Killeen Mayor Debbie Nash-King is alleging that Patsy Bracey, a former mayoral candidate who was ousted as the Killeen Senior Citizens Advisory Committee chair last year, attempted to bribe her using a recall petition.
Bracey submitted a recall petition with the city on June 20 that aimed to remove Nash-King from office. The petition was not returned to City Hall by its 30-day deadline on Friday, according to city officials.
Throughout the last 30 days, Bracey has not answered questions from the Herald on how many, if any, signatures from registered voters the recall effort had. The petition required 2,037 valid signatures in order to get a recall election on the November ballot.
Demands
While the recall effort was done in compliance with local and state laws, things took a turn days after it was filed when the mayor and city officials received an email with a list of demands. The email came from nurse.pb1963@gmail.com — an email address long used by Bracey.
“Please review and consider my offer,” according to the email, which had Bracey’s name at the bottom of it. “I expect none of this will be discussed or revealed to the community until an agreement is met.”
Attached to the email was a letter addressed to Nash-King and City Manager Kent Cagle, dated June 23. It said that Bracey would withdraw the recall petition under the following conditions:
The reappointment of Bracey as a senior advisory board chairman for three years.
A written statement from Debbie Bundy, the Senior Citizens Advisory Committee chair appointed after Bracey resigned, about “false allegations” made against Bracey about alleged senior abuse. (Bracey filed a defamation lawsuit against Bundy, which was dismissed in April 2022. )
Removal of Bracey’s resignation as chair of the senior advisory board
Removal of Holly Teel, another senior advisory board member whom Bracey alleges made “false accusations against me in a public meeting.”
A statement to the Herald saying allegations made against Bracey by Bundy are false, “causing the destruction of Mrs. Bracey’s character, integrity and business.”
Tired of the bullying
Nash-King, who told the Herald that she is running for re-election, said that she believes this letter constitutes bribery or blackmail.
Bracey resigned from her role as chair of the Senior Citizens Advisory Committee in March 2022 after allegations that she abused several elderly Killeen residents. She resigned shortly before the City Council was set to remove her from the position.
The council voted 6-0 to remove Bracey after an investigation conducted by the Senior Citizens Advisory Committee’s subcommittee led by Councilwoman Jessica Gonzalez and Councilwoman Nina Cobb, now serving as mayor pro tem.
Nash-King said last week she was tired of “bullying” by Bracey and others she says were involved in the recall petition.
“It’s an assassination of character … I don’t have a problem with someone running against me because that’s the American way,” she said, adding she does not want people to defame her character.
“I just don’t think that’s right,” she said.
The recall petition makes several allegations against Nash-King, including that she failed to maintain order at City Council meetings, “threatened and intimidated” residents during public comment and abused the office of mayor.
Nash-King said she could file criminal bribery charges against Bracey about the letter, but doesn’t want to. And it’s unclear if a charge would stick if investigated by law enforcement.
City Manager Kent Cagle said the city attorney doesn’t believe the letter Bracey sent “rises to the level of a crime because money was not involved.”
Nash-King said she couldn’t go through with a lot of the requests in the letter on her own because they would have to go through the City Council.
“I would have to give in to her demands,” she said. “Convince them to reappoint her.”
But Nash-King doesn’t think Bracey acted alone.
“She’s a senior citizen. She could be my grandma,” Nash-King said, citing Bracey’s age as another reason to not file criminal charges. “I know there are other people behind this … this is the same thing that happened to me in 2017.”
She said she believes former Councilwoman Melissa Brown and other Killeen residents are involved. There was talk of a recall effort against Nash-King in 2017, when she was a councilwoman, but it never materialized.
“(Bracey) wanted me to use my position as mayor to manipulate council members to reappoint her to the board and I wasn’t going to do that,” Nash-King said. “Someone convinced her to do it.”
Brown told the Herald Thursday she wasn’t part of the recall petition and only heard about it after it was filed.
Nash-King said Wednesday that newly appointed Councilman Riakos Adams was also part of the recall petition, which he denied to the Herald, remarking that, “this sounds like we are starting another episode of ‘As Killeen Turns’.”
The Herald followed up asking if he was involved in editing the recall petition, but he did not reply by deadline.
Nash-King is convinced that there will be more incidents like this as the election next May approaches.
“The closer it gets to a mayoral election, there’s probably going to be more attacks,” she said.
Some of the things Nash-King said she is running her reelection campaign for are transparency, building relations with Fort Cavazos and bringing in businesses with higher paying jobs.
But she said defending herself against alleged bullying is important to her.
“If I can’t defend myself against slander attacks on my character, how can I defend others, our residents?” she asked. “To destroy a person’s name is unconstitutional to me. It’s unacceptable.”
Bracey wrote a public Facebook post last week saying that she wished she’d never gotten involved in politics.
“I have never been treated so bad, deformation (sic) of my character, a business destroyed, a family member harmed and property harmed over a $400 per month payment as a city council member,” she wrote. “I can only pray for all the legal people, and business owners who are involved, just want you to know I would never, never do any of this to you.”
Bracey said that she is 77 years old and considers attacks on her “elderly abuse.”
Bracey declined to comment for the story, but said “goodbye” and hung up when the Herald called her for comment last week.
According to Texas law, bribery occurs if a person “offers, confers or agrees to confer any benefit on a public servant that he knows the public servant is prohibited by law from accepting.”
It’s a second-degree felony punishable by between two and 20 years in prison.
