Fabol Hughes steps down as Katy mayor, but still holds court at local diner
Two days after he stepped down as mayor of Katy, Fabol Hughes sat at his usual lunch spot near the city’s historic center, a short walk from City Hall: Snappy’s Cafe and Grill.
True, Hughes was an elected official no longer. But Katy, where he has lived for more than 45 years, is in his blood.
Hughes wore a blue polo shirt with a red City of Katy logo on it. He sat at a square table, with his back against a wall of framed photos of Katy High School teams.
At this bustling diner, Hughes still held court.
“How y’all doing today?” Hughes said Wednesday to a table nearby, gesturing with a salute in their direction.
The cafe owner came over to greet him, wondering if the mayor’s title still held. Hughes himself later noted his city business cards were now defunct.
“What ... am I going to call you now?” the owner asked.
Charles Brawner, who served as mayor pro tem under Hughes, won election to the mayoral seat this month. He filed to run on the last day possible — when Hughes suddenly withdrew, rather than seek another two-year term before he reached his term limit.
Hughes at the time cited his age and medical problems. On Wednesday, he said he felt it was time to get out of the way and allow for a new perspective. But it didn’t mean he was leaving Katy anytime soon.
“You couldn’t get me out of here if you wanted to,” he said.
Drinking a cup of water at Snappy’s, the 77-year-old reflected on his past four years leading the city, and his six years on council before that. His main concern in all that time: growth.
The city, which now has more than 15,000 residents, has faced a tremendous influx of people both moving in and traveling through — a change city leaders tried their best to manage and profit from, Hughes said.
“We created an opportunity for business to thrive,” he said, “and when business thrives, we all thrive.”
They built new hotels. Typhoon Texas, the outdoor water park, arrived. Coming soon were Amazon, a new retail and convention center boardwalk and a Buc-ee’s with what they claim is America’s largest car wash.
The city tried to concentrate such commercial projects on one side of town, while preserving the heart of the city’s historic center north of Interstate 10, Hughes said. The rice farming may be gone, but he was quick to remind a reporter that Katy has always been and will continue to be a city of trees, trains and churches.
Believed by some to have drawn its name from the former M-K-T Railroad, the city sits within the vast Katy Independent School District, which covers 173 square miles. People in the area often mistook Hughes for their mayor, not realizing they were outside city lines.
Still, while Hughes was in office, they had to update city services. The volunteer fire department became a full-time one. A new city hall, designed in an old-fashioned style, now dwarfs the old one, which will soon be partly torn down.