Wardlaw's Budget War Rages On

The budget war between the City of San Angelo Development Corporation (COSADC) and councilman Winkie Wardlaw rages on.

In the Sep. 27 City Council meeting, Wardlaw and the Council ordered a trimming of the COSADC budget.  The Development Corporation weighed their options and opted to cut the travel budget from $18,000 down to $10,000 for the year at their meeting on Oct.30.

But councilman Wardlaw wasn’t happy with their selection and put an item on the Council agenda of the Nov. 5 meeting. Wardlaw rationed that they were instructed to cut the budget, but had brought it back with more expenditures. He made made a motion it be remanded back to COSADC.

The motion passed 5-1 with Councilman Silvas opposed and Councilwoman Farmer absent.

Wardlaw was asked by the Mayor to meet with interim Development Coordinator Robert Schneeman to give advice as to where he thought the best cuts could be made.

Schneeman presented Wardlaw’s recommendations to the Development Corporation at the Nov. 13 meeting, which included the items of the partnership with the San Angelo Standard-Times on the 20 under 40, and the Texas Midwest Community Network and High Ground of Texas memberships.

Richard Crisp, the representative appointed by Councilman Wardlaw, began by saying, “City Council agreed that these cuts should be passed in our budget,” referring to the initial time the budget was brought before COSADC. I’m confused. So he’s saying that City Council told the COSADC to make these cuts at the first City Council meeting?

As the appointee from Wardlaw, Crisp was obligated to present the councilman’s view on proposed cuts in the remanded budget, the first being a sponsorship with the Standard-Times for “20 Under 40,” a program which aims to recognize the efforts of the next generation of community leaders.

Schneeman said his part in regards to what he thought about the partnership with the Standard-Times: “We are allowed a certain amount of advertising. We’re listed as presenting sponsor [on all ads pertaining to the program] and get prominent display space.” That helps keep economic development in the minds of the public.

John Bariou Jr. vehemently disagreed with the councilman, “That event has already happened, it was already published, I think we would be irresponsible to retract the funding of that,” he said.

A sentiment echoed by Tommy Hiebert, appointed by councilman Marty Self, whom Hiebert says is very pro-economic development. “It would be more than irresponsible to cut the 20 under 40,” said Hiebert. “That would be cutting the legs out from under the ones who organize the event, individuals to those businesses that have a strong impact on San Angelo.”

President of the COSADC board, Scott Tankersley, added to Hiebert’s statement, mentioning that he already gave a speech denoting the importance of the program.

“Following my presentation, Drew Darby spoke and referenced my comment about keeping young professionals in San Angelo,” Tankersley said, emphasizing the program must be important if a State Representative is interested.

General consensus with the board was that the “20 Under 40” program is worth keeping, and due to the event having occurred already, the corporation felt no need to remove it from the budget.

But Wardlaw wasn’t done. The next proposal involved the Texas Midwest Community Network (TMCN) and the High Ground of Texas memberships.

“The reasoning he gave to me is that we don’t need to spend money on that type of representation and lobbying,” said Crisp, voicing Wardlaw’s concerns, “Drew Darby is doing a good job.”

Schneeman asked the rhetorical question if Wardlaw was aware of the marketing aspects of the memberships.

Pedro Ramirez then spoke up, “I have probably been the most critical of this in the board. I don’t think that we’ve taken full advantages of them as far as bringing something back.”

This statement was specially threaded for John Dugan and the Chamber of Commerce, who represents the City in TMCN and High Ground of Texas.

Tankersley agreed, “You’ve [John Dugan] got to show us something or I will not support this,” he stated. “The marketing aspect of these are huge, these memberships and conventions get us in front of a wider variety of economic opportunities.”

Tankersley explained that there was a reason it was implemented in the first place, “as a consensus group, we [COSADC] voted for it. For that reason I would like to see it stay on there, and emphasize that we do review it in the coming year.”

Hiebert agreed, “we similarly don’t just rely on these efforts for a lobby in Texas, but that is only one facet of what these do for us.”

John Dugan, Vice President of the San Angelo Chamber of Commerce, feels the memberships are important, not just for San Angelo, but the surrounding communities that are advocated for through them.

“TMCN is a marketing tool to network within the groups and be an advocate for those communities,” he said. “Abilene and San Angelo work as a resource for outlying communities.”

Dugan also mentioned that the relationship between San Angelo and the outlying towns is mutually beneficial: “a third of our income is from those communities.”

The idea is that if San Angelo takes care of them, they will continue to come to San Angelo and keep driving the city’s economy.

Aside from those benefits, 22 counties in a regional partnership can speak louder to legislature than one city alone, “We have a much bigger voice through TMCN,” Dugan said.

As far as other marketing and lobbying opportunities go, Dugan says San Angelo is out of luck, “There’s really no other option for that particular organization, for us. It’s whether or not you’re in that partnership as a region or not.”

The board was under a general consensus that John Dugan have a chance to prove the memberships worthwhile, as per return on investment, and decide after a review whether or not to keep the memberships active.

After all the discussion with COSADC, John Bariou Jr. motioned to keep budget as is, “with respect to Mr. Wardlaw’s concerns.”