Uvalde mayor abruptly resigns, citing health concerns, ahead of City Council meeting

AUSTIN, Texas — Uvalde Mayor Cody Smith abruptly resigned from office Monday, citing undisclosed health concerns after having secured the position in November in an election inextricably linked to the 2022 mass shooting at Robb Elementary School.

"I want to thank members of the Uvalde community for their thoughts and prayers during my ongoing recovery from unexpected medical issues I have experienced in recent weeks" Smith said in announcing his immediate resignation Monday.

The resignation comes a day before the Uvalde City Council is scheduled to meet and discuss a matter possibly related to the report about the Robb Elementary School shooting. Last month, former Uvalde Police Chief Daniel Rodriguez abruptly stepped down less than a week after a city-commissioned report absolved department leadership and responding officers of wrongdoing in the 2022 school attack.

Smith previously served as Uvalde’s mayor from 2008 to 2012 and was reelected in a special election in November in which he defeated Kimberly Mata-Rubio, a gun control advocate and mom to Lexi, a 10-year-old who was killed last year in the Robb Elementary School mass shooting — Texas' deadliest school shooting that left 19 students and two teachers dead.

Smith said the city's Mayor Pro-Tem Everardo Zamora will step in as mayor until a new top official is elected in November.

"It has been a great honor to serve the city and community I love, and I have great confidence that Mayor Pro-Tem Everardo Zamora will serve with honor until the next mayor is elected on November 5, 2024," Smith said.

The controversial city-commissioned report contradicted federal investigators' findings that state and local officers' response to the shooting "was a failure that should not have happened." Shooting victims' families slammed the report as "disrespectful" and insulting when it was initially read, and chastised the City Council for failing to reject it at a public meeting several days after its release.

In response to the announcement Monday, Brett Cross, whose son Uziyah "Uzi" Garcia died in the shooting, called Smith's resignation "a bit disheartening."

"I thought Cody was on the right path of starting to communicate with us, and I felt he was actually going to work with us to better Uvalde and to get justice and accountability," Cross posted on X, formerly known as Twitter, on Monday.

This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: Uvalde Mayor Cody Smith resigns ahead of City Council special meeting