community service goliad mess 5
DESCRIPTION
ÂTRANSCRIPT
BY JESSICA [email protected]
An Advocate reader com-plained recently that a tacotruck in herneighborhoodwas unsani-tary.
Employeesdump theirdirty dishwaternear her fenceline, fliesswarm themeat, and pa-trons do nothave a place togo to the bath-room, shesaid.
She was con-cerned the Vic-toria CountyHealth Depart-ment wouldn’tvisit placesthat serve foodafter its workday ends at 5 p.m.
This particular truck’s busi-ness picks up late at night aspeople let out from a nearby
III NNN SSS III DDD EEE
Calendar....... A2-3Classifieds.... D1-6Comics.......... G1-4Crossroads........B1Crosswords...... E2Horoscope ....... E4Lottery ............ B1
TONIGHT:
WWW EEE AAA TTT HHH EEE RRR
Complete weather, A8
6682HIGH LOW
TODAY: Movies ............ E3Nation&World . A7Obituaries......... B2Poll results....... A2Puzzles............. E2Sports .............. C1Texas..........A6, A8
To subscribe: 574-1200To report news: 580-NEWS
LOCAL EDITOR: BECKY COOPER, [email protected]; PAGE DESIGNER: PRESENTATION EDITOR, KIMIKO FIEG, [email protected]; COPY EDITOR: JILLIAN KREMER, [email protected]
168TH YEAR NO. 173, 52 PAGES, ©2013, VICTORIA ADVOCATE PUBLISHING CO.
October 27, 2013 From here. For here. Since 1846. VICTORIAADVOCATE.COM
Viewpoints .. H2-3Your Life ......... E1Your Schools .. B4Your Money ... H1Weather .......... A8
CLIP ANDSAVE
MORE THAN
$172.10IN COUPONS, INSIDE
IN MEMORIAM
YEAR-TO-DATE TOTAL:$7,967.22
YOUR LIFE, E1
WATCHDOG
$1.50
Leaders look for way out of economic mess
To hear more from one of Phillips’daughters, go to VictoriaAdvocate.com.
O N L I N E
Taco trucktroubles?County seesthem asrestaurants
BY MELISSA [email protected]
GOLIAD – This small town is strug-gling with a bookkeeping nightmare, alegal battle and little chance of a returnon its investment of a million in tax dol-lars funneled through an uncheckedeconomic development program.
In reaction to a Victoria Advocate in-vestigation, the city has ceased lendingand hired an outside attorney and a fi-nancial consultant to clean up the eco-
nomic development pro-gram, called the Munic-ipal Development Dis-trict.
Adair Sutherland, thelongest-serving mem-ber of the Municipal De-velopment District, saidshe wants to do awaywith the program and
GOLIAD INVESTIGATION
THE BACKGROUNDAn extensive Victoria Advocate investigation revealed a programstarted to promote economic development has instead been riddledwith poor record-keeping, questionable loan practices, missingdocuments and virtually no accountability.Since 2008, the city has issued about $550,000 of public taxpayermoney in loans or grants in the name of economic development.Of the 13 approved loans and grants, six of 10 loans defaulted, twobusinesses closed, and several contracts could be up for legaldispute because of unclear contract terms or unsigned documents.
WATCHDOGJESSICA PRIEST
HAVE A QUES-TION FORWATCHDOG?To submit ques-tions, [email protected] or call361-574-1222.No topic isoff-limits.
SEE WATCHDOG, A8
Officialseuthanizeseized, sickhorseBY BIANCA R. [email protected]
A horse seized from a York-town residence Thursday waseuthanized Saturday after-noon.
After receiving an anony-mous tip, Yorktown officerswent to a home in the 200block of West 2nd Street,where they found two femalehorses that appeared malnour-ished, said Police Chief PaulCampos.
SEE GOLIAD, A5
Sutherland
YORKTOWN
SEE HORSES, A4
EEE SSS SSS AAA YYY CCC OOO NNN TTT EEE SSS TTTWe narrowed down October’s
essay contest to the five bestmemories of people who dealtwith cancer.
Who will win a $100 RegalJewelers gift certificate for thebest essay? You can help an-swer that question.
Go to VictoriaAdvo-cate.com/regal tovote on your favoriteessay. Voting ends Wednes-day.
For November, we want es-says about a military veteranwho has a great story to share.
BY MIKE [email protected]
GOLIAD – Bum Phillips was well known as a footballcoach.
But not so many knew of his love for ice cream.“He ate four Nutty Buddys a day,” said Dee Jean Hurta,
Phillips’ daughter, who lives in Goliad. “I ate a bowl of icecream and thought about him.”
Phillips, who died Oct. 18 at his Goliad County ranch at theage of 90, was remembered at a memorial service attended byabout 200 people Saturday at the Goliad High School audito-rium.
Phillips’ wife, Debbie, and his five daughters attended theservice conducted by David Parks of the Trail Head CowboyChurch.
Phillips was buried in a private service at the family ranchWednesday that daughter Andrea McCarthy, of DrippingSprings, said included a hearse drawn by two white horsesand a 21-gun salute from a Marine Corps color guard fromCorpus Christi.
“He touched lives in ways that you can’t imagine,” Mc-Carthy said.
The service began with a slide show of Phillips’ life accom-panied by the music of Willie Nelson.
Phillips’ commitment to charity, which led his family to startthe Bum Phillips Retreat that included a summer camp fordeaf children at the ranch, was evident.
A sign language interpreter was at the service for
Football icon rememberedat Goliad memorial service
Farewell, Bum
SEE FAREWELL, A4
FFFAAAMMMIIILLLYYYFFFIIIGGGHHHTTTSSSDDDIIIAAABBBEEETTTEEESSS
ADVOCATE PHOTO ILLUSTRATION FROM A PHOTO BY ASSOCIATED PRESS
MASON TRINCA/[email protected] file out of the Goliad High School Auditorium for the Bum Phillips memorial.The memorial drew about 200 attendees from around Goliad and South Texas.
City aimsto clean upMunicipalDevelopmentDistrict
InAugust, our average time for stoppingheartattacks inprogresswas29minutes.Thatmeansfasterheart carewhenyouneed itmost.Visit DeTar.com/heart.
Chest Pain Center Accreditation by the Society of Cardiovascular Patient Care. Comparative data for door-to-balloon times reported on www.hospitalcompare.hhs.gov bythe U.S. Department of Health & Human Services and the U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services for heart attacks requiring angioplasty. Average door-to-balloonfor August 2013. National goal is 90 minutes or less for at least 75% of patients. Additional references can be found through the American College of Cardiology (ACC) andthe American Heart Association (AHA). If you are experiencing a medical emergency, call 911.
29minutes.
VICTORIA ADVOCATE, Sunday, October 27, 2013 — A5VictoriaAdvocate.com
CO VER S T OR YPAGE DESIGNER: KIMIKO FIEG, [email protected]; COPY EDITOR: JILLIANKREMER, [email protected]
return to one with stateoversight.
If Goliad had continued tooperate under state rulesgoverning economic devel-opment corporations, shesaid, “a lot of this would nothave happened.”
InvestigationFormer members of the
Goliad Municipal Develop-ment District said they sawthe problems coming –when the program’s incen-tives focused on proppingup business dead-ends andhelping friends rather thancreating jobs or boostingthe economy.
Newton Warzecha servedon the board during its in-ception in 2008 until the dayhe resigned in 2011.
“I think there’s a lot thathas gone on and has beengoing on that needs to beexposed,” said Warzecha,executive director of thePresidio La Bahia in Goli-ad. “The public, the voterswho elect those city offi-cials, should know aboutit.”
Since the Victoria Advo-cate’s extensive investiga-tion into the developmentdistrict’s lending practicesbegan, Goliad County Dis-trict Attorney MichaelSheppard called in theTexas Rangers to investi-gate those lending prac-tices.
Sheppard said theRangers have “a plan of ac-tion” but did not want to re-lease details about the on-going matter.
Mayor Jay Harvey hassaid he welcomes the in-vestigation. His predeces-sor, former Mayor BillSchaefer, said it is warrant-ed.
“There’s contracts notsigned, contracts missing,money unaccounted for, andall this needs to be account-ed for and taken care ofproperly,” Schaefer said. “Ihope they will answer thepublic’s questions. Rightnow, the public has a lot ofquestions and rightfully so.”
Saw it comingFormer city staff and
board members said theyworried some incentiveshelped friends of otherboard or council members.They cited concerns aboutmembers accepting bribesand kickbacks and being in-volved for personal gain.
Former Economic Devel-opment Director BridgetteBise said the problemsstarted “long before” shewas hired in 2012.
“It bothered me that wehad City Council membersthat owed the city moneyfor businesses that weren’tin existence anymore,”Bise said.
Bise, who also served asMain Street director andpromoted community de-velopment, said she was“disheartened” and “frus-trated” with the economicdevelopment program, thementality of the city and,specifically, the Texoniandevelopment grant andloans given to council mem-bers Vicki Rubio and LionelGarcia.
Rubio was loaned $25,600to open a video store thatwent out of business, andGarcia was loaned $31,128for a laundromat. Garciastopped making paymentson his loan a month afterbeing elected in May 2011.He recently started repay-ing his debt.
“It was a mess,” Bise said.“Loans were given out topeople who did not have theexperience nor the back-ground or references thatwe checked out.”
Bise cited concerns aboutthe development districtand City Council awardinga $122,750 grant in 2012 fora 51-acre commercial andresidential development. Ayear later, the field sitsempty, and the grant mon-ey has not been disbursed.
Roney Powell, a retiredinvestigation sergeant withthe Ohio State Patrol, knewwhat to look for to findfraud.
Powell, who was a boardmember in 2008 and 2009 aswell as a city councilman,said the board took a badturn “when council peoplestarted using the MDD fortheir own benefit.”
His wife, Linda, called it“the perfect storm.”
It made no differencewhether a vote was a goodor bad business decision;the loans always passed,she said.
“I think it started with themajority of the MDD mem-bers never bothering toread their own policies andprocedures,” she said.
The mentality of helpingeach other – rather than be-ing stewards of taxpayermoney – took precedent indecision-making, she said.
Return to EDCErika Bochat, who served
as economic developmentcoordinator before Bise forabout two years, said theprogram was not as profes-sional as it could have been,and the facts back that up,she said.
“Yes, things could havebeen done more prudently,”she said. “City staff and de-cisions could have beenmade much more soundlyby board members and byCity Council.”
The board developed achecklist and its own rulesand regulations, Bochatsaid, “but then small-townpolitics comes into play.”
She said her role was nev-er influential.
She worked with Goliadas the Main Street directorwhen the town convertedits state-regulated Eco-nomic Development Corpo-ration into a Municipal De-velopment District with nostate oversight. The citymanager at the time hopedthe development districtwould bring in more salestax revenue because it ex-tended the taxation bound-aries, she said.
“I believe it met that to asmall degree,” Bochat said.“We don’t have a lot of busi-nesses in Goliad.”
The program adopted amentality of neighborlylove, she said.
“You have to live with
these people. That’s whatmade it complicated,”Bochat said.
Sutherland, the long-serv-ing development districtboard member, agreed.
“If somebody came for-ward with a request, youdon’t turn them down if itwas the only request we’vegot,” she said. “Whensomebody came and want-ed something, how can youturn them down whenthere’s nothing elsearound?”
Lending philosophySince the start of the pro-
gram in 2008, thelongest-serving council-man, Buddy Zavesky, hasbacked it.
During a recent councilmeeting, Zavesky said themembers should have beenmore ethical but later de-fended their history of lend-ing and their philosophy torecouping taxpayers’ in-vestments.
“I want their money, nottheir piece of property,” Za-vesky said. “We’re not inthe real estate business.We’re in the business ofbusiness. ... If somebodyleaves us high and dry, thenwe’ve lost it, just like thebank has.”
Zavesky, a former mayor,said he wants the loans togrow successful business-es.
“We want people to stay intheir business and work,”he said. “I don’t want themto close up or owe money.”
So long as the debtorsstay in town and assure theCity Council they’ll eventu-ally repay, Zavesky said, it’sOK. The program, he said,is about keeping business-es open.
“There’s nothing herethat would make me a dol-lar,” he said. “I wouldn’teven go into the car washbusiness.”
He said the town of 2,000residents cannot competewith Victoria, about 30miles down the road.
“I want to see what we’vegot stay in town and pros-per,” he said. “They’re notgoing to make a million dol-lars at the laundromat, butI want to have things herethat these Goliad peoplecan use.”
Legal issuesMeanwhile, the develop-
ment district continues totry to sort out its books. Af-ter five months of delin-
quent payments, the dis-trict sent a collection letterto the owners of ANS Weld-ing.
The two owners, Alvinand Stephanie Welch, re-ceived a $32,000 low-inter-est and partially forgivableloan in March.
The company said thebusiness would bring moreoil-field industry to townand create jobs for 10 peo-ple within three years.
Instead, the Welches nev-er purchased property intown, and the companynever opened.
The Welches’ attorney,Leslie Werner, refuted theclaims.
“The GMDD ... has en-gaged in extremely ques-tionable and most likely tor-tuous conduct,” Wernerwrote in a response letter,demanding the board mem-bers cease all mention ofthe Welches.
City Administrator Larry
Zermeno refused to com-ment on the issue, citingthe ongoing Texas Rangersinvestigation.
Zermeno served as thecity’s financial officer in2011 and 2012, during whichtime, the city gave out$308,870 in incentives, notincluding the loan for ANSWelding.
The development boardhas hired Victoria attorneyKevin Cullen to represent itin the matter against theWelches.
City Attorney Terry Baia-monte did not return multi-ple messages for comment.
As a board member,Sutherland placed theblame, albeit lightly, on theCity Council for the mess.
“The council – they’re notan educated group,” shesaid. “I don’t like to criticizethe people I work with.”
A new economic develop-ment director, JeremyTurner, who is a former em-ployee of Warzecha’s at thePresidio, started work withthe city last week.
But Sutherland said thatmight not be enough to re-solve Goliad’s issues.
“Having an economic de-velopment person very def-initely helps – if they’re ed-ucated for the job,” shesaid. “We’ll just have to waitand see.”
She says the problem isrooted in due diligence.
“Had we had, throughoutthis, really professionalpeople doing their home-work, a lot of this wouldhave been avoided,” shesaid.
CONTINUED FROM A1
GOLIAD: ‘I think there’s a lot that has gone on and has been going on that needs to be exposed’
WHERE THE MONEY WENT■ $122,750 grant to Texonian Development; the land has not been
developed■ $66,320 partially forgiven loans given to Angels RV Park■ $65,845 loan and grant given to Goliad Funeral Home, which
has been repaid■ $60,000 grant to Best Western■ $51,120 grant to Texas Star Investments■ $50,000 loan to Antlers Inn, which is in good standing■ $32,000 loan to ANS Welding■ $31,128 loan to WL Laundry■ $25,600 loans to Lone Star Video store, which has closed■ $24,000 loan and grant to the Hanging Tree Restaurant■ $19,588 loan to Panache on the Square, which has closed
ANGELI WRIGHT/[email protected] Star Investments was granted money for infrastructure onthis empty lot on Pearl Street in Goliad.