42 Constituents Attend Lively Town Hall Meeting with Councilwoman Grindstaff

Councilwoman Elizabeth Grindstaff held her first town hall meeting Tuesday evening at St. Paul Presbyterian fellowship hall at Park and Harris Street. She wants these community meetings to be a conversation with constituents to find out their wants and desires for city government and city services. Carl White, a resident in her district, and also the City Parks & Recreation Director, and Upper Colorado River Authority staff hydrologist Chuck Brown, another district resident, were in the audience.

When the questions entered White’s or Brown’s level of expertise, Grindstaff gave them the floor.

In the give-and-take, facilitator Tommy Darwin cut off questions about the trash issue, explaining that the issue is so volatile right now that it can consume the entire meeting. But before that, Grindstaff explained her votes against the now-approved contract with Republic Services. She repeated her concern that approving the contract before reconciling the complaints about Republic’s alleged overcharging of commercial dumpster customers removed most of the leverage that the city has to rectify the problem.

Chuck Brown gave a summary of the current status of the Red Arroyo storm water runoff project, explaining that there are two schools of thought on the amount of water that can be collected and reused. His team’s estimates are that the Red Arroyo project could collect as much as 5,000 acre-feet, or about a third of San Angelo’s annual water supply. Another study has a lower estimate of 3,000 acre-feet. Describing the revenue opportunities of reusing captured storm water runoff in captured in deep ponds to be built by the project was a “no-brainer” Brown said.  (Opponents point to the $22 million price tag and say it’s not worth the risk.) The city is currently studying the Red Arroyo project.

Carl White, a former mechanized infantry officer in the U.S. Army, explained the intricacies of city lawn mower deployments around the district’s park areas.

Grindstaff thoughtfully considered all questions, and provided answers when she knew them. And she admitted it when she didn’t know the answer. Questions ranged from the city lawmowers to national politics ("Have you heard the feds are building a detention center at the former Howard Collge location?").

The meeting gave San Angelo's newest council member a forum to express her opinions about building and sustaining the community. Grindstaff described her vision for downtown development. She's in favor of the city's decision to fund a master developer and to develop the Edgewater of the Concho River area between Chadbourne and Irving Streets downtown. Grindstaff opined that San Angelo's generally unique representation organization, or separate single member districts, created more of a tribal, segmented "my district first" mentality in city government. She said she wants to work with other council members to help solve citywide problems, even if those problems or projects don't directly impact her district.

Forty-two people and one dog attended the town hall that lasted about two hours. Darwin asked those in attendance to take notes and write down ideas and suggestions from the meeting on index cards provided, and collected them after the meeting for Grindstaff’s followup.

Grindstaff said she will make the event a regularly-scheduled meeting at different locations throughout Single Member District 5, which is generally the Santa Rita area of town.