Bastrop, Tx–A tone of concord set last week during a joint meeting of the Bastrop City Council and the Bastrop Economic Development Corp. board was shattered Sept. 22 as the city council debated a 2010 spending plan for the city’s economic development arm.
At the Sept. 15 meeting, council members indicated they favored a city budget plan which would tap some $200,00 from BEDC sales tax income to support parks operations, thereby freeing other city funds for street repairs and other costs. During the council workshop that night, the BEDC board convened a special session and unanimously approved amending its annual budget proposal to include the added $200,000 transfer to city coffers.
At the time some council members lauded the evident spirit of cooperation between the council and BEDC board to meet long term needs of the city and its residents.
When Mayor Terry Orr called the council meeting to order Sept,. 22, the BEDC budget (as amended Sept,. 15) was on the council’s consent agenda, a list of supposedly uncontroversial proposed actions. But Council Member Julie Hart called for the BEDC item to be set aside for separate discussion.
When the topic came to the floor for consideration, BEDC board president Gary Guiterrez addressed Hart directly. “What’s the debate?” he asked.
As she has done previously, Hart urged a delay in any approval of a
BEDC plan for extending roadways in the Bastrop Business & Industrial Park to make new lots available for potential tenants. Again she suggested the money might better be spent on developing new water sources for the city. She urged the council to “table the issue for a few months.”
Previous discussions of the topic suggest city voters would have to approve diversion of economic development sales tax revenues for water development at an election no earlier than May. No one addressed the industrial park road extension or water development issues during the Sept. 15 workshop when both the city council and BEDC board were present.
Guiterrez argued Tuesday that BEDC could fund both industrial park street extensions and new water wells in the future, if voters approve. “There’s going to be money there” for such projects, Guiterrez told Hart. “You’re just holding us (BEDC) up on doing our job” to attract new employers to the city and encourage business expansions.
Hart said she was “incredibly disappointed” after Guiterrez hinted he might urge the BEDC board to propose a new 2010 spending plan which did not include any funding for city parks operations or planned improvements to Chestnut Street beginning in October.
Council Members Joe Beal and Ken Kesselus called a halt to the debate which was turning acrimonious. “I’m uncomfortable with the way this discussion is moving here,” said Beal as he moved approval of the proposed BEDC budget. Any BEDC move to spend money for industrial park road extensions must come back to the council for final approval, whatever the budget includes, said Beal. “We will see it another time,” he added.
Kesselus said he had been encouraged by a spirit of partnership exhibited during the Sept. 15 council budget workshop and urged proceeding in that vein.
Council Member Kay Garcia McAnally said she has “nothing against” industrial park road extension plans, but she objected to “the way it was presented tonight.”
The council approved the proposed BEDC budget on a 3-2 vote with Hart and McAnally voting against the motion.