June 23, 2026
City Council Meeting Preview

Several June 23 items follow directly from the June 9 meeting, whose minutes appear in this packet for adoption as Item 2. Councilmember Buddy Wright was absent that night and City Attorney Andy Messer was out, with Judy El Masri sitting in for him, so every vote carried 4–0. A condensed account of the relevant outcomes follows; the full recap will publish once the minutes are adopted.

After executive session, Council voted to have the City Attorney’s office finalize Toni Fisher’s contract as City Manager and authorized the Mayor to execute it, ending the interim arrangement. Fisher thanked the Council for its confidence in her “to serve them and the Citizens of Willow Park for many years to come.” The Home Rule Charter election item was tabled to the next regular meeting. On the data-center and Flock-camera item, Council directed staff to draft an ordinance restricting water usage by data centers, draft a separate ordinance limiting license-plate cameras to Specific Use Permit approval, and work with the Beall property to remove data centers from its planned-development entitlements.

Council also voted to invite the Aledo City Council to a joint meeting within 14 days at a neutral site to seek resolution of the boundary dispute behind the Aledo/Fort Worth lawsuit, and asked Aledo to take a public vote accepting or rejecting that invitation. Separately, before resuming closed session, Council voted 4–0 (Smith/Crummel) to exclude Mayor Palmer from the executive-session discussion of the litigation item. The minutes record that the vote occurred but state no reason for it, and none has been offered publicly; no conclusion should be drawn from the action alone. On the budget, Council adopted the FY 2026-27 calendar, set a budget worksession for Saturday, July 18, and noted the Budget and Tax Rate Public Hearing for August 28 with adoption targeted September 8.

Consent items are enacted in a single motion unless a member pulls one for discussion. Item 2 approves the June 9 minutes. Item 3 (Resolution 2026-28) and Item 4 (Resolution 2026-29) update the authorized signatories on the city’s bank accounts and on the Police Seizure Fund — routine administrative actions of the kind typically triggered by personnel changes, here following Fisher’s confirmation as City Manager and the change in the Police Department leadership.

Item 5 (Resolution 2026-31) supports the appointment of Parker County Judge Pat Deen as Primary Voting Representative and Wise County Judge JD Clark as Alternate to the Regional Transportation Council, the policy body of the North Central Texas Council of Governments’ metropolitan planning organization. Smaller member cities typically participate through county-level representation rather than holding their own seat, so this is procedural.

This is the direct follow-through on the June 9 direction to evaluate financing options. Squaw Creek Road has been estimated at roughly $9.91 million ($3.56 million in water work and $6.35 million in streets), with about $300,000 already spent on preliminary engineering. The February 2026 resident petition that blocked the original certificate-of-obligation issuance remains the central constraint: a new CO issuance is vulnerable to the same petition mechanism, while a general-obligation bond requires a voter election but cannot be petitioned away once authorized.

The agenda item’s scope is written broadly — “including but not limited to” Squaw Creek — which suggests the debt package may bundle Squaw Creek with the El Chico and Laguna Vista street repairs raised on June 9 and other capital-plan streets.

This amends Resolution 2026-26 (approved May 12) to add additional water-line replacement projects to the West Oak grant application, following clarified guidance from the Texas Water Development Board on its evaluation and scoring methodology. House Bill 500 from the 89th Legislative Session appropriated a one-time $1.038 billion in general revenue to TWDB for water supply and infrastructure projects, provided as 100 percent grants — no loan repayment and no local match.

Willow Park’s population tier (1,001–10,000) caps eligible funding at $10 million per project. TWDB’s scoring rewards lower median household income against a $76,292 statewide benchmark and awards 10 bonus points to “ready to proceed” projects with completed design, permitting, and land acquisition. The application names Hilltop Securities’ Erick Macha as financial advisor, Jacob & Martin’s Derek Turner as engineer, and Norton Rose Fulbright’s Kristen Savant as bond counsel, with City Manager Toni Fisher as the authorized representative.

This is the promised update on the Comprehensive Plan process described in May. The presentation is expected to cover results from a resident survey — a standard early step that gauges public priorities on growth, infrastructure, parks, and development before staff workshops proceed. Given how much growth-related concern has surfaced at recent meetings, the survey data may shape how directly the plan addresses growth management. No vote is anticipated.

Council will hold a public hearing (Item 9) and then vote (Item 10) on a Specific Use Permit for a new multi-tenant pylon sign with an electronic, “informative digital message” component for The District at Willow Park. The digital message would change every 8 to 10 seconds to advertise live bands and other events. The request covers an approximately 1.29-acre tract, legally described as Lot 8R1, Block B of the Crown Pointe Addition. The District is Wilks Development’s open-air restaurant, retail, and entertainment development within Willow Park North, anchored by an amphitheater that hosts live music and outdoor events.

The Planning & Zoning Commission recommended approval of this SUP by a 3–0 vote on June 16. A point worth noting from the staff materials: although both The District and the adjacent shops are owned by Wilks Development, the sign is treated as an off-premises sign, which requires a dedicated easement filed with the Parker County Clerk. Staff recommends approval contingent on that easement being filed.

The city has processed comparable digital message sign permits before, including Trinity Christian Academy’s digital sign and the Willow Springs Oak Shopping Center sign, which was represented by Taylor Ray of Delisias.

Raised earlier by Councilmember Gilliland, this discussion concerns federal reimbursement funding to certify Willow Park police officers through ICE — likely a reference to the Section 287(g) program, which lets local law enforcement perform certain federal immigration-enforcement functions under agreement with ICE. This remains a discussion-only item; no vote is anticipated, though Council could direct staff to pursue an application.

This follows directly from Mayor Palmer’s June 9 future-agenda request to review legal costs with the Messer Fort firm and with Harris, Bentley and Fogle ahead of budget planning. The item’s scope is broad: attorney fees, current litigation costs, budget impacts, and any potential measures for cost management and transparency.

The city is carrying several legal fronts at once — the Halff & Associates lawsuit, the Aledo/Fort Worth litigation, and the Home Rule Charter legal work — so getting a handle on legal spending before the August budget workshops is a practical step. It also overlaps with executive-session Item 14.

Council will recess into closed session under Texas Government Code Chapter 551 to discuss four matters.

Item 13 — Aledo/Fort Worth litigation. The caption for this item now reads “City of Aledo, Texas and City of Fort Worth, Texas v. City of Willow Park, Texas, Beall-Dean Ranch and Parker County” (cause CV26-0175, 43rd District Court). On the June 9 agenda, the same case was captioned with only the three governmental parties, so “Beall-Dean Ranch and Parker County” have been added to the style. The session follows the June 9 vote inviting Aledo to a joint meeting within 14 days and may include an update on any response.

Item 14 — Halff & Associates litigation. The continuing cost-recovery case tied to the Fort Worth water project; it may intersect with the open-session legal-expenditures review in Item 12.

Item 15 — Charter and Charter Commission legal issues. A closed consultation with the City Attorney that precedes the four open-session charter items below.

Item 16 — Personnel. Deliberation on the Interim Police Chief and Interim Assistant Chief positions (Quincy Hamilton and Bryan Goode).

After executive session, Council takes up four sequential charter items — the most structured charter process the Council has run to date.

The agenda captions are all that is known about Items 17 through 19, and each is a discussion/action item — meaning the Council could act on June 23 or could simply discuss and carry the matter forward. Item 17 is captioned as the Mayor’s appointment of a Charter Commission and assigned tasks, and Item 18 as a parallel appointment by the full Council; Item 19 is captioned as the Council’s proposed charter amendments. Whether the Council actually appoints commission members, assigns tasks, or proposes specific changes that night — or whether these become discussion that carries to a later meeting — is not something the agenda reveals.

Item 20 is the City Attorney’s update and the vote on the ordinance calling the November 3, 2026 special election. This is the third time the election call has come before the Council, after appearing on the May 12 and June 9 agendas and being tabled both times. The ordinance is fully drafted in the packet: it calls a joint election with Parker County and puts a single proposition to voters in English and Spanish — “The City of Willow Park shall adopt the proposed Home Rule Charter,” FOR or AGAINST — the Charter Commission having found it impracticable to submit the charter by subject.