City of Zavalla cancel city council elections

ZAVALLA, Texas (KTRE) - Zavalla’s city council will be cancelling its upcoming election as all positions were uncontested.

Mayor pro tem Kimberly Retherford said on Monday night’s meeting that Texas state law allows for a city to cancel its elections when there are no oppositions.

Retherford said come may, they will “install all the new people without having to have an election but we have to cancel that election. And we did make calls to the state to make sure we were in guidelines in how it had to be done.”

Zavalla will not have a general nor special election. Retherford says the city will let voters be aware by putting signs up at city hall and their election site. Angelina County will be also posting it on their website.

Previous council members resigned in January. Current council members are non-permanent.

Retherford said right now, the council is focusing on getting the city’s priorities in place.

“Finish up with getting things in order, some policies in place, and just trying to get things back in line and rolling how they should be,” she said.

One benefit of canceling the election is that it brings savings to the city. Retherford says they estimate to save $12,000.

“We’re seeing some of our infrastructure needs major work. And so all those things that we’re getting to and we’re looking at and we’re evaluating, you know, that money will help us in the long run without having to hold the elections.”

The new council members will be sworn into office on May 9th.

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