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In The

Court of Appeals

Ninth District of Texas at Beaumont

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NO. 09-18-00322-CV

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IN RE SILSBEE POLICE ASSOCIATION, JOSHUA ALAN LAWRENCE, 

LASHAWN BRANDI MCBRIDE, STEVEN ROBERT MCBRIDE, ANGELA 

TERESA ROGERS, JUSTIN LYN ROGERS, AND TAYLOR GARRETT 

ROGERS

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Original Proceeding

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MEMORANDUM OPINION

Relators Silsbee Police Association, Joshua Alan Lawrence, Lashawn Brandi 

McBride, Steven Robert McBride, Angela Teresa Rogers, Justin Lyn Rogers, and 

Taylor Garrett Rogers filed a petition for writ of mandamus. See Tex. Elec. Code 

Ann. § 273.061 (West 2010); see also Tex. R. App. P. 52. Relators ask this Court to 

compel the respondents, Mayor Jim Willis, City Secretary DeeAnn Zimmerman, the 

City of Silsbee, and the Silsbee City Council, which consists of Susan Kay Bard, 

Christopher Barnes, Adalaide Cash Balaban, Thomas Tyler, Gary Strahan, and Mark 
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Muckleroy, to immediately perform their respective ministerial duties as required 

by the Charter of the City of Silsbee, by placing relators’ proposed charter 

amendment on the Texas uniform election date ballot for the November 6, 2018,

Texas uniform election date.

The charter for the City of Silsbee allows its charter to be amended in the 

manner provided by Chapter 9 of the Texas Local Government Code. See Silsbee, 

Tex. Charter, art. XII, Sec. 12.13 (2018) (available online at 

https://library.municode.com/tx/Silsbee/codes/code_of_ordinances). Section 9.004 

of the Local Government Code requires the governing body of a municipality to 

submit a proposed charter amendment to the voters for their approval 

at an election if the submission is supported by a petition signed by a 

number of qualified voters of the municipality equal to at least five 

percent of the number of qualified voters of the municipality or 20,000, 

whichever number is the smaller.

Tex. Loc. Gov’t Code Ann. § 9.004(a) (West 2008). Relators assert they satisfied 

the requisites for including a charter amendment by submitting a petition signed by 

at least five percent of the registered voters of the municipality. Although the 

proposed charter amendment was on the agenda for the August 20, 2018, meeting of 

the Silsbee City Council, the members of the City Council voted to exclude the 

proposed charter amendment from the November 6, 2018, Texas uniform election 

date. 
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The respondents filed a response but did not controvert the accuracy and 

authenticity of the affidavit and attached documents filed in the appendix to relators’ 

mandamus petition, nor have they controverted the factual assertions that relators 

complied with the requisites for having the proposed Charter amendment submitted 

to the voters. Instead, the City asserted that the petition for writ of mandamus was 

filed too late for effective compliance, and this Court could not order the requested 

relief.

Section 9.004(b) of the Local Government Code states: “[t]he ordinance 

ordering the election shall provide for the election to be held on the first authorized

uniform election date prescribed by the Election Code[.]” Id. § 9.004(b). Section 

3.005(c) of the Election Code provides that “[f]or an election to be held on a uniform 

election date, the election shall be ordered not later than the 78th day before election 

day.” Tex. Elec. Code Ann. § 3.005(c) (West Supp. 2017). Relators filed the Original 

Emergency Petition for Writ of Mandamus with this Court on August 23, 2018, only 

75 days before the uniform election date. Thus, regardless of the merits of relators’ 

claims, this Court may not grant the requested relief because the time has passed for 

ordering the proposed charter amendment to be placed on the November 6, 2018,

ballot. See id. Accordingly, we deny the petition for writ of mandamus.
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PETITION DENIED. 

PER CURIAM

Submitted on September 4, 2018

Opinion Delivered September 5, 2018

Before McKeithen, C.J., Kreger and Horton, JJ.