Crockett council to add town-hall item after precinct councilor raises questions about EDC and sales tax

A Precinct 3 councilor told the City Council of Crockett on Aug. 19 that constituents are seeing "a lot of misleading information" about the Crockett Economic Development Corporation (EDC) and the use of a one-half percent sales tax, and asked the city to organize a town-hall meeting to explain how the tax can be used and who would benefit.

The councilor said she had been asked repeatedly by residents and requested that the city manager schedule a town hall for Precinct 3 that could be opened to other precincts. She asked that a representative from an outside economic-development authority—she named an executive she heard as "Carlton Swat"—and a representative from the state comptroller be invited to present neutral information on statutory limits and eligible uses. "There's been a lot of misleading information on social media platforms," the councilor said during her remarks; she asked the council for transparency and clarity.

Council members debated whether the city attorney could present statutory guidance or whether an outside neutral expert would be preferable to avoid any appearance of campaigning for or against a citizen-initiated ballot matter. Council then took a formal motion to place an open town-hall item on a future agenda; a colleague seconded the motion and a voice vote carried. Mayor/Chair confirmed the item will appear on the next council meeting agenda.

What happens next: the agenda item will return to a future council meeting for discussion about format, invited presenters and whether the session should be strictly informational. The motion carried by voice vote; no formal direction to staff beyond adding the town-hall item was recorded in the available transcript.