Council Removes Ballard From HEDCO Board After a Closed Session Posted as Legal Advice

On September 2, 2025, the Henderson City Council came out of a closed session posted as a consultation with the city attorney and voted unanimously to remove Brian Ballard from the HEDCO board, effective immediately. Earlier that night, a resident told the council that HEDCO had answered her records request for travel expenses by saying it had no responsive records, even though HEDCO’s own budget lists travel under two separate lines.

This recap comes from the agenda, the agenda packet, the minutes, HEDCO’s own minutes printed in a later council packet, HEDCO’s proposed budget in the August 19, 2025 packet, and the city’s video of the meeting. The video ends when the council goes into closed session, so the vote that followed comes from the minutes. Quotes not in the minutes come from the video’s machine-generated captions and are marked as such.

Ballard removed from the HEDCO board

The agenda’s only closed-session item was a consultation with the city attorney under Government Code Section 551.071. The item after it read only “Convene in Regular Session and take action necessary as a result of the Closed Session.” Neither item named HEDCO, its board or any board member.

The council met behind closed doors from 6:34 p.m. to 7:15 p.m. When it came back, the minutes say, Mayor Pace asked whether there were items to act on. Council Member Gina Juarez moved “to have Brian Ballard be removed from the HEDCO Board effective immediately,” Council Member Melissa Morton seconded, and the vote was unanimous. The minutes give no reason. The council adjourned one minute later.

Ballard had been HEDCO’s vice president. HEDCO’s own minutes list him as vice president at its August 5, 2025 budget workshop, which he called to order. At HEDCO’s first meeting after the vote, a special called meeting on September 9, 2025, his name does not appear among the board members present or absent.

Two weeks earlier, at the August 19, 2025 council meeting, a downtown business owner told the council that Ballard had circulated a mocking text about him. On September 2, 2025, a resident again raised the text during citizens comments and asked how someone who “repeatedly disregards the code of ethics and conduct” could serve as HEDCO’s vice president (machine captions). She read from the city’s code of ethics, which says the council may sanction board members who do not follow city policy, up to removal. “The issue goes far deeper than a mural,” she said (machine captions).

Texas law requires a governmental body’s notice to state the subject of each matter it will discuss. The agenda’s standard closing paragraph reserves the right to go into closed session under several exceptions, including Section 551.074 for personnel matters, but only to discuss “any of the matters listed above,” and no listed matter concerned HEDCO’s board. The council did vote in open session, as the law requires, but the public notice gave residents no warning that a HEDCO board seat was in play.

Travel records: “no records responsive”

Resident Rachel Hale told the council she filed an open records request on July 19, 2025 for HEDCO’s financial statements and the travel expenses of its board and executive director from 2020 forward. By her account, HEDCO’s attorney asked her to narrow it; she pointed to reported trips by Executive Director Bret Gardella to India and London; and on August 29, 2025 the attorney replied that HEDCO “informs me that there are no records responsive to your request regarding travel expenditures” (machine captions). We have not seen the response letter.

HEDCO’s own budget documents show travel in two places. In the proposed 2025 to 2026 budget in the August 19, 2025 council packet, line 7203, Advertising and Marketing, lists “Marketing travel” among its uses, and line 7206 covers conferences and training “(Including Travel).” The figures Hale cited match those documents:

HEDCO’s estimated final figure for line 7206 in 2024 to 2025 was $54,415.72, above the $50,000 budget. If HEDCO spent that money on travel, there should be receipts, invoices or reimbursement records showing it.

Hale asked the council to take HEDCO’s financials off consent, review its invoices and vendors, reject the proposed budget, adopt an enforceable transparency resolution and seek an outside investigation. She also raised concerns about an out-of-state marketing contractor HEDCO has paid. She said residents may petition for an election to end HEDCO under Local Government Code Section 505.352 if the council does not act. We are checking her statements about the contractor and will report what the records show.

A HEDCO board member speaks for HEDCO’s budget

The first speaker was Trey Segura, whom the minutes list without a title. On the video he says he became “a volunteer myself on that board” when Gardella started, and he asked the council to “pass the budget, pass the scope of work” (machine captions). HEDCO’s minutes list Segura as its treasurer. He spoke during citizens comments, not as part of a HEDCO presentation.

HEDCO items wait for a full council

Mayor Pace asked to hold HEDCO’s 2025 to 2026 budget and program of work, both tabled on August 19, 2025, until September 9, 2025 so Council Member Stephen Strong could attend. Morton moved, Council Member Greg Jackson seconded, and the vote was unanimous.

On Searcy’s boards and commissions transparency resolution, City Manager Jay Abercrombie said staff was still working out pricing and logistics for posting board minutes, audio and video on the city website (machine captions). Searcy moved to strike the item and bring it back in October 2025; Morton seconded, and the vote was unanimous.

Tax rate and budget

The council held its second public hearing on the no-new-revenue rate of 0.529139 per $100 of value, which Abercrombie said is about two cents lower than last year (machine captions). Hale asked the council to keep that rate. A written comment from another resident, summarized by Abercrombie, asked the council to keep last year’s rate instead so the city could rebuild reserves.

On the first reading of the tax rate ordinance, Morton asked what happens if unbudgeted emergency repairs come up. Abercrombie said departments budget for maintenance and likely emergencies, that utility repairs come from a different part of the budget, and that the main effect of the lower rate is that the city cannot move its reserve back up, with “no change in service” (machine captions). The second hearing on the city’s 2025 to 2026 budget drew no comments, and the budget ordinance had its first reading with no discussion.

Other business

• The mayor presented a key to the city to a young local athlete honored for his achievements in adaptive track and field and powerlifting.
• At the city secretary’s request, the council canceled its September 16, 2025 meeting, saying nothing urgent was pending after two months of extra meetings.