San Angelo Council Set to Call Nov. 3 Recall Election

SAN ANGELO, TX — The San Angelo City Council is scheduled to consider a resolution Tuesday calling a Nov. 3 special election on whether to recall Single Member District 3 Council Member Harold “Harry” Thomas after the city clerk certified that a recall petition against him gathered enough valid signatures.

The petition, submitted July 15, contained 62 signatures across five pages. After an administrative review that checked for required information, voter registration, residency in District 3 and duplicates, the clerk found 53 signatures valid. That exceeds the 47 signatures required under Section 48 of the City Charter, which sets the threshold at 30% of the votes cast in the last regular municipal election for the office. 

Council is set to receive the petition and the clerk’s certification as one agenda item. A second item seeks approval of a resolution ordering the special election, to be administered by the Tom Green County Elections Office, and authorizing the city manager to execute related documents. The charter requires the council to order a recall election once a sufficient petition is certified. 

The average cost of a municipal election over the past four years has been approximately $30,809, according to agenda documents. The additional election was not anticipated in the City Clerk’s Office budget, which funds one election per fiscal year. A future budget amendment may be needed; actual costs will depend on the number of polling locations, personnel and equipment. The associated expenses are expected to be incurred in addition to those of the regularly scheduled May 2027 general election. 

The recall effort is part of a broader campaign by the San Angelo Data Center Citizen Coalition, a local group opposing data-center development. Circulator Richard Summers filed the affidavit on May 29 as an expansion of the coalition’s earlier attempt to recall Mayor Tom Thompson and a still-active petition targeting District 2 Council Member Joe Self. The Thompson petition fell short by 1,119 signatures. The Self petition faces an Aug. 3 deadline and requires at least 385 valid signatures from District 2 voters. 

The affidavit lists several grounds for seeking Thomas’s removal, all centered on the proposed Skyboxx/Emergent data-center project in northeastern San Angelo. They include alleged failures to disclose material facts and timelines about the project, to support adequate public review before major zoning and infrastructure decisions, to investigate or publicly respond to constituent concerns about infrastructure and long-term community impacts, to promote meaningful citizen engagement, and to advocate for timely disclosure of records sought under the Texas Public Information Act. 

The regular council meeting begins at 8:30 a.m. Tuesday at the McNease Convention Center, 501 Rio Concho Drive. It is open to the public and will be streamed live on the city’s YouTube channel and SATV (Optimum channel 17). Public comment is limited to three minutes and requires advance sign-in with the city clerk. A budget workshop for the 2026-27 fiscal year will follow immediately afterward and is also open to the public. 

Other items on the agenda include:

• Authorization for the city manager to negotiate a real-estate exchange of city-owned property at 70 E. 43rd St. for two Angelo State University parcels totaling roughly 26.63 acres.
• Second readings of ordinances updating residential zoning designations and specific-use standards for bed-and-breakfasts, short-term rentals, campgrounds, intermodal containers, recovery facilities and self-storage, plus temporary-sign regulations.
• Approval of a $350,000 task order for an extra-territorial jurisdiction floodplain study funded from the stormwater fund.
• A $146,865 change order for the Bill Aylor Memorial River Stage project.
• A presentation on the health-insurance plan’s financial performance and funding projections for fiscal years 2026 and 2027, followed by the first reading of a mid-year budget amendment for claims and premiums.
• Closed session to consult with attorneys on the county’s withdrawal from a tax-increment reinvestment zone, economic-development agreements, and personnel matters involving the city manager.