COFFEE CITY, Texas (KETK) – The City Council of Coffee City voted to deactivate the Coffee City Police Department and terminate Chief of Police JohnJay Portillo at their meeting on Monday.

The council’s meeting agenda said these were matters to be considered during their executive session of their Monday night meeting. During that executive session they have reportedly gone through with the decision to deactivate their police department and terminate the employment of Chief Portillo.

“We voted to fire and terminate him as the chief of police here at coffee city, effective immediately,” said councilman, Keith Skender.

This decision came after an investigation by a Houston television station detailing Portillo’s past record.

“We had confirmed that the DWI allegation was true, at that point we already made the decision that we were gonna vote to terminate chief Portillo,“ said Coffee City Mayor, Jeff Blackstone.

As for the department’s reserved officer program, which was found to be operating in Houston the city voted to deactivate the entire department.

“Portillo needed to be fired for what he’s done. and the deactivation, I don’t even see why we need a department in this area, “said resident David Busch.

The Henderson County Sheriff’s Department will now cover all calls out of Coffee City until a new chief is appointed.

“The most severe will be the quickest, but we will handle these calls like anywhere else in the county,” said Henderson County Chief Deputy, Kevin Halbert.

Some residents fear that this gray area will take too long and their needs wont be a priority.

“Our surrounding areas are the best and without a police presence, they will encroach on our peaceful, loving community we have here,” said anonymous resident.   

Mayor Blackstone said its time to move on and build better representation.

“Going forward we are going to have a much better community, we are gonna have a new police department that everybody in the community can trust and that is going to be working towards serving our community,” said Blackstone.

Blackstone adds that the reserve program officers are all gone for good.

As far as other active duty officers, they can go work for other departments or reapply when a new chief is established.

Blackstone stated that the decision means the investigation is completely over because of how much time it would take to look into each officer. 

Future application will have extensive background check done.

Portillo reportedly offered a resignation letter but it was declined by the council.

The council also reportedly removed the city’s attorney, Ron Stutes, and appointed his replacement as Robert Davis with Flowers Davis Law Firm. The Henderson County Sheriff’s Office will cover Coffee City for the time being.

KETK will update this story as more information from the meeting is released.