By LYNETTE SOWELL-STEVENS
Cove Leader-Press
A committee of five Copperas Cove voters has filed an affidavit with the City Secretary that they are starting a petition to recall Place 3 Councilmember Howard Hawk on the grounds of official misconduct.
Jonathan Brown, Jeannette Marie Mundell-Brown, Felipe Sanchez, Angelito Orozco, along with Stacey Huddleston make up the committee.
The initiative to remove Hawk from his position formally began with a focus on remarks Hawk made during the Sept. 1, 2026, city council meeting.
The committee’s affidavit specifically refers to that meeting, and states that “Mr. Hawk begins his diatribe of admonishing members of the community that chose to speak up against actions that the city council has approved and that the city leadership has executed over time. Throughout this, Mr. Hawk referred to citizens as Negative and Toxic.
“This is a direct violation of not only the Texas Open Meetings Act but a clear violation of the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. We as voting members of the city wish to recall Mr. Hawk without delay, and we are prepared to obtain the necessary signatures to do so.”
Committee members Jonathan Brown and Felipe Sanchez were among citizens who have addressed the council during meetings in August and September, regarding the tax rate, budget, and the city’s infrastructure issues, among other things. Citizens have also called for the firing of City Manager Ryan Haverlah and removing other councilmembers from office, starting with the mayor, and criticized the council for not listening to the citizens.
During the Sept. 1 meeting, Hawk along with councilmember Dale Treadway and Mayor Dan Yancey, as well as City Manager Ryan Haverlah, spoke regarding agenda item H6, consideration and action on adopting the budget for the 2026-2027 fiscal year.
Their remarks came prior to the council’s vote to approve the budget. The meeting had started with a heated citizens’ forum, during which the majority of the citizens speaking took issue with the council and the city.
As part of his remarks, Hawk said, “But you rather come here with your toxicity, talk bad about us, like we’re not doing anything. This council, this body work(s) hard. We have a great city manager. We have a great mayor, leadership. They go out and do great things, but before you come here and do that, I ask you to not do that because what you say and do, people see, and (it) make(s) them not want to come to Copperas Cove.”
The full video of the meeting can be seen on the City of Copperas Cove’s YouTube Channel, and Hawk begins his remarks at about the 1:46:30 point of the nearly 2-1/2-hour long meeting. He speaks for roughly 3 minutes and 38 seconds.
The video link can be seen at https://www.youtube.com/@copperascove6513/videos and clicking on Sept. 1, 2026 video.
Hawk was elected to office in November 2025 and was unopposed for that position. He previously ran in 2024 for Place 1, along with Christina Strohfus, who won that election.
Committee member Stacey Huddleston said the committee has until Monday, Nov. 9 to submit the petition to the City Secretary’s office.
She added that the committee has a goal of 1,000 signatures from Copperas Cove voters.
According to the City of Copperas Cove’s charter, recall petitions must be signed by 2.5 percent of the registered City of Copperas Cove voters at the last general election.
The most recent number of registered Copperas Cove voters is 24,832, according to Justin Carothers, Coryell County voter registrar.
Huddleston said that a group will be meeting on Sunday, Oct. 4, from 3-5 p.m., at City Park near the Rotary pavilion that faces West Avenue B. Huddleston said residents interested in signing the petition are welcome to contact any of the committee members via their Facebook pages and make arrangements to sign.
After the petition is submitted to the City Secretary’s office, according to the City Charter, the city secretary has 20 business days to determine it has been signed by a sufficient number of qualified voters.
If the petition is insufficient, the committee has an additional 10 days to file an amendment or supplement to correct the deficiency.
If the petition is certified by the city secretary to be sufficient, the city charter states that the council will be presented with the petition as certified, and the council shall order an election. This election would place the matter of removing Hawk from office in the voters’ hands.
Should this petition to remove Hawk succeed, it is too late to put on the November 2026 ballot. If the petition succeeds, the council would hold a special election in May 2027, the next uniform election date
This would be the first recall since 2008, when resident Diane Steele created a committee which successfully gathered the required voter signatures to recall four city council members.
Mark Peterson, Charlotte Heinze, Robert Reeves, and Ray Don Clayton were placed on the November 2008 ballot for recall, each for various reasons, and all four were removed from office. A special election was held in February 2009 to fill the four vacancies.
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