GROVES — The absence of councilman Cross Coburn’s portrait on the city of Groves’ website has been noticed but, according to the mayor, is not due to recent controversy.

Mayor Brad Bailey said Coburn, who earned the Ward 1 seat in November 2017, has yet to get his official photograph taken and the issue was noticed by Bailey weeks ago.

The mayor and other councilmembers’ photos are on the site as well as that of the city’s attorney. But the councilmembers, mayor and attorney have been in office for years as opposed to Coburn.

“It’s up to the individual to have their photo taken,” Bailey said.

Coburn has been in the public eye after local media and the city of Groves each received an anonymous folder in the mail showing the openly gay Coburn, 19, clothed and shirtless as well as photos of a male sex organ taken from a dating site called Grindr.

Coburn told The News last week he did not feel he did anything wrong and, according to the mayor and police, he didn’t.

The issue, Bailey said, is that it is unbecoming of a public official regardless of age.

Bailey said he has received over 100 texts and phone calls from concerned people since the story made headlines though not all of them were from Groves citizens.

Groves City Council is set for a regular meeting at 5:30 p.m. Monday at city hall. There is a section of the meeting where the mayor will ask the audience if there are any citizens wishing to make comments. This is standard at every council meeting and sometimes people will come forward to speak such as a recent meeting where flooding and drainage was discussed.

There is also a regular section of the meeting set aside for councilmember comments but not action is taken during this time.