Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Boards And Commissions Personnel topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
Crockett board and council clash over CEIDC hire; board and council take separate actions
Summary
A contested hire by the Crockett Economic and Industrial Development Corporation (CEIDC) prompted debate over bylaws, hiring authority and budget authority; the CEIDC board and the council took different procedural votes and the council later approved payment for services already rendered.
The Crockett Economic and Industrial Development Corporation’s recent office-manager hire triggered extended debate at a joint CEIDC–City Council meeting over who has authority to call meetings, hire staff and approve related budget amendments.
Several speakers questioned whether the CEIDC complied with bylaws and the Texas Open Meetings Act when the hire was posted and approved. Board and city staff gave different accounts: the CEIDC executive director said the board’s bylaws (cited as section 4.06) grant the executive director authority to employ staff "as needed to carry out the programs of the corporation," while others said CEIDC historically adopted portions of the city personnel policy and that large expenditures typically require board and council approval.
The executive director described an assessment and large-scale office reorganization, said he solicited assistance and interviewed applicants with a board member’s help, and defended hiring a candidate he described as "well qualified" to help organize files and implement corrective actions following a forensic audit.
Board members disagreed on the outcome. One board member moved to ratify and retroactively approve the hire and to permit the CEIDC to make budget amendments to fund the position; that motion was recorded as carried at the board level. Subsequently, another board member moved to reject the hiring and instead to pay a current person at an hourly rate; that motion also was recorded as carried. The transcript shows both actions took place in sequence during the joint discussion.
Because the matter involved potential budget commitments, the council then considered whether to authorize payment for services already performed. Council members voted to approve payment for the days worked at the rate noted in the candidate’s application ($31.25 an hour), with payroll/ tax documentation to be issued as appropriate (the board referenced issuing a 1099). Council also announced it would convene to executive session on related CEIDC agenda items.
What was raised in the meeting: questions over who posts and calls CEIDC meetings, whether CEIDC had formally adopted the city’s personnel policy, the scope of executive-director hiring authority in the CEIDC bylaws, whether the hire was budgeted and whether payments for already-rendered services should be approved. The council and CEIDC recorded actions to resolve immediate pay issues but left several governance and procedural questions open for later clarification.
Next steps: the bodies moved into executive session to address personnel and CEIDC agenda items and to clarify outstanding procedural and budget authority questions.
