quote:
Can someone break down the situation between Councilman Southerland, Traditions, and the City of Bryan?
It sounds like he is accusing the city of misappropriating funds into Traditions but all requested documents have shown otherwise.
Just seems like an odd fight to pick and I'm not understanding situation.
Maybe not misappropriating funds, just CoB maybe being obfuscate in their description of costs. Has Traditions generated any $$ for CoB
directly? Nope, it's all going to retire development debt and related costs...which should be a $$ figure readily reported, versus "some of the cost is buried in old files not readily available, so just trust us..."
So the "requested documents" have not been seen, just what the city has chosen to discuss.
Indirectly, Traditions has certainly spurred development in the area, but the benefit value will vary, depending on who is doing the talking, and the geography involved.
Meanwhile, ANY city services provided to Traditions comes from Bryan's General Funds (non-Traditions taxpayers).
The water usage for more than a decade (until recently, primarily potable water, even during a drought...millions of gallons) has been dismissed as "dwelling in the past...", but when Traditions was proposed, potable water use was to be the backup...nice selling point, just untrue.
Incentives when not needed, bailouts for defaults, delayed (or cancelled) developments...all have made Traditions a heavier tax burden than originally planned/proposed.
Maybe Southerland is trying to advocate "
"
Those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it."....but lacks some style points in trying to accomplish same