City Council members voted unanimously Tuesday evening to reinstate unsuccessful council candidate Jessy T. Garza to the seat he held on the Beeville Economic Improvement Corporation until May 13 when he was replaced.
Almost every seat in the council chamber at City Hall was filled when the council opened its meeting at 5:30 p.m. and many of those in the audience were there to support Garza.
Councilmen had voted 3-2 to replace Garza with downtown businessman Gilbert Herrera at its May 13 meeting with some of the same people in the audience this week expressing their dissatisfaction. At that meeting newly elected Mayor Pro Tem John Fulghum made a motion to fill three of the expiring seats on the EIC board with Herrera, himself and incumbent board member Bill Shroyer. Although there were four expiring slots to fill at that meeting, the Bee County Commissioners Court had not yet nominated someone for the slot held by Commissioner Carlos Salazar.
That motion was seconded and Mayor Kenneth Chesshir and newly elected Councilman David Carabajal voted for Fulghum’s motion, leaving Councilmen Mike Scotten and newly-elected Councilman Jimbo Martinez stunned. Both men voted against the motion.
The action immediately sparked public comments and the councilmen who voted to replace Garza with Herrera were accused of political retaliation. Garza had run against Fulghum in the May 10 council election in Ward 3 and Carabajal had defeated incumbent Councilman Gerald Arismendez. Arismendez had appointed Garza to the EIC board a year ago after questioning the way the corporation was recommending how the city’s 4B sales tax for economic development was to be budgeted and spent.
Garza, a retired Exxon executive with degrees from St. Mary’s University in San Antonio and Harvard Business School, had studied the 4B sales tax legislation and he agreed with Arismendez on how the EIC board should function. When Garza took his seat on the board last year, EIC Board President Jim Crumrine immediately instituted changes in the way the board operated.
Crumrine and Garza agreed last week that the changes, which include applications for EIC funds and a vetting process, is the legal and correct way for the board to handle its recommendations of how the $600,000-$800,000 in annual 4B sales tax revenues should be spent. The City Council makes the final decisions of how the money should be spent, using the EIC board’s recommendations as its guide.
Several of Garza’s supporters spoke at the meeting, including Dick Beasley, who read a statement prepared by his brother, attorney Tom Beasley.
Others who spoke were attorney Tom Healey and Realtor Sara Jane Dunn. Chesshir tried to cut the comments short, though, saying he was certain the City Council was determined to rescind its action of May 13 and reinstate Garza to the board. He then polled the council and each of the four other men at the table said they were in favor of putting Garza back on the board.
City Manager Ford Patton read a brief statement from Herrera, saying that because of his schedule he would be unable to accept the EIC board position. Carabajal, who had asked for the item to be placed on the agenda, made the motion to reappoint all three who previously had held board positions. That included Fulghum, Shroyer and Garza.
Patton announced that the county commissioners had since nominated Salazar for another term on the board and said the council could fill all four expiring terms by electing the commissioner.
Fulghum seconded the motion and it passed without opposition.
Chesshir commented briefly, saying that when he was first elected to the City Council 15 years ago, “I made two promises. One was that I would do my best to represent the people in my ward and the other was to admit when I was wrong.” He then said he had been wrong in the decision to replace Garza.
But he defended that decision, saying that before the May 13 meeting he had heard from a number of citizens of the city who had wanted Garza replaced.
“I didn’t hear a word from the other side,” he said. “I did what I did not out of politics or anger but because I was asked.”
Post a Comment