New mayor, council members take seats in Seguin

Seguin, TX, USA / Seguin Today

Darren Dunn

(Seguin) — It was the end of the line for outgoing members of the Seguin City Council as new members were officially sworn into office. New Mayor Donna Dodgen, returning Councilman Chris Rangel, and three newcomers — Sonia Mendez, Monica Napier Carter and Joe Rea were all sworn-in during Tuesday night’s council meeting.

Before the newly elected officials took their seats, outgoing members each took time to thank the community for the opportunity to serve. Mayor Don Keil and council members Jet Crabb, Ernest Leal, and Fonda Mathis were all unable to seek reelection due to the city’s term limits.

Councilwoman Crabb says it’s been a great ride, and she’s thankful for the opportunity to serve.

“I would just like to say thank you for the privilege of serving on the council. It has been a wonderful experience and I want to thank the city staff for being so fantastic. They have taught me more about sewers and wastewater, more than I ever wanted to know but it’s very interesting and I also want to address something to Donny. Some of ya’ll may not have remembered but when we had our first council meeting eight years ago, Donny looked out, he saw Fonda Mathis. He saw me and he saw Donna Dodgen and he said, ‘just what I need, three more wives.’ So, I just want to tell Marty, we are letting him go tonight. He is all yours!” said Crabb.

Councilwoman Mathis echoed many of the sentiments expressed by Crabb. She says it’s been an amazing experience, and she appreciates all the work that’s been done by the city over the last eight years.

“I have enjoyed it so much and I’ll tell you, this city staff here is so awesome and like her (Crabb), the information that I’ve learned going all the way back to Joe (Ramos, former city engineer) and his pothole days — I’ve learned more about pavement and sewers and equipment but all that being said, it was great. It was exciting because it really made our work here in the council productive to know and understand what makes the city tick and when we worked through the budget, we knew what that equipment was because we’ve seen it firsthand. So, thank you. I’ve enjoyed it. I’m going to miss. It is bittersweet. I’m going to enjoy my time back, but I have really enjoyed my eight years,” said Mathis.
Councilman Leal, who has also served in the past as a member of the Seguin ISD school board, says his time on the council has been a rewarding experience. He thanked God and his wife for the opportunity to serve.

Outgoing council members reflect on years of service

“Thank you for everyone here at city council. Everyone here is a great person, great personalities. We were a good team. I know it’s not over. Some of ya’ll have four, two years left, but just keep helping the folks that need the help out there. Some folks never come over here because they are kind of scared to speak but there’s a lot of people out there that need (you in) their districts and just keep helping the folks so I thank you from the bottom of my heart and God bless ya’ll,” said Leal.
Mayor Don Keil also expressed his gratitude to city staff and to others who have helped along the way.

“I want to thank my wife Marty who has been through the 14 years with me, dragged to so many public events and stood on and supported me and encouraged me and is a very good critic to bounce things off from time to time because she’s very honest. I tell you, she’s kept me in line to be honest with you and I’m forever grateful and I love her very much. That’s the first thing and then, the council members, I kind of love you too but you know, not quite that much,” said Keil.

Keil says they’ve been able to accomplish a great deal over the last eight years, and he says a great deal of that is because of the other members of the council. He says they always did their homework, and always did what was best for the city of Seguin.

“I have been so blessed to have this council and the other councils that I’ve had because each and everyone of them have represented their areas in their districts and done the things they had to for their districts but they never lost sight of the big picture. I think we all pull together. Just one illustration of that is I’ve only had to vote to break a tie once. In our system of government, I only vote when there is a tie and that only happened once, just once and that was to have dogs on the porches of restaurants and I must say I did vote for the pooches. It shows a degree of unity for eight years, never had to break a tie. That says a great thing about the unity. It also says a great thing about how all these people do their homework. They don’t just show up for city council and open their packet or look at something. They’ve thought about it. They’ve consulted with staff. They’ve done what they needed to do to make it all work and they all should be applauded for that,” said Keil.

Mayor Keil also offered thanks to former Seguin City Manager Doug Faseler. He says Faseler really helped to build upon the foundation of success at Seguin City Hall. He says it’s something that’s being continued by current City Manager Steve Parker, but he says Faseler deserves a great deal of recognition for the city’s success.

“He’s the one that came in here and hired all these incredibly professional people here. Steve just hired one. Okay, we’ve got one. But, the rest of these folks were all hired and all groomed and brought along by Doug Faseler who did an incredible job in running the city for so many years and I owe so much of my success to him and for what he did for the city during that time,” said Keii.

Keil says he also owes much of his success to the work of past mayors, who laid the foundation that has now allowed the city to transition to something new.

“We’ve kind of had a modern era and I think a lot of it happened with Mark Stautzenberger. He did a great job in kind of getting things in line and doing quite a few things mainly things like the SSLGC and then Betty Ann Matthies who came along and really got things rolling economically with the recruitment of Caterpillar. I came in and then I have the like of having all these incredible people and frankly, those guys probably had to break a lot of ties. I didn’t, thankfully,” said Keil.

As he began wrapping up his comments, Keil turned his eye towards the future. He says the city is now in the very capable hands of Parker, who he called a great hire as city manager; and in the hands of Dodgen, who took over the reins as mayor Tuesday night.

“The city should not be concerned at all about leadership going forward as well Donna, I know she’s going to do a great job. She sat on this (council) for six years. She knows what’s going on. She understands the city and I think she’s going to do an incredible job. There is no limit to where this city can go,” said Keil.

Keil became emotional as he ended his remarks with a special thank you to the people of Seguin.  He says none of this would have been possible without their love and support.

“To the people of Seguin. I want to thank you all for putting your faith in me and elected me twice to be here and having the support of the community means a great deal and I felt that and I think I will always remember this experience as one of the greatest in my life so anyway, thank you all and God bless,” said Keil.

Councilman Mark Herbold has a couple of more years left in his term, but he took a moment on Tuesday to thank those outgoing members of the council for their hard work, leadership and dedication to this community.

“I’ve been serving with these folks for six years and as you know, Donny has been here 14 years – I figure, that’s 38 years of experience that we are losing tonight and that these people have put in and I have grown very fond of them after all this time, very professional people, every one of them. They didn’t come into this job with an agenda and it’s been a pleasure serving with you and I wish you well,” said Herbold.

The new Seguin City Council now includes Mayor Donna Dodgen and council members Monica Napier Carter, Chris Aviles, Chris Rangel, Mark Herbold, Jeremy Roy, Sonia Mendez, Joe Rea, and Penny Wallace.

Read article on SeguinToday.com