With just hours to go before clocks strike midnight and 2024 comes to Amarillo, we’re counting down our top stories of 2023.

#12: Proposition 13 Shakes Up Local Elections

In this year’s constitutional amendments election, statewide voters turned down Proposition 13, which would have extended the retirement age for state court judges. The proposition failed statewide by a 37-63% margin.

The proposition went down in flames statewide, but many voters may not have realized when casting their votes what the item’s failure would mean for local voters. 108th District Court Judge Doug Woodburn, who was set to be up for re-election in 2024, was widely expected to seek another term in office if the item passed. In fact, the Woodburn campaign had already launched a campaign website in anticipation of facing off with challenger Sam Brown Silverman in the Republican primary. However, without the passage of Proposition 13, Woodburn would be barred from seeking another term due to his age.

On Election Night, when it became apparent that Proposition 13 would fail, something of a political earthquake took place in Amarillo. In just a few hours, the race for the 108th District Court went from being a showdown between Woodburn and Silverman tp a free-for-all where anybody could win. Oh, and Silverman was still in the race with a headstart on anyone who decided to run.

After the filing period had passed, Silverman and criminal defense attorney Joe Marr Wilson, who had also been expected to run, were on the ballot. But they weren’t alone, being joined by Tim Pirtle and former 320th District Court Judge Pamela Sirmon.

We will have to wait until March 5, 2024 to see what change voters have in mind when they vote in the 108th District Court race. However, voters already dealt the race a wild card earlier this year when Proposition 13 went down.

#11: Buc-ee’s Breaks Ground in Amarillo

It’s been a long time coming, but Amarillo is finally getting a new travel destination.

This fall, local leaders broke ground on the home of the future site of Amarillo’s Buc-ee’s location. This will be the first Buc-ee’s location in West Texas, and will be located near Interstate 40, just off Airport Boulevard.

The Buc-ee’s mascot made the long drive to the Panhandle to celebrate the store’s groundbreaking. In addition to Buc-ee’s executives and dignataries on hand, several present and former municipal leaders were present to help celebrate the store, including Mayor Cole Stanley and former Mayor Ginger Nelson.

Buc-ee’s is expected to open in 2025.

#10: City of Amarillo Creating ‘Digital Human’

Amarillo is seeking to be among the first government entities in the world to enter into the age of artificial intelligence by creating a “digital human” which will live on the city’s website. The project was approved by Amarillo City Council in August, with a $582,948.89 price tag. According to Rich Gagnon, chief information officer for the city, behind the project, the city will “start revamping the entire website” to make it “conversational.”

Gagnon also spoke about the risks of “hallucinations.” According to AI experts, hallucinations are situations in which artificial intelligence makes assertions not supported by their training data. (Or, as Gagnon put it, it’s when an AI model produces “absolute nonsense.”) When asked about how the city plans to mitigate this problem with its digital human, Gagnon stated the city is aspiring to have a hallucination rate of “two or one and a half” percent. He noted that a part of mitigating the problem is teaching the city’s artificial intelligence to say “I don’t know.”

Dell, the company contracted by the city for the project, gave an update in September noting that the digital human will be available to the public as soon as “early 2024.”

#9: Jeff Blackburn Passes Away

Many in Amarillo were shocked earlier this year to learn of the passing of one of Amarillo’s legal legends, Jeff Blackburn.

One of the few Amarillo attorneys who ever argued in front of the United States Supreme Court, the walls of Blackburn’s office were littered with plaques, awards, and trophies for his groundbreaking work and for his creation of the Innocence Project of Texas. Blackburn had earned his place in Texas history for his role in bringing attention to the poor police work connected to a controversial drug bust in Tulia in 1999. Blackburn also went on to play a role in cleaning up local government, founding the Amarillo Taxpayers Political Action Committee, which defeated hundreds of millions of dollars in bonds put forward by the Paul Harpole City Council in 2016.

Upon his death in February, many mourned the loss of Blackburn and what his passing meant for the legal community in Amarillo – and across Texas. One of the best-known criminal defense lawyers working in Texas had passed away.

#8: Amarillo City Council Axes Paid Downtown Parking

The newly-elected Amarillo City Council took a big step toward change shortly after taking office in the summer of 2023, rolling back the paid parking initiative put into place by the previous City Council.

In 2018, the Ginger Nelson-led City Council took a controversial step by reinstituting paid parking in downtown Amarillo. The move was heavily criticized, as Amarilloans had debated for years the extent to which paid parking contributed to the decline of downtown Amarillo in the mid-20th century.

In voting in 2023 to reverse paid parking, City Councilman Tom Scherlen summed up the move by highlighting the fact that citizens already pay for the services provided in those areas, including street parking.

“The streets belong to the citizens,” Scherlen said.

Ending paid street parking wasn’t the only change to downtown parking made by the council this year. During a November meeting, the council finally corrected a long-standing paperwork blunder with the city’s parking garage. When the garage was built, it was built atop a block of downtown real estate bisected by an alleyway. Though the garage was built atop the alleyway, the alley still remained on paper. This was finally corrected, with the council voting to officially vacate the alley after the Planning & Zoning Commission found that the “alley no longer serves a public purpose” and that “the vacation would not result in any detrimental impact.”

#7: City of Amarillo & Randall County Part Ways on Jail Contract

The relationship between the City of Amarillo and Randall County became strained as the Randall County Commissioners’ Court voted to axe an agreement allowing the city to utilize part of the county jail.

Shortly after the vote by Randall County, City Councilman Place 3 Tom Scherlen spoke to The Amarillo Pioneer about the situation.

“We’re at an impasse,” Scherlen said. “We’re not understanding what is going on with Randall County due to the fact that we were willing to sign a contract giving them everything they were asking for, with the numbers they were giving us. The problem is they wanted us to have a minimum number of inmates.”

As of now, the existing agreement is still in effect but set to expire in early 2024 due to Randall County pulling out. According to rolling agenda planners published by the city, the city is optimistic a new deal can be reached, though none has yet materialized. As of writing, the council has an item to pass a new agreement penciled in for the January 9th meeting, though it is not yet certain if a deal will be reached by then.

#6: City Council Discusses Potential Abortion Restrictions

Amarillo made national headlines this year as the city began the process of discussing passing local restrictions on abortion. The process formally kicked off with a lengthy discussion featuring comments from many members of the public.

Shortly after the discussion session, Mayor Cole Stanley and Councilman Josh Craft floated the idea of sending the item to the ballot box. While all members of the council have expressed they are pro-life, there has been disagreement about the direction they should go on the issue. On December 19th, the council held a work session to further discuss the issue, with several members of the council coalescing support around an ordinance that would ban the possession of abortion-inducing drugs within the city. Other alternatives, including a travel ban with an private right of action enforcement mechanism modeled on the Texas Heartbeat Act, had the council more divided.

Then, late this month, a group of citizens initiated the process to petition the council to pass a travel ban with a private right of action enforcement mechanism. If successful, the petition will force the council to vote on the proposed ordinance. If the council rejects the ordinance, the group may force the council to place the item on the ballot.

The council may still consider a version of the ordinance at their upcoming January 9th meeting, according to a recently published version of the rolling agenda planner. However, as evidenced by recent posts on the city’s new online City Council Forum, the council seems to be moving in the direction of letting the petition process play about before moving forward.

#5: Local State Representative Races Heat Up With Price Not Seeking Reelection

Four Price (R-Amarillo), who has represented District 87 (including Potter County) since 2011, made a surprise announcement he would not be seeking reelection, setting the stage for a heated open Republican primary.

Though early speculations as to who would run didn’t exactly pan out, we did still end up with a packed ballot, including realtor Cindi Bulla, medical claims negotiator Caroline Fairly, attorney Jesse Quackenbush, and Perryton ISD Vice Chair Richard Beyea. With several strong candidates running, there is a good chance that the March 5th primary will result in the race going to a May runoff.

No matter who wins the Republican nomination, though, they will still have to go through a general election against Amarillo Area Black Chamber of Commerce president Timothy Gassaway, the only Democratic Party candidate to file in the race.

District 87 isn’t the only local state house race to be contested. District 86, which includes Randall County, has seen long-time incumbent John Smithee attract challenger Jamie Haynes, a business owner from Canyon.

#4: Jared Miller Out as City Manager

One of the biggest changes to City Hall (don’t worry, we’ll get to the city elections later in this article) was the city parting ways with City Manager Jared Miller.

While Miller had first been hired shortly before Ginger Nelson was elected, he quickly became seen as an extension of the Nelson administration, earning the ire of many of Nelson’s detractors, including several of the candidates who ran in this year’s local elections.

Controversy increased as the Nelson council renegotiated Miller’s employment contract shortly before the city election took place. One provision that caused a lot of pushback among members of the public was a new requirement that, for Miller to be fired without cause, a supermajority of 4 councilmembers had to agree. Miller also got a significant raise and increases to various other perks, including sick leave and vacation time.

Cole Stanley was the only vote against the new contract at that point. Several of the then-candidates who would then go on to be elected to the council also expressed concern over the changes. However, in a move that surprised some, Miller was not immediately axed after the new council took office. However, by August, the council had begun the process of negotiating a mutual separation agreement. Before Miller was let go, however, several former councilmen showed up to council meetings, pleading for the council to keep Miller during public comment. However, the pleadings from the former council members were in vain, as, by the end of the month, the council had called a special meeting on the issue and voted to end Miller’s employment. Miller didn’t walk away empty-handed, however, with the separation agreement granting him over $730,000.

While the city has only recently begun the process of looking for a new city manager, the role is currently being filled by Interim City Manager Andrew Freeman, who had previously served as Deputy City Manager under Miller. “Andrew is imminently qualified, very prepared, and he’s going to do an excellent job,” Miller told The Amarillo Pioneer about Freeman taking over. Replacing Freeman as Deputy City Manager is now Interim Deputy City Manager Laura Storrs, who also acts as the city’s CFO. Interim City Manager Freeman has also announced he will be holding listening sessions with the public in an effort to be more engaged with the community.

#3: The Continuing Story of the Civic Center Lawsuit

Our top news story of 2022 continued to make headlines in 2023. After losing at the trial court level, the city took the case to the Seventh Court of Appeals, where it argued that most of the district court’s ruling should be reversed. (Fairly also appealed part of the ruling, arguing that the court should have ruled that the city broke another law not included in the original ruling.)

After months of back-and-forth filings, as well as an election that resulted in a shift in the balance of power on Amarillo City Council, oral arguments were finally heard over the summer. In the end, the court rejected the arguments from both sides, though it was still primarily a win for Fairly. Instead of dealing with every single issue raised, the opinion, written by Justice Lawrence M. Doss, focused on the city’s flawed adherence to the notice requirements under the Texas Open Meetings Act. With this, the court ruled that no matter the outcome of the other various arguments, the tax notes meant to renovate the Amarillo Civic Center were void.

The city’s arguments that it should not have to pay Fairly’s legal fees were also rejected by the appeals court, leading to the city petitioning the Texas Supreme Court to review that portion of the case.

However, the case never did make it before the state’s highest court. Shortly after filing the petition, the city parted ways with the legal counsel hired for the lawsuit and withdrew the appeal. “We released them after all that went down,” City Councilman Josh Craft told The Amarillo Pioneer.

#2: Amarillo Experiences Historic Floods

The National Weather Service recorded just over 11 inches of rain at their station at the airport during the months of May and June, double the average typically received in those months.

One of Mayor Cole Stanley’s first acts in office was to sign a disaster declaration, with the council soon after ratifying and extending the declaration.

Hundreds of people had to be rescued during the event, with the Lawrence Lake area hit particularly hard.

Along with the rain, other severe weather events occurred, including some minor tornadoes and hail in Amarillo. In Perryton, things took a turn for the worst when an EF3 tornado killed three people and destroyed dozens of homes.

The response to the flooding became a major part of the new council’s first budget, with $46 million being put towards drainage projects, funded by an increase in the drainage fee.

#1: Amarillo Elects New Mayor & Council

The people of Amarillo chose Cole Stanley as the new Mayor of Amarillo in a historic landslide this year.

It was the first election in the city in years that no incumbents ran for re-election, though councilmembers Cole Stanley and Freda Powell both ran for mayor. The mayoral race also attracted numerous other candidates, including Don Collins, Tonya C. Winston, Sam Burnett, and Jeffrey McGunegle. By election day, though, the dualling councilmembers emerged as the top contenders. While Freda Powell earned a respectable 3,885 votes, it was Cole Stanley’s 15,978 votes that not only gave him the victory but also gave him the highest vote total of any mayoral candidate in Amarillo history.

The key issue of the race was the civic center funding lawsuit. While businessman Alex Fairly, the plaintiff in the lawsuit, emerged as an early favorite to run for mayor, Fairly ultimately declined to do so and instead pushed for Stanley to run. Fairly remained involved in the election, however, backing Stanley, as well as Don Tipps and Tom Scherlen, the two new members of the council elected on May 6th.

This backing also brought some controversy. After the city lost the lawsuit, the district court ordered the city to reimburse Fairly’s legal fees. The city then appealed the ruling, though Cole Stanley, as a candidate, stated that he felt the city should drop the appeal. During a raucous City Council meeting, Mayor Ginger Nelson stated an allegation (while claiming to quote an unnamed member of the public) that Cole Stanley, who received a donation of $40,000 from businessman Alex Fairly, took the donation in exchange for dropping the city’s appeal. The allegations did little to dampen Stanley’s support and may have in fact even bolstered his odds. It probably didn’t hurt that a claim made by Nelson that Fairly’s donation to Stanley was the largest in Amarillo history was of dubious validity.

While a Fairly-backed slate of Cole Stanley, Don Tipps, and Tom Scherlen were elected on May 6th, the two other spots on Amarillo City Council went to a runoff election. In Place 1, Josh Craft and Dean Crump emerged from a crowded field to face off in a bid to take over Stanley’s former seat. In Place 4, Les Simpson and Claudette Smith, two names already familiar to many people in local politics, battled to replace outgoing councilman Howard Smith, who remained on the council through the runoff.

In the end, Craft and Simpson, the two candidates backed by Fairly, emerged victorious.

Backing up to before the runoffs, though, several big changes to council meetings were made soon after Stanley took office. The City Manager and City Attorney were removed from the raised central portion of the dias and the velvet ropes separating the audience from the dias were removed. Additionally, the “public address” section, which required those speaking to only speak on topics on the agenda, was changed back to a “public comment” section, where speakers are invited to speak on any item related to city business. Additionally, the strict requirement that those speaking sign up ahead of time was removed.

These changes remained after Craft and Simpson rounded out the new council. While it may be too early to say how history will remember this new council, it’s clear that voters were ready to move past the Ginger Nelson era.

The City of Amarillo wasn’t the only local entity with races on the ballot. In an interesting twist, AISD Board incumbents were booted out of office by voters, while Amarillo College Board incumbents were given another term in office.