City expected to call special mayoral election

La Porte City Council is expected Monday to call a special election this summer to fill the unexpired term of former Mayor Barry Beasley, who resigned May 26.
Beasley, elected mayor in May 2009, said he made the difficult decision to resign due to an unanticipated job change.
It's certainly not anything I had known about a couple years ago when I planned to run," he said. It really bothered me having to resign something I'd been elected to."
Formerly AT&T's director of community and government relations for Harris and Galveston counties, Beasley has taken a similar job with wider responsibility at Air Products, a Houston-based company that sells specialty gases such as oxygen and nitrogen.
In the new post, he will be in charge of local and government relations for Air Products in the western United States.
He is scheduled to start the new position June 28.
Beasley said he will continue to live in La Porte.
Although his new office is in Houston, the work will take him on the road about 60 percent of the time, making it difficult to serve effectively as mayor.
It's not just a matter of making ribbon cuttings," he said. It's a matter of making (City Council) meetings."
Council typically meets on the second and fourth Mondays of each month, with a number of extra workshops before the adoption of the city's annual budget in September.
Beasley, 53, was born in Pasadena and is a 1975 graduate of Pasadena High School.
He was first elected to La Porte City Council in 2002 and served until 2008, when he resigned to run in the Republican primary for Precinct 8 Justice of the Peace. He lost the primary to Holly Williamson, who went on to win the November 2008 election.
The former mayor said he regretted the decision to resign, having been involved in the community for more than 20 years through the La Porte-Bayshore Chamber of Commerce and other groups.
But he said he felt he needed to do it in the interest of his career and family.
It's tough, but it's the sort of thing you have to do," he said. To be able to stay in the area and take care of your parents that's first and foremost."
carol.christian@chron.com