Italy Said Shawn Holden and Charles Hyles Had 'Nothing to Do' with the Public Works Building. The City's Own Records Say Otherwise.

On March 9, 2026, I sat in the lobby of Italy City Hall and listened as City Administrator Keith Whitfield read a prepared timeline to the city council. The timeline was about the Italy Public Works Building, a metal shop structure at 1100 FM 667 that has been failing its occupancy inspection for more than a year because of ADA compliance problems. Keith did not prepare the timeline himself. He told the council, on a recording I have in my possession, that he asked City Secretary Amber Cunningham to put it together for him.

The timeline was meant to settle a question that has been circulating in Italy for months. Who was actually responsible for the Public Works Building project, and how did a brand new municipal building end up failing its accessibility inspection before it was even finished? The question was circulating because I had been asking it. I first messaged Charles Hyles directly about the Public Works Building on February 11, 2026, using his official phone number for city business. I asked him for comment as the project manager. He did not reply. I asked again. He did not reply. For the past two months, the Public Works Building has been an ongoing topic of my reporting on Italy, and for the past two months, Charles Hyles has declined to answer any of the questions I have put to him directly.

Keith read Amber's timeline out loud. It hit the key dates. It named a few people. Then it made two claims I want to quote directly:

"What I want to make clear is that at no time has there been speculation. One is Shawn Holden had nothing to do with this whole project. He was gone."

Council Member Raymond Mosley, sitting at the dais, interjected immediately.

"Yes, he did."

Keith did not respond to Raymond's interjection. He continued:

"The other thing of it is there was speculation that Charles Hyles was the project manager. That's not true. If it is, we can't find any document that says so."

Charles Hyles has been president of the Italy Economic Development Corporation for about fifteen years. I have recordings, emails, and documents that contradict both of Keith's claims. Some of the documents I am about to cover were released to me by the City of Italy's own attorney more than a year before Keith read that timeline to the council. The city had them the whole time.

This is the story of the Italy Public Works Building, the timeline the city read at a public meeting, and the records that tell a different story.

The Project in Brief

The Italy Public Works Building was supposed to be a simple project. The city owned an old metal shop building on a property near downtown Italy, a property that has since been sold and is now home to a Family Dollar store. The proceeds from that sale were earmarked for the Public Works Department's new workspace. The original plan was to disassemble the old metal shop building, truck it over to the city's water treatment site on FM 667, and reassemble it there as the new Public Works Building. That plan did not hold.

On May 8, 2023, the Italy City Council voted to award a construction contract to M.D. Bowles Construction for about $168,600. Nine days later, on May 17, after an executive session with the city attorney, the same council voted to rescind that contract and put the project back out for bids. In August, after proper newspaper advertising, the council voted again to award the contract to Bowles Construction, this time at about $172,000. The contract was signed in October 2023. Construction began in November 2023. The building was completed, signed off on, and paid for in May 2024. Five months later, in October 2024, a licensed accessibility inspector failed the building on its ADA compliance review.

By the time the council discussed the project again on March 9, 2026, the building had been in failed status for more than a year. The city was preparing to spend more money to remove walls and redo counter tops to try to bring the building into compliance.

Keith's timeline covered all of those dates. His timeline said Shawn Holden "had nothing to do with this whole project" and that Charles Hyles was "not" the project manager. Here is what the records actually show.

May 8, 2023: Shawn Holden Presents the Bid, and Thanks Charles on the Record

On May 8, 2023, Shawn Holden stood in front of the council as City Administrator and Public Works Director, a dual role he held until his resignation in September of that year. He presented two bids for the Public Works Building project. The Bowles Construction bid was about $168,600. The Robert Morgan Construction bid was about $231,000. Holden recommended that the council go with Bowles.

Before the council voted, Holden said this:

"With the help of Charles helping me answer questions, get bids, go back and forth, engineers, it's been a headache. Mostly for Charles."

That is a verbatim quote from the official city audio recording of the May 8, 2023 council meeting, at the 52:32 timestamp. "Charles" is Charles Hyles. The council was in public session. The quote is on the city's own audio record, released to me through a Public Information Act request.

A minute later, during the same discussion, Council Member Raymond Mosley asked Holden about the demolition of the old building. Holden explained that the original plan had been to disassemble the old building and move it to the new location, but that plan fell through because the materials could not be reused cleanly. Mosley pressed him on the details. Here is Holden's response, at the 53:37 timestamp:

"We paid Josh's group to take it down, and what they did was he took that building, the old building, and then took money off what he charged us to take all the other stuff down. That's what that was, and I don't have the amount we paid them yet. I wasn't prepared for that, but you're welcome."

"Josh's group" is a local contractor named Josh Trees. Holden could not state, in public session, the amount his own city had paid that contractor. He said he did not have the number with him.

Later in the same meeting, at the 1:00:00 mark, Holden confirmed that $50,000 of the project funding was coming from the Italy Economic Development Corporation. The rest was coming from the sale of a separate city property to Family Dollar and from Holden's own departmental budget.

That is the May 8, 2023 record: Shawn Holden publicly thanked Charles Hyles for helping him with bids and engineers on the Public Works Building project. Shawn Holden publicly confirmed that Josh Trees was paid to demolish the old building but could not state the amount. Shawn Holden publicly confirmed that $50,000 of EDC money was going into the project.

Keith's March 9, 2026 timeline said Shawn Holden had nothing to do with the project and Charles Hyles was not the project manager.

May 17, 2023: The Attorney Steps In

Nine days after the council approved the Bowles bid, on May 17, 2023, the council held a called meeting. The agenda included one item that stood out. It was a request to enter executive session under Texas Government Code §551.071 to receive legal advice on the Bowles Construction agreement. That section covers "consultation with attorney on a matter in which the attorney's duty to the governmental body under the Texas Disciplinary Rules of Professional Conduct conflicts with Chapter 551 of the Texas Government Code."

That is a specific legal citation. It is the section cities use when their attorney has identified something the council needs to hear in private before taking further public action.

The council entered executive session at 6:14 PM. They reconvened at 6:56 PM. That is roughly forty-two minutes behind closed doors on a single contract item.

When they came back, Council Member Troy Kowalsky, who had just been sworn in to his first council term moments earlier, made a motion. On the audio recording, Kowalsky says he made the motion "after consulting with our attorney." The motion was to rescind the Bowles Construction contract and put the project back out for bids.

The rescission passed. The contract that Shawn Holden had presented nine days earlier, in a meeting where he publicly thanked Charles Hyles for helping with the bids and engineers, was voided after about forty-two minutes of legal advice in executive session.

I cannot tell you what was said in that executive session. I was not there, and executive sessions are closed under TOMA. What I can tell you is what the public record shows on either side of it. On May 8, Shawn Holden credited Charles Hyles on the audio. On May 17, the council rescinded the contract after an executive session about the attorney's duty under the disciplinary rules of professional conduct.

September 26, 2023: Charles Hyles Admits It Was His Fault

By September 2023, Shawn Holden was gone. His last day was September 1. I will get to the details of his departure in a moment. For now, what matters is that Charles Hyles was still EDC President and was still running EDC meetings.

On September 26, 2023, the Italy Economic Development Corporation held its regular meeting. Charles led the meeting. At the 1:05:48 timestamp on the official audio recording, Charles said the following:

"No, we did not advertise. That's what threw me off when I got the bids for the city building. I didn't know if I had read the description before. I didn't even think it was going to happen. It was my fault. I didn't put it in the paper. So we went out and got bids to the public works building. But I didn't put it in the paper because the EDC didn't have it in the paper. We just had bills."

Read that again slowly. The EDC president is talking about "the bids for the city building." He is saying "I got the bids." He is saying "I didn't put it in the paper." He is saying "It was my fault." He is saying "we went out and got bids." He is saying "we just had bills."

Competitive bidding requirements under Texas Local Government Code Chapter 252 require that certain municipal contracts be advertised in a newspaper of general circulation. That rule is why the original Bowles bid was rescinded on May 17. It had not been advertised. The attorney almost certainly told the council exactly that in the May 17 executive session. The project then had to be re-bid in July with proper newspaper advertising in the Waxahachie Sun. Bowles won the re-bid anyway, at about $172,000.

Charles's statement on September 26, 2023 was him explaining, on his own city's audio recording, why that happened.

He took personal responsibility. He said "it was my fault." He was the person who failed to put it in the paper. He was the person who "got the bids." He was explaining this to his own EDC board, on a city recording, twenty-five days after Shawn Holden had stopped working for the City of Italy.

A person who had "nothing to do with" a project cannot be personally responsible for failing to advertise its bids twenty-five days after the only other named participant has left the city.

Shawn Holden's Resignation Letter

Let me now tell you exactly when Shawn Holden left Italy and what the city's own files contain about his departure. The primary source is a document I am holding in my hand because I asked the city for it. Here is the entire letter, verbatim:

August 28, 2023

Mayor Cockran,

Please accept this letter as my formal resignation for the positions of City Administrator and Public Works Director for the City of Italy. My last day will be September 1, 2023. I want to thank you and the city council for the opportunity to serve the citizens of Italy.

Sincerely,

Shawn Holden

That is the entire letter. One substantive sentence. Four days of notice on a dual senior executive role. No stated reason. No mention of why a man who had been giving public works reports to the council two weeks earlier was now walking out the door.

The resignation was addressed to then-Mayor Bryant Cockran. It was not copied to the council. The letter does not exist on city letterhead in the scan I received. It is typed on plain paper with a handwritten signature.

I will let readers draw their own conclusion about how common that is for a dual City Administrator/Public Works Director departure.

August 30, 2023: The Mayor's Single-Sentence Announcement

Two days after Shawn signed the resignation letter, on August 30, 2023, the Italy City Council held a Called Meeting. The primary purpose was a public hearing on the proposed property tax rate of $0.536097 per $100 for the 2023 tax year, followed by a discussion of the 2023 to 2024 budget. Will Dan Financial Services was present and walked the council through the numbers. Council Member Luin McConnell was absent.

At the end of the meeting, during the Mayor Comments section, Mayor Bryant Cockran announced Shawn Holden's resignation. Here is what the official city minutes say, verbatim:

"Bryant Cockran announced the resignation of Shawn Holden. He thanked Shawn for his dedication to the City of Italy and wished him well."

That is the entire official written record of a dual senior executive leaving the City of Italy. One sentence. No motion of appreciation from the council. No council vote accepting the resignation. No discussion. No reason given. No succession plan mentioned. No mention of the dual-role nature of the position he had been holding. The minutes are signed by Mayor Cockran and by City Secretary Amber Cunningham, TRMC.

If you are reading this and thinking "that cannot possibly be the entire written record," you are asking the right question.

September 11, 2023: The Will Dan Consultant Confirms It

Italy's City Council met again on September 11, 2023, for its next regular meeting. Will Dan Financial Services consultant Jason Gray was presenting on the budget process. At the 14:24 timestamp on the September 11 audio recording, Gray mentioned Shawn Holden's resignation in passing:

"At the end of the last meeting that I was at, you know, hearing that Mr. Holden was submitting his resignation..."

Gray was confirming what the August 30 minutes show. The resignation was announced at the end of the August 30 Called Meeting during Mayor Comments. Gray was present at that meeting. He heard the Mayor say it. Two weeks later, he was mentioning it at the next council meeting because the budget numbers he was discussing now had to account for both a city administrator search and a public works director search.

At the same September 11 meeting, the council discussed the budget impact of replacing Shawn. The numbers were about $242,000 for the combined administrator and secretarial budget line and another $430,000 for the public works department budget. The dual role Shawn had held was going to be split into two separate hires.

October 24, 2024: Italy's Public Works Director at the Time Writes an Email

Fast forward about thirteen months. The Public Works Building had been constructed by Bowles under the rebid contract. The city signed off on the completed building in May 2024 and made the final payment. Everyone thought the project was finished.

In October 2024, the accessibility inspector from a firm called Access Granted returned to do the ADA compliance review. The inspector, a registered accessibility specialist named John Johnson with TDLR license number RAS 1544, found that the building failed its accessibility requirements. On October 23, 2024, Johnson sent the draft and final reports to Italy's Public Works Director at the time, James Wallingsford. Wallingsford had been hired in early 2024 to fill the role Shawn Holden vacated the previous September. He served as the city's Public Works Director until he resigned in July 2025. Shortly after his resignation, Wallingsford began working for Italy again as a Public Works consultant, receiving a smaller but regular contract payment from the city for his services. That consulting arrangement is still in place as of this article. For the October 2024 email below, Wallingsford was writing in his capacity as the sitting Public Works Director.

Johnson's email included this line:

"So here is the Draft Report I sent first, and the final report sent after talks with Shawn."

"After talks with Shawn." Shawn Holden had been gone from the city for more than a year by the time Johnson wrote that email. The email was forwarding reports that had been finalized based on conversations with Shawn from before his departure.

One day later, on October 24, 2024, Wallingsford forwarded Johnson's email to City Administrator Keith Whitfield with his own commentary. Here is what Wallingsford wrote to Keith, verbatim:

"Keith,

The ADA Inspector sent this to Shawn in January of 2023. He without a doubt notified Shawn of the issues in the plans, Shawn should have had this resolved before any construction began. For all we know Shawn sent this to the contractor and the contractor did not abide by what was noted. I'm not sure how we can find out if Shawn contacted the contractor with these issues. I will do some more research and see if I can determine if the contractor was notified.

Jim W"

The Public Works Director of the City of Italy at the time, writing to the current City Administrator of the City of Italy on the city's own email system, states the following as fact:

The ADA Inspector sent accessibility findings to Shawn Holden in January 2023.
Shawn Holden was "without a doubt" notified of the plan issues.
Shawn Holden "should have had this resolved before any construction began."
Wallingsford does not know if Shawn communicated the issues to the contractor.

Keith Whitfield received that email on October 24, 2024. On February 25, 2026, at 2:30 PM, Wallingsford forwarded that same email chain to City Secretary Amber Cunningham. That forward happened twelve days before the March 9, 2026 council meeting where Amber would prepare a timeline for Keith to read to the council claiming Shawn had nothing to do with the project.

Amber Cunningham had this email in her inbox when she wrote the timeline Keith read.

The Records Request I Filed in March 2025

On March 12, 2025, about a year before the March 9, 2026 council meeting, I filed a Public Information Act request with the City of Italy. The request was broad on purpose. Here is the verbatim text of what I asked for:

"Any and all internal memos, termination letters, resignation letters or any other communication regarding Shawn Holden leaving his City Administrator position in 2023."

My goal was simple. I wanted to see everything the city had in writing about the departure of its dual senior executive. Memos. Termination letters. Resignation letters. Emails. Internal communications. Anything.

On March 26, 2025, fourteen days later, I received a response from Messer Fort PLLC, the law firm the City of Italy retains for legal services. The response letter was signed by Assistant City Attorney Michael K. Kallas. The response was CC'd to Amber Cunningham, the City Secretary.

Here is what the response letter said:

"This letter is in response to your public information request received by the City of Italy ('City') on March 12, 2025, in which you requested: 'Any and all internal memos, termination letters, resignation letters or any other communication regarding Shawn Holden leaving his City Administrator position in 2023.' Enclosed are the documents responsive to your request. Because the City has fully responded to your request, it is now closed."

The city released exactly two documents to me in response to that request. The first was Shawn Holden's one-sentence resignation letter, which I quoted above. The second was the minutes of the August 30, 2023 Called Meeting, the minutes where the Mayor's announcement is the only written record of the departure.

That is what the City of Italy gave me as the complete record of a dual senior executive's resignation.

No internal memos. No emails between Shawn and the Mayor. No emails between Shawn and council members. No emails between the Mayor and council about the resignation. No severance agreement. No separation agreement. No exit interview notes. No HR file material. Nothing from the city administrator's own office describing the circumstances of his departure.

The response letter did not cite any Texas Public Information Act exceptions for withheld documents. Under Chapter 552 of the Texas Government Code, if a governmental body is going to withhold responsive records, it is required to notify the Attorney General within ten business days and cite the specific exception it is claiming. That did not happen here. The letter simply stated the request was "fully responded to" and "now closed."

I want to be precise about what that means. Either the City of Italy has no internal written communication about the departure of its dual senior executive beyond a one-sentence resignation letter and a one-sentence line in meeting minutes, or the City of Italy withheld responsive documents without citing any statutory exception. Both possibilities are newsworthy. One represents an extraordinary absence of normal city recordkeeping. The other raises questions about compliance with the Texas Public Information Act.

Amber Cunningham was CC'd on the response. From March 26, 2025 forward, she was on actual notice that a journalist was specifically investigating every communication related to Shawn Holden's 2023 departure. That notice was in place for nearly a year before she wrote the timeline Keith read to the council.

February 2026: I Asked Charles Hyles Directly

On February 10, 2026, the day after the Italy City Council's February 9 regular meeting, I sent Charles Hyles a text message at his official phone number, which he uses for city business as EDC President. I had heard from other residents that Charles had made comments about me during the previous night's meeting, including a claim that I do not pay city taxes. Charles had walked past me twice during the meeting without speaking to me directly.

Later the same morning, at 10:11 AM, I sent Charles a professional courtesy message explaining that I was reaching out for comment before publishing an article. Here is what I wrote, verbatim:

"I've got questions about permits, Charles. I heard some stuff that I think it's time for you to clarify since you're now getting involved in city council again. I was taking time to reach out because I have been gathering my facts. I have everything now, so I would like to get a comment from you before I publish as a professional courtesy. Let me know when you have time for a phone appointment today. If you want your comments included in the article, I need to hear back from you by Friday."

I then listed four questions about EDC business, including one specifically about the EDC's 2022 acquisition of the property adjacent to the Upchurch Ballpark that the EDC has not done anything with.

The next day, February 11, 2026, at 11:49 AM, I sent Charles a fifth question. I want to quote this question in full, because it matters:

"Additional question: 5) Your comments as Project Manager of the new public works building, and why the building continues to fail inspections, per Keith Whitfield."

Read that carefully. On February 11, 2026, almost one month before Keith Whitfield would tell the council on March 9 that "speculation that Charles Hyles was the project manager" was "not true," I asked Charles in writing to comment as the project manager of the building. I asked why the building continued to fail inspections, and I cited Keith Whitfield as the source for that information. That means Keith had been discussing the building's failed inspections with me as early as February 2026.

Charles did not reply.

On February 12, 2026, at 8:18 AM, I sent a final message. I will not quote the full text here because it covers multiple topics, but the relevant portion for this article is that I put in writing that Charles was ignoring my public works building question, I informed him that all future personal commentary he wanted to make about me could be directed to my attorney C.J. Grisham, and I told him I would not contact him again unless he replied. Charles did not reply.

I did not contact Charles again by text for about two months. In that time, the March 9, 2026 council meeting happened. Keith read Amber's prepared timeline. Charles threatened me in the lobby. Officer Geddie separated us. I filed a Public Information Act request for the recording of that meeting, paid the city about $42 through its third-party payment processor, received the audio, and began writing this article.

Earlier today, on April 5, 2026, at 10:59 AM, I sent Charles one final professional courtesy message before publication. Here is the full text:

"I am publishing an article about the public works building and your involvement in the project today. Now is your last chance to comment if you want something included in my article. As of right now, I've already reached out to you for comment, and you refused, so that will be indicated in my article unless you reply to me today before 3 PM. I am also seeking comment from Amber and Keith, in addition to the mayor, if you can pass the word on for me. I don't have their numbers, but I know you do. Thank you."

The message was delivered. Charles did not reply.

For the past two months, the Italy Public Works Building has been a central focus of my reporting on this city. Charles Hyles has had multiple documented opportunities, in writing, at his official city-business phone number, to respond to my questions. He has chosen not to reply to any of them. Keith Whitfield and Amber Cunningham have been similarly on notice. Wallingsford's October 24, 2024 email sat in Keith's inbox for sixteen months before Keith read the contradicting timeline to the council. The February 25, 2026 forward to Amber gave her the same information twelve days before she wrote that timeline for him.

The city's March 9, 2026 public statement through Keith was, in effect, the city's response to the questions I had been putting to Charles in writing for weeks. That is why the city rushed a prepared statement into the middle of a monthly activity report rather than putting the topic on a future agenda for open public debate. The city chose the delivery method, and the city got the facts wrong. Intentionally or unintentionally, readers can decide.

March 9, 2026: The Timeline Read to the Council

On March 9, 2026, I sat in the lobby of Italy City Hall. I was there because the council was scheduled to discuss, among other items, a water treatment system called Bicarbus that I had been raising questions about for weeks. I had not entered the council chamber because of a separate legal matter involving my 2025 arrest at that same building, which is the subject of a pending civil case.

From the lobby, through the open doorway, I listened as Keith Whitfield delivered his monthly activity report. He had not put the Public Works Building on the agenda as a discussion item. There was nothing on the published agenda that told the public the council would be discussing the project. Keith brought it up on his own, inside his routine department head report, using the prepared timeline Amber had written for him.

Here is what Keith said, at the 17:39 timestamp on the official meeting audio:

"While we're there, we know we've been having a lot of speculation going on about different things on that project at the Public Works building. And I asked Amber to put me a timeline together that we could specify some things, we could kind of get some things cleared out in the air. A lot has been said."

He then read the timeline. The dates were largely accurate: early 2023 planning, September 1 as Shawn's last day, October 25 as the contract signing date, November 2023 for permits and construction, May 21, 2024 for building completion, October 2024 for the ADA inspection failure. All of that matches the other records.

Then came the two claims.

"What I want to make clear is that at no time has there been speculation. One is Shawn Holden had nothing to do with this whole project. He was gone."

Raymond Mosley, seated at the dais, interjected:

"Yes, he did."

Keith did not acknowledge Raymond's correction. He kept going:

"Okay. The other thing of it is there was speculation that Charles Hyles was the project manager. That's not true. If it is, we can't find any document that says so. Okay? So we just want to clear all that up."

City Attorney Ann Montgomery, a senior attorney with Messer Fort who had just been assigned to Italy as its legal representative at this meeting, interrupted:

"Mayor, Council, this is only on the agenda for our monthly activity report. So if you want to have that discussion, it needs to be on the next agenda so that there can be open discussion about that item because there might be members of the public that might want to come to listen to that. And based on this agenda, they didn't know that was going to be discussed."

Montgomery was right. The Texas Open Meetings Act requires that items of substance be specifically listed on the agenda so the public can attend if they choose to. A monthly activity report is not the appropriate place to deliver a prepared statement absolving two named individuals of responsibility for a failed public project. Montgomery's point was procedural, but it was also substantive. If the city genuinely wanted to clear the air about who was and was not involved in the Public Works Building project, the honest way to do it was to put the topic on a future agenda, give the public notice, and let residents attend the discussion. The city's own newly-assigned attorney said so on the record, inside the same meeting where the statement was being read.

That did not happen. The statement was delivered. The council moved on.

After the Meeting Recessed into Executive Session

Shortly after Keith's timeline, the council recessed into executive session on the Bicarbus item and on separate personnel matters. I was still in the lobby. Several other people were there with me, including Charles Hyles.

I had been recording from the beginning of the evening. I had the recorder in my hand. Charles walked over to talk. What followed is on the audio.

I asked Charles a direct question.

"So you're saying you had nothing to do with the project?"

Charles answered:

"Once the project started, absolutely not."

I pressed:

"No, no. The project in general, you had nothing to do with the project at all, huh?"

Charles hesitated, then said this:

"The only thing... You can record me."

I said:

"I'm recording you."

Then Charles said the sentence that matters:

"The only thing that I helped Shawn with, he had a question about..."

I caught it immediately.

"Wait a minute. Calm down. Back up. You just admitted on the record that you helped Shawn with a project."

Charles tried to walk it back.

"No, he had a question."

I said it again.

"You just admitted on the record that you helped Shawn with a project."

That exchange is at the 5:28 to 5:49 timestamp on my recorder. I have it. It is verbatim. Charles Hyles, in his own voice, on a recorder I was openly holding in my hand, a recorder he had just acknowledged and told me I could use, admitted he helped Shawn with something on the project.

Minutes earlier, Keith Whitfield had read a prepared statement from his usual seat at the City Administrator's desk in the council chamber, claiming Charles Hyles was not the project manager and could not be documented as such. Three independent audio recordings from 2023 and 2026, spanning thirty-four months, document Charles Hyles's involvement in the Public Works Building project:

May 8, 2023: Shawn Holden on the city's own recording: "With the help of Charles helping me answer questions, get bids, go back and forth, engineers, it's been a headache. Mostly for Charles."
September 26, 2023: Charles Hyles on the city's own recording, twenty-five days after Shawn's last day: "It was my fault. I didn't put it in the paper. So we went out and got bids to the public works building."
March 9, 2026: Charles Hyles on my recording, minutes after Keith read the timeline: "The only thing that I helped Shawn with, he had a question about..."

Three recordings. Three admissions. Thirty-four months. One of those recordings is from inside the same building where Keith had sat at his City Administrator's desk minutes earlier and read the statement denying it.

"I'm Going to Take Him Out Myself"

The conversation with Charles did not stop after he admitted helping Shawn. It escalated.

I asked Charles why the EDC owned a property at the south corner of the Upchurch Ballpark baseball fields. I knew the answer. I had pulled the ECAD records. The EDC had acquired the property in 2022 to resolve a boundary dispute after a neighbor discovered that the city's baseball field was partially sitting on his land. I was asking because I wanted to understand why, if Charles had led a walking trail construction project at the same ballpark in 2013, the boundary issue had not been caught then.

Charles did not want to answer the question. He told me to file a records request instead.

"Why don't you do an open records for it?"

I pushed back.

"So you want me to force the city attorney to process my records request and you can just tell me for free right now?"

He repeated himself:

"Yeah, I'm telling you to do an open records request."

I asked again. He deflected again. The exchange went on for several minutes. At about the 8:03 timestamp, Charles changed the subject. He brought up lawsuits. I have referenced elsewhere that I have a pending civil matter against the City of Italy related to my 2025 arrest. I have stated that publicly. Charles knew about it. What he said next, verbatim:

"Unlike you, who threatens with the lawsuit. I'm not threatening. I'm not you."

That is Charles positioning himself as someone who acts rather than threatens. I caught what he was implying. I asked him, sarcastically, if he was threatening to sue me:

"You're threatening to sue me right now?"

Charles answered, and this is the actual threat:

"No, I'm telling you right now."

I said I did not care what he was telling me, letting my only "F-bomb" of the night slip. Charles then said this, at the 8:18 timestamp:

"If he cusses at me again, I'm going to take him out myself."

I have that quote on audio. An Italy police officer who had been standing nearby walked over within seconds. His words to Charles and me, at the 8:48 timestamp:

"Just separate from him, okay?"

The officer was Cameron Geddie, one of Italy's patrol officers. He physically stepped between us. I said, out loud on the recording, "Jesus Christ. Alright, I'm out of the room. That's ridiculous." I walked away.

For the record, I want to be precise about what happened. Charles Hyles, fifteen-year president of the Italy Economic Development Corporation, told a journalist he was going to "take him out" if the journalist cursed at him again while pressing him with questions about a municipal project. An Italy police officer responded by physically separating us. I am a public figure in Italy in the sense that I am an investigative journalist who covers the city. I ask direct questions. I publish what I find. I do not threaten. I report. What happened in that lobby was a public official, in a public building, threatening a journalist who was asking basic questions about how a taxpayer-funded municipal construction project was managed.

The threat is on tape. The officer intervention is on tape. Charles's own words are on tape.

The Walking Trail, the Property Dispute, and the Pattern

A few minutes after Officer Geddie separated us, Charles came back over voluntarily to explain the EDC property acquisition. He pulled out his phone to show me an aerial image of the ballpark area. He was visibly nervous, slightly shaking, so much that he had to set the phone down on the counter to steady it. I ended up helping him find the correct location on Google Maps. He told me he was offering me information "out of kindness" as a private citizen, not as a public official, and asked me to turn the recorder off. I declined to turn it off. He proceeded anyway.

Charles then walked me through the history as he remembered it. I want to be careful with how I relay his account, because I cannot independently verify most of it from documents, and parts of it are factually questionable. Here is what Charles told me:

Charles said that in the early 1990s, a man named Mr. Dilworth donated land to the City of Italy for a new baseball field after the old field at the high school was demolished. He said Lloyd Davidson built the new field. He said an old barbed-wire fence marked the property boundary on one side. He said years later a neighbor called Charles to report that part of the baseball field was actually on his property. He said a survey confirmed it. He said the EDC purchased the property for about $16,000 to resolve the boundary issue and keep the field intact.

There is a factual problem with Charles's account right at the beginning. The Upchurch Ballpark in Italy was not donated by a Mr. Dilworth. It was donated by the Upchurch family. The park is named the Upchurch Ballpark. The walking trail at the park is called the Upchurch Walking Trail. Walter Upchurch, for whom the park is named, has a memorial scholarship bearing his name at the local high school. The Upchurch family's donation of the land is documented in the Italy Neotribune archives and in local history. Charles, who has been EDC President for fifteen years and who personally oversaw the 2013 walking trail construction at that same park, confused the donor family with someone else while trying to explain a 2022 EDC property purchase to a journalist on a recording.

I cannot independently verify the rest of what Charles told me about the boundary dispute or the neighbor's call or the survey. Those are Charles's allegations. The only piece that I can independently confirm is that the EDC does now own a property at the south corner of the ballpark, and that the purchase happened in 2022, per public ECAD property records.

There is one more thing Charles told me about that property on the recording that I want readers to sit with. Charles acknowledged, on tape, that the parcel the EDC purchased sits inside a flood plain. That is his own admission, not my characterization. A flood plain designation severely limits what can be built on a piece of land, drives up insurance and compliance costs, and in most cases makes commercial or structural development impractical or impossible. Under Texas Local Government Code Chapter 505, a Type B Economic Development Corporation is supposed to spend its money on projects that promote or develop new or expanded business enterprises and create or retain jobs. The Italy EDC has been sitting on roughly $600,000 in undeployed funds. The Italy EDC also, under Charles Hyles's presidency, spent sales tax dollars to acquire a parcel of land inside a flood plain where nothing of commercial value can realistically be built. Residents should be asking a simple question. What economic benefit does the City of Italy receive from the EDC purchasing a nearly completely unusable property inside a flood plain, and what authorized use of sales tax funds does that purchase represent?

I asked Charles when the walking trail at the ballpark was built. He told me the walking trail was laid on top of an existing asphalt road that had been there since the original field construction. I pointed out to him, on the Google Maps image still sitting between us, that the asphalt road he was describing runs along the north side of the park, not the south side. The walking trail on the south side of the park, the one his own EDC dedicated in 2013, is an entirely new path through ground where no previous road existed. That distinction matters, because if the south-side trail was built on undisturbed land, it would have required a survey and permits to confirm the city owned the ground it was being built on. Charles did not have a direct answer to that. The Italy Neotribune has a story from November 26, 2013 documenting the walking trail dedication. It names Charles Hyles as the person who built the trail, with assistance from his father Jimmy Hyles, his sons Creighton and Case Hyles, and their schoolmate Jose Luna. The article credits the Italy EDC for funding the project.

Then I asked Charles the question I had been building toward.

"Also, question. Why would you be building a walking trail if you don't pull permits, if you don't have a survey, if you don't know where the stuff is? So why would you build a walking trail? So if you would have pulled permits for the walking trail, you would have known about the property issue, would you not? Because the plats and everything would have been examined."

Charles answered:

"They didn't require permits."

I pushed back:

"Why not? That's the story."

Charles said:

"I don't know."

That exchange is at the 17:13 timestamp on my recording. The fifteen-year president of the Italy EDC, responsible for how EDC sales tax funds are spent, admitted on tape that no permits were pulled for the 2013 walking trail project. When I asked him why, his answer was "I don't know."

The boundary issue that cost the EDC $16,000 to resolve in 2022 would have been caught in 2013 if the walking trail work had been done with proper permits and a proper survey. It was not. Charles's words, not mine.

I am bringing up the walking trail because it is a pattern piece. The question in this story is not whether Charles Hyles is a bad person or whether he meant to help the city. The question is whether projects under his control as EDC president followed standard procurement and compliance practices. The 2013 walking trail did not have permits. The 2023 Public Works Building bids were not advertised in the newspaper. In both cases, Charles Hyles has, on audio, personally accepted responsibility for the procedural failures while simultaneously denying his involvement in the broader projects.

What the Records Actually Show

Let me bring this back to the central question. On March 9, 2026, Keith Whitfield read a prepared timeline to the Italy City Council claiming that Shawn Holden "had nothing to do with this whole project" and that Charles Hyles was "not" the project manager. Here is what the city's own records, released by the city itself, show:

Shawn Holden presented the original Public Works Building bid to the council on May 8, 2023 in his dual capacity as City Administrator and Public Works Director. He publicly thanked Charles Hyles for helping him with bids and engineers. This is on the city's own audio recording.
Shawn Holden publicly confirmed on May 8, 2023 that Josh Trees's crew was paid to demolish the old building. He could not, in that public meeting, state the amount paid. This is on the city's own audio recording.
Shawn Holden's resignation letter, dated August 28, 2023, names both his positions as "City Administrator and Public Works Director." The letter is one substantive sentence, with no stated reason for the departure, addressed only to the Mayor, with four days of notice on a dual senior role. The city released this letter to me under a Public Information Act request in March 2025.
Charles Hyles personally admitted responsibility for the Public Works Building bid advertising failure on September 26, 2023, twenty-five days after Shawn Holden's last day at the city. He said "it was my fault" and "I got the bids" and "we went out and got bids." This is on the city's own audio recording.
Italy's then Public Works Director James Wallingsford wrote to City Administrator Keith Whitfield on October 24, 2024 stating that Shawn Holden "without a doubt" received the ADA deficiency notification in January 2023 and "should have had this resolved before any construction began." Wallingsford later forwarded that same email to City Secretary Amber Cunningham twelve days before she prepared the March 9, 2026 timeline Keith read. Wallingsford has since resigned from the Public Works Director role but continues to work for Italy as a public works consultant on contract.
The City of Italy, through its attorney, released the resignation letter and the August 30, 2023 meeting minutes to me in March 2025 in response to a Public Information Act request. The response was CC'd to Amber Cunningham. No other documents were returned. No exceptions were cited.
Charles Hyles, in his own voice, on a recording he acknowledged and consented to on March 9, 2026, admitted helping Shawn with the project: "The only thing that I helped Shawn with, he had a question about..."

All seven of those records were either generated by the City of Italy, released by the City of Italy, or captured inside the City of Italy's own buildings. None of them required me to obtain anything through private channels. The city made these documents available. Amber Cunningham, the City Secretary, was on notice of all of them. Keith Whitfield, the City Administrator, was on notice of at least the Wallingsford email since October 2024.

On March 9, 2026, Keith read a timeline that contradicted every one of those records. The council was told that Shawn "had nothing to do with this whole project" and that Charles was "not" the project manager. Raymond Mosley said "yes, he did" and was ignored. The statement was delivered. The meeting moved on.

What I Already Asked the City

I am not calling anyone names in this article. I am presenting the records and letting them speak for themselves. The readers of this article can judge for themselves whether the statement read at the March 9 meeting is consistent with the documents in the city's own files.

I also want to be clear about something before anyone accuses me of publishing without giving the city a chance to respond. I have already done that. The city's response to my questions is the March 9, 2026 timeline Keith read to the council. That is the on-record answer Italy chose to give. I have quoted it in this article, in full, multiple times. I have shown what it said. I have shown what the records in the city's own files say alongside it. Readers can decide for themselves which one matches reality.

For the record, here is the full outreach trail the city was given before publication:

February 10, 2026: I texted Charles Hyles directly at his official city-business phone number. I told him I was reaching out for comment as a professional courtesy before publishing an article. I asked him for a phone appointment.
February 10, 2026: I sent Charles four questions about EDC matters, including the EDC's acquisition of the baseball field property.
February 11, 2026: I sent Charles a fifth question specifically asking for his comments "as Project Manager of the new public works building, and why the building continues to fail inspections, per Keith Whitfield." This message is in writing. I can produce it.
February 12, 2026: I sent Charles a final February message. I told him I would not contact him again unless he responded. I informed him that any personal commentary he wanted to make about me could go to my attorney, C.J. Grisham.
March 9, 2026: Keith Whitfield read Amber Cunningham's prepared timeline to the council from his usual seat at the City Administrator's desk during his monthly activity report. The timeline claimed Shawn Holden had nothing to do with the project and Charles Hyles was not the project manager. That statement was effectively the city's response to my February questions. It was delivered on the city's terms, at the city's preferred venue, without any direct communication with me.
March 9, 2026: Charles Hyles, in the lobby of City Hall, verbally admitted on my recorder that he had helped Shawn with the project. He then threatened me, and an Italy PD officer physically separated us.
April 5, 2026: I texted Charles one final time, on the day of publication, notifying him that the article was being published today and that he had until 3 PM to respond if he wanted his comments included. He did not reply.

The city of Italy does not owe me a response. The city of Italy owes its residents one. The record shows the city has been given ample, documented opportunities to address the contradictions in this article. Charles chose not to reply. Keith chose to read a prepared timeline at a monthly activity report rather than putting the topic on a future agenda where open public discussion would have been allowed. Amber chose to prepare a timeline that contradicted an email sitting in her own inbox.

The questions I would like the city to address publicly, on the record, at a future council meeting, are these:

Did Amber Cunningham have the October 24, 2024 Wallingsford email in her possession when she prepared the timeline Keith Whitfield read on March 9, 2026? If so, why did she include the statement that Shawn Holden had "nothing to do with this whole project" when the Public Works Director at the time had written that Shawn was "without a doubt" notified of the plan issues in January 2023?
Did Keith Whitfield review the Wallingsford email before reading Amber's timeline to the council? He received it in October 2024. It was in his own inbox for sixteen months.
How does the city reconcile its March 9, 2026 statement with Charles Hyles's September 26, 2023 on-record statement that "It was my fault. I didn't put it in the paper" regarding the Public Works Building bids?
How does the city reconcile its March 9, 2026 statement with Shawn Holden's May 8, 2023 on-record acknowledgment that Charles was helping him with bids and engineers on the project?
Will the city release all other documents responsive to the March 12, 2025 Public Information Act request that were not provided in the March 26, 2025 response? If no such documents exist, is the city's position that there is zero internal written communication about the August 2023 departure of its dual senior executive?
Will Charles Hyles retract the threat and defamatory statements he made on March 9, 2026, on audio, inside Italy City Hall?

I will update this article if and when the city chooses to address these questions in a public meeting. Any formal written response I receive from the city, the Mayor, Keith Whitfield, Amber Cunningham, James Wallingsford, or Charles Hyles will be published in a follow-up article.

What Italy Residents Should Know

If you live in Italy and you are reading this, I want to tell you three things.

First, the Public Works Building is still failing its occupancy inspection. The city has told the council it is preparing to spend more money on wall removal and counter top modifications to bring it into compliance. Those costs will come out of your tax dollars. You have a right to ask where the money is going, who is managing the corrective work, and whether the same people who directed the original project will be directing the repair work.

Second, the March 9, 2026 council meeting is on the public record. The audio is available through a Public Information Act request. The August 30, 2023 minutes and the August 28, 2023 resignation letter are both documents the city has already released and is obligated to release again if asked. You do not need to take my word for any of this. The records are there.

Third, and I want to be clear about this, the point of this article is not to attack individuals. It is to document what the records show and to ask whether the public statement delivered at a council meeting matches those records. When a public official tells the council a specific set of facts on the record, and the city's own files contain a different set of facts, that is a question residents deserve to be asked about. I am asking it.

The Request at the Center of This Story

Everything in this article was built on documents I obtained through the Texas Public Information Act. The resignation letter came from a PIA request. The council audio recordings came from PIA requests. The Wallingsford email came from a supplemental PIA request after I realized the city had not provided it in the original response because I had not named Jim Wallingsford as a document custodian. The meeting minutes came from PIA requests. Every single foundational document in this story is public record that any Italy resident has the right to ask for.

You do not need to be a journalist to file a Public Information Act request. You do not need to have a lawyer. Under Texas Government Code §552.221, any person can submit a request to a governmental body, and the body is required to respond within ten business days or provide a cost estimate. Under §552.267, media representatives are entitled to fee waivers for requests made in the public interest. Under §552.306, the governmental body must notify the Attorney General if it intends to withhold records under any exception.

I paid $41.92 for the 2023 council audio recordings that produced the quotes in this article. That is the entire cost of access to the truth about a project the city has spent an unknown amount of taxpayer money on and is still spending money on.

Everything the city has in its files about Shawn Holden's departure fits in a single email attachment the city's attorney sent me in March 2025. One resignation letter. One set of meeting minutes. That is it. If you want to know why this story matters, start there. The city of Italy has, in its own official response to a records request, told a journalist that this is all it has on the resignation of its dual senior executive. If that is actually true, it is newsworthy. If it is not, it is more newsworthy.

I will continue to report on this story as more records are released. The April 13, 2026 Bicarbus workshop is the next time the council will meet in a public setting. I will be there.

If you have information relevant to the Italy Public Works Building project, the 2023 bid process, Shawn Holden's departure, or the ADA compliance issues, you can reach me at [email protected]. All sources are protected.