EDITORIAL: City, county leaders owe it to taxpayers to fully discuss loans for hard-hit businesses
My friend brought this to my attention since I was at the meeting on Tuesday. I'm ashamed to admit that it went right over my head.
When I look back at the minutes, it's in there. I didn't fully understand what it was. All the more reason to have representation at the 3:00 pm meeting and to do research ahead of time. I didn't even clue into what this was.
They approved the entire consent agenda in one vote - BUT, they excepted 585 (this item). They did a separate vote on item 585. I noticed that Bush abstained (and had an odd look on his face) and there were glances around the council. There was NO discussion about it, as there usually isn't in the executive session. My head was still spinning looking through what they did with one vote.
I need to pay more attention to my intuition. There were four men who seemed to not "belong" at the meeting and I wondered who they were. They sat behind me. Larry Groth spoke with a couple of them before the meeting and came down after the meeting and shook hands with all of them. I try not to overhear conversations, but I heard one guy introduce another saying, "This is [name]. He's our [job]." I didn't take note of the name and job, but I would bet they were from FreeFlight.
Did citizens really ever have a chance to say anything about this? It was on the agenda the night before. (NOTE: Need to find out when the agenda is published.) They do not allow public comments at their work session and there was no invitation to comment at the executive session. It seems that it was submitted to the council, discussed at the work session, and approved in the executive session all in one day. Staff had been working it for a long time, I suppose, but what they are working on is not made public.
NOTE: I need to learn more about the Waco-McLennan County Economic Development Corp. Where does the money come from? What is it REALLY intended for?)
Thursday, October 22, 2009
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I can't tell if Waco-McLennan County Economic Development Corporation is the same as City of Waco Economic Development Corporation.
ReplyDeleteI found this: http://www.wacodevelopment.com/
'Waco-McLennan County Economic Development Corporation This corporation uses County and City funds to assist companies in the facilitation of capital investment and job creation for the Waco/McLennan County area.'
Looks like they are streaching their stated objective. Might be interesting to find out who is on the board of directors.
Here's an article about this issue that appeared in the Trib 2 days before the editorial:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.wacotrib.com/news/content/news/stories/2009/10/20/10202009wacfreeflight.html
In your opening post, you say the local media doesn't cover this stuff effectively enough. But no offense, you don't seem to be aware of the coverage that's out there.
I like the idea of your blog -- more detailed coverage, from the average citizen's perspective. But so far ...
I apologize for my shortcomings as a journalist (which I don't claim to be). I wasn't seeing the coverage in the paper. My friends weren't seeing it. If this is being covered, the local media is doing a poor job at getting the word out.
ReplyDeleteI've only been to two City Council meetings. This is new for me. Any kind of political activism is new to me. As I learn how things work, I'll get better at this. Just watch and see.