Beeville City Council members voted to keep Jody Alaniz, Jessy T. Garza and Bill Shroyer on the Beeville Economic Improvement board of directors when they completely reorganized the seven-member board Tuesday.

Alaniz, who is the current president of that board, and the other two directors will serve two-year terms, which will expire in on May 31, 2011.

Council members then named business owners Dave Moore, Brenda Treviño, Leticia Muñoz and banker Mike Marshall to serve terms which will expire in 2010.

“The Economic Improvement Corporation is in a position to be a major economic development catalyst to this community,” Garza said before the council made its appointments.

He asked that council members appoint people who could invest at least 10 hours into the effort of serving on the board.

“We want to bring new faces, new ideas to this board,” Garza continued.

He then told the council that “this county has the highest unemployment rate” in the Coastal Bend area of the state.

Alaniz, who was also at the meeting, agreed with Garza.

The board was reminded that the EIC bylaws had been rewritten regarding the makeup of the board in an effort to assure that people making the decisions would not represent the interests of some of the recipients of the city’s 4B tax money.

The board makes recommendations to the City Council on applications for 4B tax funds. The funds come from a half-cent sales tax and state law requires that the money be used for economic development purposes, including assisting new and existing businesses in hiring or retaining employees and making quality of life improvements.

City Council members then act on the recommendations of the EIC board members, making the decisions final. The council may accept or deny those recommendations.

Board members were told that two of the former voting members of the board, recent City Manager Ford Patton and former board president Jim Crumrine, who was a member of the Beeville Water Supply District’s board, had resigned.

The reorganization also meant that two elected officials who had previously served on the board, County Commissioner Carlos Salazar Jr. and City Councilman John Fulghum, were to be replaced.

Only three of the five council members were there to vote on the appointments. Councilman David Carabajal was unable to attend Tuesday’s session and Fulghum had to leave early.

Beeville’s new city manager, Tom Ginter, will serve the board in an advisory capacity and will not be a voting member.