Mayor removes BSHA Commission president

Big Spring Mayor Shannon Thomason removed board president Margaret Cervantes from the board of directors of the Big Spring Housing Authority following a hearing Monday morning.

Cervantes, and the entire Housing Authority board, were called before Thomason for the hearing, charged with two counts of neglect of duty, the first for failing “...to exercise adequate oversight of Director Sharon Fritz...”; and the second for failing “...to comply with Texas Local Government Code Sec. 392.062 (b),” requiring the board to file a report of its activities with the city clerk at least once per year.

“Issues were brought to my attention concerning the oversight of the Housing Authority Board with the director,” Thomason said following the hearing. “I tried addressing those with some of the board members, and unfortunately, the buck has to stop somewhere. In this situation, the buck stops with the mayor.”

The printed notice of the meeting indicated that five members of the board, including Cervantes, Joann Valle, Stephanie Guzman, Bruce Brown and Royce Savory, would be considered for “Removal of Commissioner(s) for Inefficiency, Neglect of Duty, or Misconduct in Office.”

Thomason served as the sole moderator and arbiter during the meeting. Cervantes and Brown were the only members of the Housing Authority board present. Thomason noted that Valle resigned her position; while Guzman and Savory were both unable to attend. Although all the board members were named in the printed notice associated with the hearing, only Cervantes was ultimately removed from her position.

During the meeting, Thomason indicated that the first count addressed during the hearing involved Fritz's hiring employees without permission of the City Council.

Of three employees hired during Cervantes' tenure on the board, she said, Fritz hired three people, one with the board's approval.

“Since I've been on the board, when I started, there were two ladies. They had already been there, so I had nothing to do with them. One of them passed away. She did hire another