Statement issued by Weimar's City Manager

The HR Director and I were unaware of the familial relationship between Kurt Scardino, Rex Kloesel and the applicant for Finance Director when I offered him the position. Mayor Tucker texted me late Friday, February 27 which I did not read until Saturday morning questioning this person’s familial relationship. On Saturday at 7:41pm I texted Kurt to find out how he and the applicant were related. He called me on Sunday around 1:30pm to explain they are first cousins. In the meantime, I texted The HR Director to ask if there was an issue with Kurt and Rex being related to the applicant. She asked how they were related. I explained that I was checking with Kurt but at that point he had not responded. The HR Director offered to text the applicant to determine their actual relationship. The applicant then offered that he is first cousins to both Rex and Kurt but hadn’t realized that would be a problem. I reached out to the City’s attorney Sunday evening when I came into the office and composed an email explaining the situation. I explained to Mr. Dawson that the applicant had not started nor been given an oath office and he was a week out from a potential start date. At this point, now that the relationships have been revealed to us, I rescinded the offer to the applicant. I also reached out to Texas Municipal League’s Legal team. They stated that first cousin relationship with a council member was not prohibited under State nepotism laws, but the City of Weimar had adopted stricter nepotism guidelines. On March 5, 2026 Kurt Scardino and Rex Kloesel turned in their resignations from their council positions.
The city’s job application only asked, “do any of your friends or relatives work here?”. We have changed that to read, “are you related to any elected official or current employee?”. Prior to offering the position to the applicant, I had not discussed the applicant’s application or his employment with the Mayor, City Council or City Attorney.
This was truly an unfortunate chain of events that led us to where we are today. Neither the applicant or the council members knew what our personnel policy stated about nepotism. The HR Director and I were not familiar with the relationship that the applicant had with the council members. I still believe that the applicant is the best candidate for the Finance Director position. He grew up in Weimar, and is raising his children here and has a strong financial background. He has full support from many people in our community.
I apologize that this all happened and I will make sure that every precaution will be made so that this doesn’t happen in the future.
Sincerely,
David Mason- City Manager