HUTTO – Cheney Gamboa, assistant director of economic development, brought bad news to council June 15, the Hutto Economic Development Corp. did not approve an amended agreement for Project ESLO.
On June 1, Gamboa brought an agreement to council from the EDC to approve. After long discussion, council voted to approve the agreement with a few changes. The agreement went back to the EDC for final signatures.
Changes included a moratorium on nail salons, general dentistry offices and drive-through windows; a clause prohibiting food truck sales tax from counting toward the development’s performance goals; and a term change on the sales tax rebate agreement that would allow the city to see some benefit from taxes collected.
“The EDC did not ratify the agreement at their meeting on Monday, but they did approve an agreement on May 8 that you still do have the ability to approve if you choose,” Gamboa told the council.
That would mean agreeing to the original agreement as presented and giving up all the compromises they had requested the EDC to make.
The city’s legal advisor warned council that they could not vote on reconsidering the May 8 agreement at that time because the change was not on the agenda for consideration.
At the June 1 meeting, Mayor Mike Snyder argued vigorously against the agreement as presented, and voted against it even with the changes recommended by council. He wanted more guarantees on the project execution, which could be accomplished through having details listed in a Public Improvement District funding agreement.
“If we’re paying for a look, then that look in my opinion needs to be part of the agreement. Otherwise you can’t guarantee you’ll get the look. I think if we do that it’s a protection for the city,” Snyder said.
The mayor pointed out that larger developments had details guaranteed by a PID and it makes sense to apply the same protocol to every developer agreement.
“I’d probably still vote no if it was dealing with that much money because I don’t like giving more than 50%, but I wouldn’t have a lot of arguments on anything other than the financial because I wouldn’t be worried about getting sued and I wouldn’t worry about all the other bad things that can happen.”
Council member Randal Clark was concerned about the message it was sending when the EDC doesn’t sign council’s agreements.
“We signed it as a council. The developer signed it. Then we sent back to EDC a better deal than what they sent us and then that board did not approve it. That is a problem. Because the precedent is, what happens the next time there’s another agreement the EDC brings that they think is good and they pass and expect us to sign?,” Clark said.
“We as a body are elected people that answer to the voters.”
