New Hands at City Hall, and an Open Seat for Residents Who Want to Write the Ethics Rules
By The Magnolia Standard · July 21, 2026
City hall packed a lot into one Monday night: a new administrator on the job, a rebuilt street approved, and a standing invitation for residents to help write the rules their officials will live under.
Start with the invitation. At its July 14 meeting, the Magnolia City Council voted 6-1 to create a committee of residents to review a proposed ethics policy and recommend changes before anything is adopted. The policy would cover council members, appointed officials, and city employees. Council member Geoff Beyer cast the lone no vote. The city plans to advertise the openings and post an application on its website; the council will select the members from the applicants. The committee starts from a model policy draft, and whatever it recommends comes back to the council for a final vote.
"We want to make sure we get it right," Mayor Chris Blair said of the effort. The backdrop makes the care understandable. As Community Impact has reported, three federal lawsuits were filed this year against the city and former Mayor Matthew "Doc" Dantzer alleging retaliation and misconduct. An ethics policy drafted with resident hands on the pen is one answer to that chapter.
The same night was day one for Bob Harvey, Magnolia's new city administrator. The seat has not been a stable one. Harvey is the fourth person to hold it in roughly twenty months, after Don Doeing's retirement in late 2024, an interim let go inside ninety days, and Chris Whittaker's termination this January on a 4-0 vote. Harvey comes from oil-and-gas operations leadership, where he managed operations running $150 million a year and served on eight corporate boards. His stated first move: "My intention is to get out and take a look at every department that we have, and talk to every employee." An early priority, he said, is consolidating the city's records and contract documentation.
The council also approved an agreement to rebuild Amarillo Drive in the Magnolia Ridge area. The work tears out and replaces the pavement, lays new asphalt, replaces concrete driveways along the route, widens and resurfaces Smith Road, and adds drainage improvements. This one has been a long time coming; design work began back in 2023 with an $85,000 engineering work order, and the scope later grew to take in Smith Street between Amarillo Drive and Corpus Drive.
If the ethics committee interests you, watch the city's website for the application. It is not often a city asks residents to help write the rulebook. Taking them up on it seems like the neighborly thing to do.
Editor's note: We chose straight reporting for this piece because it covers settled actions taken at a public meeting — recorded votes, a hire, and an approved agreement. There is no second perspective on the underlying facts.
Sources: Community Impact's July 15, 16, and 17, 2026 reports on the administrator hire, the ethics committee vote, and the Amarillo Drive agreement, drawn from the council's July 14 meeting. Civic news and corrections to newsroom@themagnoliastandard.news.