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October 3, 2005.
If there has ever been any doubt about the lack of leadership in the City of Llano, one had only to be at the Monday Morning Council Meeting. The City had their City Attorney drive over from Austin to address two questions. One the difference in Home Rule City and one like Llanos’, A General Law City. This 5th grade question mirrors a City stuck in neutral, and not a clue of where to turn. Also, asking about approvals of a partial budget by the City Council of the Llano Economic Development Corporation was deemed nearly too easy for the City attorney. “There are no provisions in the law” for that.
The real reason this waste of money and time came about is that the Llano
Economic Development Board has been trying to bring business to Llano.
Bring growth to Llano.
This is in direct conflict with the City Fathers. Even according to City Councilman
Carl Shannon in a meeting two weeks ago he stated to a room of about 40 people that
the “City was in very bad shape”.
This is no secret. The Council has tried to use the LEDC as a city slush fund since
the day Mayor Roger Pinckney put himself on the LEDC Board. Being on the board myself
for about 9 months with Mayor Pinckney, and seeing that there would not be anymore
economic development going on, I quietly resigned, telling only a few close friends
about the wrong direction I felt the City was trying to direct the LEDC.
As good luck would have it, Bryant Ratliff as President refused to believe such rubbish from me. He with Dusty Durst, Ken Rostron, Janet Mason, La’nell Scott, and Rick Tisdale stayed the course. Yet with Mayor Pinckney on the Board, conflicts were many, and tempers hot. The last coming when the LEDC agreed to fund a small RV Park in the Robinson City Park, estimated then at about $87,000 in 2003. This was in 2003. As with the City, nothing happened. At the LEDC budget meeting in 2004, the money was kept in the Budget, but in three different recorded meetings, Pinckney said the money would be coming from the Norton Estate. Then last month, the City sent a bill, for the RV Park, to Ratliff. In the meeting the LEDC unanimously told Pinckney the money was not in the 2005-06 budget. Pinckney pulled out the older budget, saying it was budgeted. The Norton money never materialized. In a vote to fund, but with a letter of protest to the City Council the LEDC stated it felt like it was not the right thing to do, but would keep its word.
Now, due to the dog and pony show Monday morning, we all know load and clear a partial budget cannot be accepted by the Council. The budget goes back to the LEDC. Does it matter?
The LEDC has been full steam ahead with an EXPO Center and new arena. Funds,
grants and effort have this project getting close. This LEDC has a plan.
An economic development
plan. The City Council has none. Its’ plan is to use LEDC money for every short-changed
project on the Board at the City Office.
The people of Llano should know that the character and backbone of this LEDC Board
needs to be recognized and supported. The City Council needs to get out of the business
of trying to run the LEDC. Their goals are not the same. They should not be the same.
You would think the City Council and Mayor would have enough to do with repairing
our streets, having water pressure, funding the City Police Department at full strength,
managing the golf course,, or even hiring a city administrator to micro-manage the
operation.
The boondoggle of the Railroad Depot is but one example, and on that one,
too, the LEDC did not back down. Now the Mayor feels like funding for
the $280 square foot
depot can come from other State Revenue sources. After 6 years, you would hope
so.