Hays County district clerk Avrey Anderson resigns
AUSTIN, Texas - A young and controversial Hays County district clerk resigns, and Kyle city leaders are also in the spotlight for their spending.
Hays Free Press publisher Ashley Kontnier joined FOX 7 Austin's Mike Warren to discuss.
MIKE: Now, last Friday, 21-year-old Avrey Anderson resigned from the district clerk position in Hays County. There was a lawsuit for his removal that claimed Anderson was incompetent. What are the next steps to fill that elected position?
ASHLEY: Well, it kind of depends on what direction the district judge decides to go. They are still deciding on that. I spoke to Judge Toby's receptionist earlier today, and they are not sure what direction they're going to go, but there's a couple different options. Somebody will be appointed to the position, and they'll either serve until a special election is called, or at such time that Anderson's term would have ended, which would be the election of November 2026. So they will run for one of those amounts of time.
ASHLEY: What could be interesting is that Anderson ran as a Democrat and currently the district judge, Shipp is majority Republican, so we could see a little bit of change depending on what they decide to do.
MIKE: Somewhat unprecedented. This whole episode.
ASHLEY: Absolutely. How do you get a 20-year-old in office, and then turn around and remove him? Remove him two years later? It's quite crazy.
MIKE: Something else the Hays Free Press is covering and putting a spotlight on is the city of Kyle spending. What are you learning about? For example, the city council members' credit card spending. Tell us about that.
MORE HAYS COUNTY STORIES:
- Hays County district clerk resigns amid lawsuit for removal
- Man shoots victim during attempted robbery in Kyle: police
- Texas woman credits program for her sobriety after fentanyl overdose
ASHLEY: Well, so each city council member has their own credit card that has a budget based on the city, the overall city budget. And it includes things such as food as well as travel subscriptions, different things like that. And what's coming out a lot is that there is a concern of overspending. Council member Miguel Zuniga brought forth an item last week to take away council's credit cards, which might be kind of normal because nobody else around us has council credit cards. We decided to pull the numbers for this upcoming edition, and we're kind of shocked about the travel that's happening in the city. All but two council members have exceeded their annual travel budget by, in some cases, 45% and in some cases more than 100% with four months left in the budget year.
MIKE: Also concerning the Kyle City Council, they recently voted to change the health insurance benefits. What is going on with that and what kind of reactions are out there?
ASHLEY: Well, in April, the city council voted to give themselves health insurance at the cost of the city. And what has come of that is that it seems this was done outside of city charter parameters. So again, last week, the item was brought back to a place, a non-binding proposition on the November ballot to judge or to get the consensus of the community, say if they're okay with this, if they want to do something different. In addition to that, community members have come up with a petition for a referendum, which is allowed by the city charter with enough signatures. This would require council to overturn the ordinance or place a binding proposition on the November ballot.
MIKE: The Hays Free Press, your publication, is very hyper-local. How can people interested in these stories find out more specifically about that community? How do people connect with you guys?
ASHLEY: Well, the best way is right there on the screen. Our website haysfreepress.com. We also have Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and we even have a TikTok page where you might catch us, doing some things about learning different things and also some fun stuff. We also do home delivery, and we have racks and Kyle and Buda.
MIKE: Okay, terrific. For now, we're out of time. But Ashley, with the Hays Free Press, thank you very much for coming by.