WESTLAKE -- A showdown between the dueling mayors fizzled last night because there wasn't a quorum for the Board of Aldermen meeting, but a crowd stuck around, demanding to know how the man who helped dismantle the town could legally be its mayor.
Angry residents peppered Tarrant County Assistant District Attorney Ann Diamond with questions about Thursday's ruling by the 2nd Court of Appeals that Dale White is mayor because Scott Bradley was legally ousted.
Also last night, to cheers from the crowd of about 70, resident David Brown told aldermen what to do if White is seated as mayor: Put White on trial and remove him from office, using the same statute used to oust Bradley.
Brown, who founded the citizens group Westlake First in March, presented the aldermen with an 83- signature petition listing six "charges" against White, including incompetence, acting against the citizens and the best interest of the town, and taking actions deliberately intended to cause harm to the town and its residents.
White had planned to be seated as mayor last night. But with Mayor Pro Tem Charla Bradshaw and Aldermen Abe Bush and Jerry Dinsmore absent, no decision was made about who should be officially seated.
White sat without speaking in the second row. Former Mayor Scott Bradley sat with Aldermen Fred Held and David Loeser, his nameplate in front of him.
After the meeting, White said that although the residents' comments and the talk of a trial was "very embarrassing," he still plans to sit as the town's mayor.
"I'm here to assume my duties as mayor," he said.
Diamond came to address the audience because the court proceeding to determine the rightful mayor was called by District Attorney Tim Curry.
"I have the greatest respect that this is a very hot issue," Diamond said. "But it is not a matter of whether you like or dislike a court ruling. Until another court rules, that is the law of Westlake. White is mayor."
She also said that the court battle over the mayor's office was "one of the most thoroughly litigated cases I've seen in my life."
Carole Veardsell shot back, "If so, why do we feel so wronged?"
"The majority of residents feel we have been terribly wronged," Veardsell said. "The more we do, the further behind we get."
Residents hooted with laughter when Diamond had a slip of the tongue and called Bradley the mayor.
Bradley asked Diamond several questions, including why Curry has indicated that he would not call a special trial on Westlake's disputes about the disannexations. Diamond said it would be a conflict for Curry to do that because he had called for the proceeding to determine the mayor on White's behalf.
Before the session, Brown said he was worried that Westlake could not continue its legal battle to reunite the town with White able to attend closed board meetings.
"He is in the position to throw a monkey wrench in anything Westlake does to redeem itself," Brown said. "The strategies the town might have would be out the window."
Westlake resident Charlene Gardner, who signed the petition, said before the meeting that she was frustrated about White's possible seating as mayor.
"We make one step forward and we take three steps backward," she said. "First of all, it was my understanding that he was disannexed. And it was my understanding that a mayor has to be voted in."
Held said after the meeting that he would give Brown's petition to the town attorney for review.
After Bradley's ouster, White signed ordinances disannexing 90 percent of the town, including Ross Perot Jr.'s Circle T Ranch, White's property and several other parcels.
In making its ruling, the 2nd Court of Appeals overturned state District Judge Bob McGrath's decision three months earlier that Bradley was not legally ousted by four former aldermen -- Howard Dudley, Carroll Huntress, Jerry Moore and Al Oien -- who put him on trial and acted as judge, jury and witnesses.
On Friday, White's attorney said that White is mayor and could be seated at the next Board of Aldermen meeting. Bradley asserted that he could stay in office for 45 days while the case is appealed to the Texas Supreme Court.
In a letter to Town Attorney Paul Isham, Diamond said that a decision on whether White could be seated was "something for other lawyers present to articulate, not the District Attorney's Office."
"Mr. Bradley may or may not be correct in saying that Mr. White cannot on his own force the Board of Aldermen to respect and abide by the recent ruling of the Court of Appeals," she wrote. "Mr. Bradley may or may not be correct in saying that White cannot on his own enforce his right to sit as mayor until there is a mandate or until some other legal process issues."
White, 75, is a retired airline pilot who ]was Westlake mayor for 18 years, leading several fights to restrict development of Circle T Ranch before Perot bought it in 1993.
In 1994, White decided not to run for re-election. Bradley, who was chairman of the Planning & Zoning Commission for 15 years, ran unopposed for mayor and won.
Bradley was removed April 29 by the then-Board of Aldermen, which found him guilty of misconduct and incompetence. Dudley, Huntress, Moore and Oien claimed that he had improperly ordered the town engineer to prepare a false town boundary map to include the Stagecoach Hills subdivision, and that he removed public notices for special meetings.