Brownwood/San Angelo: A Tale of Two Cities with Two Different Mayor Mindsets !

New firm coming to San Angelo, despite lack of incentives package
By Paul A. Anthony / San Angelo Standard-Times
January 25, 2007

SAN ANGELO - Account Control Technologies will be coming to San Angelo, even though the City Council rejected a $750,000 incentive package for the debt-collection company Tuesday.
ACT executives decided Wednesday they would expand their company into San Angelo anyway, with an expected opening by March 1.
''What sells us here on San Angelo are the people,'' said ACT co-founder and CEO Dale Van Dellen. ''Not the City Council members, not the mayor, but the people.''
Account Control Technologies - which will compete directly with another San Angelo call center for contracts and employees - plans to start with about 25 employees and expand to 50 within a year.
Abilene and Wichita Falls offered incentive packages to the company, but President Don Taylor said San Angelo presented a better work force from which to recruit employees.
The council on Tuesday rejected on a 3-3 vote an incentive package that would have given ACT up to $750,000 if it created 150 jobs.
Debate over the issue exposed rifts between the council and the City of San Angelo Development Corp., which administers a half-cent sales tax for economic development, and between two of the city's top officials.
A pair of council members criticized the COSADC process, arguing they should have been better informed about the package before reading about the development corporation's Dec. 13 vote in the newspaper.
At its meeting Wednesday, several COSADC members responded to the council's criticism, including former Councilman Kenneth McNease, who asked whether customary e-mails and memos were sent out before the COSADC vote.
When McNease was told they were, he responded, ''This business, I don't get it. If you send them written communication, it's no one else's fault but theirs if they're not informed.''
The COSADC board agreed to a March 6 joint meeting with the council to discuss, among other items, the philosophical rift between Board President Matt Lewis and Mayor J.W. Lown, who has steadfastly opposed cash-based corporate incentive packages.
By opposing such job-creation packages, Lewis said, Lown opposes the potential influx of income that could help fund city improvements.
''If he doesn't change his views, then I think voters need a choice in May,'' when Lown runs for re-election, Lewis said, ''and I'd hope that choice would care more about keeping the promises made to the voters.''
Lown said growth should not come through government sponsorship of competition for established businesses.
''If a company wants to come here, they're certainly welcome,'' Lown said. As for cash-based incentive packages, however, ''We have no business getting involved with that.''

source: http://www.reporter-news.com/abil/nw_business/article/0,1874,ABIL_7948_5303370,00.html
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Tuesday January 23, 2007

Mayor paints optimistic picture

By Gene Deason — Brownwood Bulletin

The Brownwood community today is in the best shape it’s been in his lifetime, Mayor Bert Massey told members of the Brownwood Area Chamber of Commerce Friday.
“I see nothing but optimism for the future, too,” Massey said during the program of this month’s chamber membership luncheon. “It will not be overpowering, but it will be steady and it will be manageable.”
The mayor said Brownwood serves as not only an employment center for the region, but also a retail center for a multi-county area.
“The Brownwood Area Chamber is an integral part of this progress,” he added. “We have a great relationship.”
Massey said the city leaders have made numerous decisions for the betterment of Brownwood in past years, and listed services the City of Brownwood provides its citizens. He included often overlooked basics like water distribution; collection and disposal of trash; collection, treatment and disposal of waste water; street maintenance; police and fire protection; parks; community centers; and recreational facilities.
“I grew up in Brownwood, and didn’t know everything the city did until I got on the city council,” Massey said.
Massey said the city has spent $15 million in three phases to build its sewage treatment facility, and is guaranteeing the bonds obtained by the Brown County Water Improvement District No. 1 to build a new fresh water treatment facility and renovate an existing 20-year filtration plant.
The city also installed a 1 million gallon water storage tank costing $1.2 million in the southside of the city, and is continuing to replace aging water lines throughout the city, some that have been in the ground since the 1930s. Recent projects have been along Second, Third, Eighth, Eight and a Half, Avenue B, Avenue E and the Brady Highway.
“This is an old town, and infrastructure ages,” Massey said. “The City of Brownwood has spent $10 million in the last five years on water lines.”
The next water line project will run from Melwood into the the downtown area — lines he described as the oldest in the city.
“The municipal landfill is a highly valuable economic asset,” Massey said. “Brownwood is one of a very few communities our size that still has a landfill open.”
The mayor said while some may question how well the streets are maintained, every major thoroughfare in Brownwood has been reworked with the assistance of the Texas Department of Transportation.
“And we are getting to the other city streets as quickly as we can,” Massey said. “It costs $1 million a mile for state highways, and the cost for a city street is not much less.”
He described Brownwood Regional Airport as a first-class facility, and said the city continues to work at finding a commuter carrier to handle passengers on a Brownwood to Dallas-Fort Worth route.
The city also provides buildings for use by the Brownwood Center of Texas State Technical College-West Texas, which cooperates with Howard Payne University and offers technical education for students and training and retraining for area employees.
“The city is responsible for TSTC being here,” Massey said.
The Brownwood Economic Development Corporation operates as an arm of the city and administers proceeds from the half-cent economic development sales tax. He praised the cooperation and working relationship the city has with the Brownwood Area Chamber and its Industrial Foundation.
Retail development continues in Brownwood, as well, and Massey conceded that means a firm competing with existing retailers will locate here as a result.
“In order to get the known names in retail, incentives are required,” he said. “You’ve got to go out and recruit. We’ve got to work to get them here. But we are on the radar screens for the first time of major retailers that might come to our community.”

source: http://www.brownwoodbulletin.com/articles/2007/01/21/news/news03.txt
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Note from Steve Harris, I'm in the camp of San Angelo Mayor Lown. I've been saying the same thing for years in Brownwood, but Brownwood touts itself as moral and conservative and yet feels like it has to pay folks (Corporate Welfare) to move here. When will Brownwood's Mayor start speaking to the massive issues facing our community like Drugs and Crime ? Brownwood's Mayor appears to be painting a picture of "Utopia". I invite everyone reading this to load up your car, bus, plane and come for a visit to Brownwood (when were not expecting you with a big "Feels Like Home" Celebration and see for yourself what is going on in Brownwood. Let's call it a windshield tour ! Spend the day on a selfguided drive around our community. Witness for yourself the good, the bad and the ugly ! As a native of Brownwood Texas, I fondly recall the days when a towns name was all that was needed ( no cute slogans ! ) as its promotion ! Reminds me of the man who has to constantly remind everyone how rich he is. In my world, you'll never really know who the Wealthy man is. Huge difference in being Rich and Wealthy: Brownwood has a Rich History !