More than three months after a tense meeting focused on whether to strip the Hooper mayor of powers, the issues underlying the controversy are still a topic of discussion.
The Hooper City Council tabled a measure at that Feb. 25 meeting to strip Mayor Sheri Bingham of many of her powers, instead setting a deadline of June 5 to sort through their differences. The proposed change would have made the mayor the “ceremonial” head of the city, investing more authority with the City Council.
June 5, Thursday, has come and gone, and Bingham said Friday that the topic remains unaddressed, a focus of continuing discussion.
The issue came up at Thursday’s Hooper City Council meeting, and the officials agreed to meet behind closed doors next Tuesday, June 10, to discuss the matter.
“I think it’s a step in the right direction,” Bingham said.
The mayor and City Council have clashed since Bingham took over as mayor in January 2024. Her brother, Dale Fowers, served as mayor before that, but he ran for a City Council seat instead in 2023 elections and is now one of five City Council members.
It emerged at the February meeting that differences between Bingham and Fowers figure in the tension between city leaders, and Bingham said she has since sought meetings with him and other City Council members to discuss the situation.
However, none of the proposed meetings came to fruition, Bingham said, though she senses a thawing of tension.
“In my opinion, I think things are going better. I feel like I’m trying to include them more and everything,” she said. At the same time, though, she senses she’s “still being questioned on about everything I do.”
A sense among some on the City Council that Bingham wasn’t fully involving them in the management of city matters figured in the tension. Bingham’s moves in February to essentially fire the city’s longtime legal advisers and seek a request for proposals for new legal counsel were also a factor. At the Feb. 25 meeting, the City Council voted unanimously to rescind the action firing the city attorneys and to issue an apology to them.
Bingham said the legal advisers continue in their posts, though one plans to retire and the other has taken another position.