Murchison City Council swears in new mayor, council member

MURCHISON, Texas (KLTV) - Murchison has a new mayor and temporary city council member.

Bryan Wilkinson and Ken Baker resigned from their respective positions as mayor and city council member/mayor pro-tem last week after it was revealed that residents’ water rates would see a dramatic increase. During Tuesday’s meeting, Alisa Griffis, herself a former city council member, was sworn in as mayor and will serve in the position until November 2023. She will officially take the oath of office on Wednesday.

Griffis says she wants to fix the water problems and get the rates back to where they used to be.

She said, “What I want to do is make a spreadsheet of all of the water meters, their three months prior and how much they paid for the three months prior, for the next two months after the rate, how much they did. I want to do the math because if it is higher, then what I would like to do is to put it back in front of the council and get it to where what we said.”

Meanwhile, Lisa Hill was appointed as council member and will fill the position until this year’s election in November.

Two other Murchison citizens, Brad Gray and Ann Boyles were considered for this council member position, but were not picked.

There is currently no member in the Mayor pro-tem position. Griffis says there is a process that needs to be done in order to appoint someone to this duty. “We will have to consult with the district attorney and city attorney to figure out the correct process for that.” said Griffis.

Additionally, a new city secretary was chosen. Trina Cloud, sister-in-law to former council member Ken Baker. Cloud was originally appointed city secretary when Baker was still in office, but the offer was rescinded due to nepotism laws. However, now that Baker is no longer in office, Cloud was voted back into office as city secretary.

“We don’t want to do anything illegal, immoral, and unethical. We want to do things correctly and not only that but warmly. We want to do things in a way that respects the people of the city.” said Griffis.

RELATED:

+ Murchison residents gather to discuss water rate concerns

+ Murchison city council addresses water rate increase Tuesday evening

+ Murchison residents report high water prices, poor water quality

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