Whether city council members should travel to economic development conventions at the taxpayers expense seemed to split Mayor Pro Tem Diane Hervol from the rest of her City Council colleagues last night with Ms. Hervol maintaining council members can be valuable members of the team the city sends to meetings in places like Las Vegas and the rest of the council thinking the city’s staff can handle the job just fine on its own.
Mayor Todd Webster, who broached the subject, agreed with council member David Wilson that if the meeting was targeted at convincing one particular business to locate in Kyle, then perhaps an elected official should be part of the city’s delegation. The same is true if the aim of the economic development convention was to attract manufacturing or "office jobs" to the community. But, if it’s all about that retail, as the upcoming one in question seems to be, then not so much.
The question arose because city staff is making arrangements this week to attend a convention in Las Vegas in which a large number of cities will be selling their attractiveness to a large number of retailers. From what I gathered from the conversation at the dias, Ms. Hervol has been to such conventions before and would like to go to this one. The rest of the council thought the city’s staff could handle the job just fine, thank you.
As much as I can reconstruct it, this is how the conversation went:
Mayor Webster: My personal opinion — and this is not to cast any aspersions on council members who have taken these trips — I personally have never been in favor of those kind of trips. I am in favor of training trips, going to TML (Texas Municipal League) or some of those things. But on this one coming up in Las Vegas, it’s my preference that staff attend and not have council members attend. But that’s just my preference. But I’m just one person and it’s up to everybody else to advocate for something else.
Council member Wilson: I’ve been asked a number of times to attend by people, including city managers, and I’ve chosen always not to do it. One because of where it is — Las Vegas. And it’s on the taxpayers’ dime. While I did not fight anyone else who wanted to go of if they were on the committee that was an integral party, I didn’t oppose them. I just always chose not to go just because of appearances. And I chose instead to spend whatever travel money I had on Texas Municipal League and travel related to education where you’re interacting with other council members and professional staff of cities. I’ve gotten quite a lot out of those. I agree with you that it probably should be focused. But what I don’t want to do is stomp out forever being able to do that because there may be an economic development opportunity where it would be advisable for a council member or two to go along with the group that would meet with the company and try to impact them to come to our city. I just want to make that point.
Mayor Webster: First of all a lot of these conferences take place in Las Vegas. So this isn’t about where the conference is at for me. And we’re not talking about huge dollar amounts here either. I just think there’s going to be a strategic opportunity where some of us have a real opportunity to land somebody (to locate in Kyle).
Mayor Pro Tem Hervol: I’ve attended this event and I think it’s beneficial. So did the past mayor and several other council members. Other council members have had the opportunity and declined. If we’re talking about budget concerns, sure, I get it. But I also understand the importance sometimes that staff will have when a mayor or a council member may be present and there to assist the staff in whatever way possible. So I think in some respects it’s very beneficial and we see the fruits of our labor and have seen the fruits of our labor throughout our city several times over not only from the presence of staff attending but also the mayor and some council members attending this particular conference. I think it’s very beneficial to spend our time not only to educate ourselves to be better council members and better public servants, but also to represent this city and the citizens of this city in whatever way possible. Yeah, I understand Las Vegas, but if you’re there for the right reasons it should be fine. Some people could see improprieties in having dinner with a particular developer. But I think it’s beneficial for someone on council to go along with staff. I’ve seen it in the past. I’ve witnessed it and I see the importance of it.
Mayor Webster: This isn’t about any particular council member. (To Ms. Hervol:) I know your efforts there have been good. This is not about any particular trip you have taken. In the conferences you have attended, has every single council member put in the same effort that you’ve put in?
Mayor Pro Tem Hervol: No. But I’m not there to take these things lightly. I’m not there to have fun.
Mayor Webster: Fair enough. That was not a fair question because she has shared some things with me so I apologize for that. Personally, I believe in just sending the city manager and a couple of people from the staff. That’s where I’m at.
Council member Shane Arabie: I would like to re-iterate the comments that council member Wilson brought forward. Everybody’s at this conference is just saying "Come to us." That’s why I think our economic development staff should be the main focus of this upcoming event. Now, we’ve done other trips where we’ve been in a pool of places that developers are looking at, not singularly. And that’s why I think those are beneficial for council members to take to give their input. The developers can get a feel of the council’s opinions and how the city is moving at that point. There’s where I see those trips being beneficial. So I’m not in favor of sending council members to this economic development conference. I believe our economic development staff is better suited for that. But I don’t say we never send any council members period to any of these events. But this event, in itself, is not appropriate for a council member to attend.
Council member Tammy Swaton: I’m going to agree with council member Arabie.
Mayor Webster: Let me make this clear. What I’m hoping to do is take care of this one big conference. In the future — I don’t want to say shift away from retail, but shift more toward manufacturing and different types of job creations. I think there’s going to be other opportunities that might be more targeted and more useful.
And that was basically it.
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