bent on overthrowing the government of White Settlement met Saturday night in a makeshift war room at Best Western Fort Worth Inn and Suites.
Two weeks after voters resoundingly defeated a measure that would have changed the city’s name, the group agreed to devote its time and effort to a new election—one to recall the mayor and one City Council member of this small suburb west of Fort Worth.
The group, led by former Councilwoman Sue Miller, also wants to challenge the other four council members as their terms end.
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The group’s plan is to prepare petitions, meet again Saturday and notify the city secretary around Nov. 28. Once the city is notified, the group will have 30 days to gather about 2,500 signatures needed to force a recall election, Miller said.
The conflict began when Mayor James Ouzts asked voters to change the city’s name in hopes of attracting more business to the city of 15,400 people.
Although some business experts supported the name change and the proposal attracted national attention, many residents were outraged at the suggestion that outsiders might consider the city’s name racist. The city was named after the historical location of an Anglo settlement amid Indian settlements in the mid-1800s.
Residents turned out in record numbers to overwhelmingly reject the proposed name of West Settlement.
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(Posted on November 29, 2005)