Most are understandable and attainable measures to improve the quality of life here.
But then there’s No. 2.
Goal two is to promote economic development in the community by hiring an economic development director for the city and establishing an economic development advisory committee.
We already have that – it’s called the Bee Development Authority board, with members appointed by the city, county and college.
Joe Montez, former city manager, has served as BDA’s executive director since August 2002, so he’s hardly an unknown quantity in this community.
Sure, some will grouse that the BDA has not done enough and only is concerned with locating businesses and jobs to the former NAS Chase Field, the abandoned Navy base southeast of the city.
But that’s simply not true. The BDA has helped locate businesses to the former industrial park and elsewhere around the community, including the Walmart Supercenter and Ranch Hand.
One of the major concerns in this city has always been about power struggles and turf wars. Rather than working together and cooperating, it seems there has always been someone fighting to seize control and take credit for the successes.
After the recent complaints we’ve heard about the parks improvement project, RV park fiasco,the fire marshal, Chamber of Commerce funding and water system issues, it would make sense for city leaders to be cautious and not go creating conflicts that could be avoided.
Please don’t misconstrue our message here. We wish the new city manager well as she helps lead the city in the future.
We simply don’t need a duplication of services in a small city. We don’t need two economic development committees. We don’t need two chambers of commerce. We don’t need to waste money and efforts on forming and staffing organizations that already have been long established.
The city clearly has more than it can say grace over already. Why not try to fix that with which it’s already tasked before expanding into redundancies of services?
– Chip Latcham
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