MUCKRAKING
The bickering among some members of the Taylor City Council needs to stop.
The name calling, finger-pointing, accusations, social-media diatribes and caustic comments on and off the dais just aren’t a good look for a city now in the international spotlight as a growing hub for high-tech industries. Taylor’s prominence is rising thanks to a decision by Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. to build a multibilliondollar semiconductor foundry on the city’s southwest border.
Samsung is here in part due to federal initiatives to ensure China and other potential aggressor nations do not gain the upper hand in the manufacture of semiconductors, which are used in many of the devices modern society relies upon.
Related industries have followed Samsung. Because of that, Taylor frequently is featured in stories and broadcasts across the globe.
In just the space of a few short years, Taylor has gone from a primarily agrarian and commute-to-my-Austin- job community to a key participant in what could be shaping up as a new Cold War.
These burgeoning multinational businesses locating to the Backland Prairie bring with them new workers, new cultures and new lifestyles, as well as political leaders, dignitaries, scientists and scores of other savvy globetrotting visitors and residents.
To deal with and adapt to these rapid changes, Taylor’s leaders must learn to get along and project an air of camaraderie, civility and even sophistication.
The conduct exhibited lately by some of the city’s fathers seems more like a schoolyard brawl.
In addition, Taylor residents did not elect council members to snipe at each other but to govern and manage their beloved city in the face of these fastpaced developments and the challenges these head-spinning changes present.
On a positive note, city leaders are mulling updates to a 14-year-old code of conduct to keep abreast of the times and the demands often placed upon them. It is not easy to govern a growing city, and the council members — like the rest of us — are only human, with lives and jobs outside of City Hall that also require their attention.
To his credit, Mayor Dwayne Ariola recently offered an olive branch during a frank, contentious council discussion about slights and perceived slights, though not everyone saw the gesture as sincere.
The five council members are now players upon the world stage.
They must conduct themselves accordingly so that Taylor shines to the rest of the planet as an example of leadership, cooperation, fellowship and
accountability.
Edwards is the vice president of content for Granite Media Partners Inc., which owns the Taylor Press. He can be reached at thomas. edwards@granitemediapartners. com. Letters to the editor are encouraged, but staff reserves the right to edit for length, taste and grammar.
