The Brownwood City Council appointed Lee Haney as the new municipal court judge on Friday in a 3-2 split vote of the council.

Councilmen Jerry Dehay, Carl McMillian, and Eddie Watson voted for the appointment while councilmen Draco Miller and H.D. Jones voted against.  Haney was the associate municipal court judge under Don Clements who retired earlier in the month.  Haney has been serving as interim municipal court judge since Clements retired.

Local attorney Emily Miller was unanimously approved as the appointee for the position of associate municipal court judge.

Haney is a long-time Brownwood resident, graduating from Brownwood High School in 1974. He attended Texas Christian University and graduated from Baylor Law School in 1979.  Haney has served Brown County as an attorney in many capacities including county judge, district attorney, currently as the Early city judge and associate municipal judge of Brownwood.  Haney stated that he will continue to serve as Early’s city judge.

The city council held interviews on Friday afternoon in a special executive session of finalists for the position.   Brownwood City Manager Bobby Rountree said earlier on Friday that the council narrowed down the applications to four finalists – Mark Bessent, Lee Haney, GiGi Chastain, and Emily Miller.  There were a total of nine applicants.  Rountree said that Chastain withdrew her application shortly before interviews began.

“All of our candidates did a tremendous job in their interview process and the council has a very difficult decision to make in front of them.  It is always very difficult when you have to make decisions concerning friends and colleagues that you work with all the time, but we very much appreciate the quality of those who applied,” said Mayor Haynes before the council vote.   “Thank you all  for doing a great job and for providing the council with a very difficult decision to make, but one which there is obviously no bad decision because we had such great options having to do with this particular situation.”

Pictured below are Haney and Miller being sworn in by City Secretary Christi Wynn.