This story was updated at 11:59 a.m. Oct. 21, 2025
A member of the Princeton City Council is circulating a recall petition to remove two other councilmembers from the panel.
Councilmember Terrance Johnson announced the drive in online posts, saying on Thursday, Oct. 9, “Our city has reached a point where we can’t afford to wait another year [until the next regular election] for change.”
Johnson, elected last November to Place 1 on the seven-member council, is collecting signatures for the recall of Place 6 Councilmember Ben Long and Place 7 Councilmember Carolyn David-Graves. Both were elected in the Nov. 7, 2023, election.
Johnson cited four reasons for his petition including “loss of public confidence, broken trust between the council member and voter, a sense that the official no longer represents the will of the community.”
Long responded by saying, “My response to this recall is I intend to keep doing what I’ve been doing.”
Commenting before the Tuesday, Oct. 14, council meeting, Long said, “I was elected to be a moral and ethical vote on council that represents conservative values here in Princeton. I’m going to continue to build Princeton in a positive manner to launch us into the long-term future so we can be successful, and I’m going to do that through building and uplifting and not wanting to tear things down.”
David-Graves has not commented on the petition.
In announcing the petition, Johnson said Long had refused to engage with the community.
“I encourage everybody to please reach out to me,” Long said. “I just met with a citizen last night for over an hour at the park to discuss my positions, their concerns, and I’m willing to do that for anybody, and I encourage it, because that drives civic engagement, and that’s what I’m about.”
Long continued, “We’ve made a lot of strides here over the past two years. And you know, with even with all these positive improvements that we’ve made, there’s still this desire to bring such negative attention and that’s not my desire. My desire is to fix the problems, build positively [and] grow in the right direction.”
Johnson had said that David-Graves’ meetings with city staff may have violated the Texas Open Meetings Act. Other online posts referred to what is commonly called a “walking quorum,” a term from a 2005 opinion by the attorney general.
That opinion led the 86th Legislature to pass Senate Bill 1640 in 2019, amending Section 551.143 of the Government Code. It prohibits discussion of an issue — outside of a meeting — by enough elected members that would constitute a quorum once they later met publicly to consider the issue.
The recall petition is authorized under Section 12 of the Princeton City Charter. It outlines a detailed, citizen-driven process for recalling elected officials, including the mayor and city council members. Princeton adopted the charter in November 2022 after approval by voters following four unsuccessful attempts dating back to 2007.
The charter says a citizen may initiate the removal of an official by filing a petition signed by at least 400 qualified voters living in the city or 25% of the number of voters casting ballots in the most recent regular city election – whichever is greater.
Johnson said 6,304 votes were cast in the November 2024 election for mayor, so at least 1,576 registered Princeton voters would need to sign for a recall election to move forward.
“That might sound like a tall order, but it’s also a chance for our community to come together and be heard,” Johnson said.
The Princeton charter specifies all papers forming a recall petition must be filed together with the city secretary, who has 30 days to determine its sufficiency.
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By Bob Wieland | [email protected]
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