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HAWKINS \u2014 In the wake of an eventful month for Hawkins, including the resignation of the city\u2019s third police chief and increasing calls to disband the police department, Mayor Deborah Rushing now faces growing pressure to step down. Rushing, who took office as mayor in April 2024 for the small town of Hawkins (population 1,401), is now named in a lawsuit filed by Shahaub Tafreshinejad, son of Alderwoman Eleta Taylor, seeking her removal from office.<\/p>\n
According to our news partner KETK, the 26-page lawsuit alleges that Rushing displayed \u201cearly signs of incompetence and misconduct\u201d due to issues such as illegal dual-office holding. Specifically, the lawsuit claims Rushing simultaneously served as both the mayor and municipal judge, a position forbidden by law.<\/p>\n
The document also accuses Rushing of repeatedly using her mayoral position to place herself on the city council\u2019s agenda, despite lacking the necessary support. The lawsuit details how, after multiple failed attempts to get on the agenda, Rushing\u2019s persistence led to an \u201cunwilling\u201d council decision to appoint her, described as occurring \u201cunder duress\u201d following what was characterized as \u201cborderline harassment\u201d from Rushing.<\/p>\n
\u201cHer claiming she didn\u2019t know\u2026 well you just admitted incompetence. Its your job to know as mayor, to me there\u2019s a lot of word salad coming from her and no accountability,\u201d plaintiff, Shahaub Tafreshinejad said.<\/p>\n
At a December 2024 city council meeting, Alderwoman Eleta Taylor raised questions about a $600 check Rushing issued to herself for her work as municipal judge, noting that it is illegal for one person to hold both offices simultaneously. In response, Rushing reportedly said, \u201cI don\u2019t know why it would be. I did the work.\u201d<\/p>\n
Taylor shot back, \u201cIt was illegal for you to receive payment.\u201d<\/p>\n
Rushing then reportedly responded, \u201cY\u2019all put me in. I\u2019m supposed to pay for your mistake.\u201d<\/p>\n
She held the dual office for three months.<\/p>\n
Rushing told KETK News that she immediately stepped down as municipal judge when she learned that she could not hold both positions.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen I realized you can\u2019t be the mayor and the judge, I stopped being the judge,\u201d Rushing said.<\/p>\n
Now, Tafreshinejad is requesting the court to put a temporary restraining order and an injunction to remove Rushing from her duties as she allegedly poses an \u201cimmediate danger to public safety and the welfare of the community.\u201d
\nHawkins police chief resigns, marking third chief to step down in 3 years<\/p>\n
Tafreshinejad cites the ongoing misconduct, numerous instances that Rushing reportedly disregarded the laws and a pattern of behavior that demonstrates her \u201cwillingness to deprive the council of their rights\u201d that disrupts government function, as reasons for the restraining order.<\/p>\n
In light of the lawsuit, Rushing said her focus is on serving the citizens. She dismissed the charges against her as baseless and reiterated her commitment to transparency and accountability in local government.<\/p>\n
\u201cI do not take one minute of being the mayor of Hawkins for granted. I am here for a purpose and it\u2019s not about me. It\u2019s about every citizen of Hawkins. To be completely honest the charges are ridiculous. I am not responsible for the feelings of people that hate me. That is their hate and anger to process. I will continue what I am doing, which is serving the citizens of Hawkins and allowing them to run their city. I truly believe that giving our citizens a look inside the city budgets, financials, ordinances, policies, and whatever else they want to see is not only healthy -it is the mayor\u2019s and council\u2019s responsibility. It keeps everyone honest and isn\u2019t that what we all want, our government to be ran open, honestly?\u201d
\n Mayor Debbie Rushing<\/p><\/blockquote>\nTafreshinejad said his \u201cfinal straw\u201d to file a petition, was when Rushing pushed to deactivate the police department on Jan. 22.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou can\u2019t interfere with an ongoing investigations by destroying the departments that are investigating it because you don\u2019t like who their investigating,\u201d Tafreshinejad said.<\/p>\n
Rushing said the investigations would not go away, but would be handed to another law enforcement office.<\/p>\n
He worries for the future of the city under mayor Rushing.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe\u2019s gonna govern with impunity and no fear of the law,\u201d Tafreshinejad said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
HAWKINS \u2014 In the wake of an eventful month for Hawkins, including the resignation of the city\u2019s third police chief and increasing calls to disband the police department, Mayor Deborah Rushing now faces growing pressure to step down. Rushing, who took office as mayor in April 2024 for the small town of Hawkins (population 1,401), … Continue reading Hawkins mayor faces lawsuit, calls to resign<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":1387628,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/wp-content\/media\/2025\/02\/2025-02-01_233722-214x200.png","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[177],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1387626","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local-news-archive-archives"],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-10 15:05:19","action":"change-status","newStatus":"trash","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/wp-content\/media\/2025\/02\/2025-02-01_233722-214x200.png","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1387626","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1387626"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1387626\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1387629,"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1387626\/revisions\/1387629"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1387628"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1387626"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1387626"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1387626"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}