San Angelo District 3 Voters Decide Recall of Councilman Harry Thomas
A petition with 53 valid signatures put Councilman Harry Thomas on the Nov. 3 ballot after a fight over a data center. Only District 3 voters decide.
Voters in San Angelo's District 3 will answer one plain question on the Nov. 3 ballot: should Councilman Harold "Harry" Thomas be removed from office by recall?
The City Council ordered the special election on Aug. 4 by a 6-1 vote, according to San Angelo LIVE! Mayor Tom Thompson cast the lone vote against it. The ballot wording was set by council Resolution 2026-095, and a simple majority of District 3 voters will decide the outcome. The charter requires the council to order a recall election once a sufficient petition is certified, San Angelo LIVE! reported.
How the recall got on the ballot
The petition was organized by the San Angelo Data Center Citizen Coalition, a group that has pressed city leaders for more openness about a large data center project. The city found 53 valid signatures. Section 48 of the city charter required 47 for District 3: 30% of the 155 votes cast in Thomas's last regular election, in May 2023, San Angelo LIVE! reported.
That is worth sitting with. A council seat can be put to a recall vote by about fifty neighbors, because so few people turned out the last time. Low turnout gives a small group a great deal of power, in either direction.
The coalition also went after Councilman Joe Self. That effort fell short. The clerk found 272 valid signatures against the 385 required, and an earlier petition against Mayor Tom Thompson also failed, San Angelo LIVE! reported Aug. 26.
What is at stake
The dispute centers on the proposed Skybox/Emergent data center project in northeastern San Angelo. The recall affidavit accuses Thomas of failing to disclose material facts about the project, to support adequate public review and to respond to constituent concerns, San Angelo LIVE! reported.
Thomas said in June that he respects residents' right to question their elected officials. "Public accountability is an important part of local government, and I take that responsibility seriously," he said. Thompson, who voted against calling the election, said he had never seen council actions that were not aimed at the betterment of the city and raised concerns about how signatures were gathered.
Thomas has said he will not resign. He has said he intends to serve until his term ends in May 2027. If a majority votes no, he serves out his term, according to the Tom Green County voter guide.
There is a cost to all of this. City agenda documents put the average cost of a municipal election over the past four years at about $30,809, and this one was not in the clerk's budget, San Angelo LIVE! reported. Taxpayers pay that whether the recall passes or fails.
Who votes
Only registered voters living in District 3 will see the question. Voters elsewhere in San Angelo will not. Early voting runs Oct. 19 through Oct. 30, and Election Day is Nov. 3. Voters can check their district and polling places through the Tom Green County elections office.
Recall is a serious tool. The charter allows it so citizens can hold officials to account between elections, and that right deserves respect. It is also meant to be used carefully, because it overturns the result of a vote that already happened. Councilman Thomas has about seven months left in office either way. Dock Line has looked at who should pay for data centers' power, water and land.
District 3 voters now have a decision to make, and the best thing they can do is study the record, look at what the council actually did on the data center, and show up. A recall decided by a handful of voters says little about what a neighborhood really wants. One decided by a full turnout says a great deal.
Hero photo: Michael Barera via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped and resized.
