Public Meeting Fight Developing Over Firing at Texas Railroad Commission

A legal fight is brewing in Texas over public meetings and it has to do with this week’s resignation of the head of the State’s Railroad Commission.

Kim Corley had been executive director since 2015 but was forced to quit this week.

E and E reports she had been called to the office of Commission Chairwoman Christi Craddick and told she could either resign or be fired. Corley said she was told the commission is moving in a different direction.

But now Commissioner Ryan Sitton has asked the state attorney general whether Craddick violated the state’s Open Meetings Act.

“I’m really surprised, disappointed,” he told E and E and suggested Craddick wants a puppet as executive director.

Craddick isn’t talking publicly about the incident and issued a statement saying, “Under the advisement of our general counsel, we followed the rules and procedures of employment and open meetings laws.”