OUR TURN: The time has come for new voices on EDC

There are four of seven seats to fill on the Marble Falls Economic Development Corp. The City Council could approve the appointments by Tuesday.

The job of an EDC board member is not to be taken lightly.

The council must exercise careful judgment by selecting the most forward-looking candidates, applicants who aren’t merely cheerleaders for Marble Falls but understand the city’s magnified role in the greater-Austin area.

The EDC is no garden club or city-beautification group. It is an appointed arm of city government, made up of nonpaid volunteers known as directors. They oversee a 4-B corporation that exercises great power and responsibility by spending millions of dollars each year to attract and encourage economic growth.

This is not play money, and the issues the corporation deals with have a direct impact on the business health of Marble Falls.

Here is what the council should be looking for:

n Applicants who possess a clear and defined policy for economic growth.

n Applicants who support higher education causes, but not at the cost of undermining business development.

n Applicants willing to form partnerships with the council, the Marble Falls/Lake LBJ Chamber of Commerce, the Historic Main Street Association and so on.

n Applicants who believe in open-hiring policies.

n Applicants who support amending the bylaws to allow local business owners living at least 10 miles outside the city to become directors. Or, just open the board to business owners in Marble Falls — period.

The corporation’s mission is to enhance the economic climate of the city so businesses will locate and remain in Marble Falls.

Fed by sales taxes disbursed by the council, the EDC launches or promotes projects that range from funding higher education to signing contracts that allow new businesses to rent property from the EDC.

They also can tackle projects such as a sports complex — mostly anything that improves the city’s business profile.

The corporation also has given the city money at critical junctures, such as when Marble Falls needed financial help extending water and wastewater lines to the site of the new Lake of the Hills Regional Medical Center.

Still, the success of the current EDC board has been mixed. Their contributions have certainly helped bail the city out of a tight spot or two. And the local campuses of Texas Tech University and Central Texas College also have benefited from the EDC’s largesse, including renovations to the Fickett Educational Center and attempts to get a cooking school going.

The EDC also has attracted new businesses to Marble Falls, such as a cosmetology company.

But the board has made some missteps, too. Hiring a special projects coordinator without advertising the position is one example. Employing an administrative aide without a vote and then losing her just months later was another. These actions smacked of small-town provincialism, not the work of a major organization that deals with substantial funding amounts.

Also, a few weeks ago five EDC members abandoned an effort to open membership to business owners in Marble Falls who live 10 miles outside the city limits. That was an extremely shortsighted decision, especially since many Marble Falls’ businesses aren’t owned by residents. Yet, their money is just as green and just as important as any locals’.

And then, of course, there is the controversy surrounding the regional vocational-technical training center in the old candle factory on Colt Circle, which still is in its embryonic stage and won’t take off for another two years or so. As the center took shape, its progress was plagued by unanticipated costs and financial problems with Ronn Motors Co.

The difficulties with Ronn Motors have been resolved, but the yearlong journey to reach the current understanding took a tortuous path that sapped public confidence in the EDC’s leadership.

All of which goes to show the EDC must have the right kind of directors at the helm.

Hopefully, there now is a real chance to add some progressive voices to the EDC, to step beyond the old guard, to find directors whose views match the evolution of Marble Falls, which no longer is a sleepy little vacation town by the lake but a commercial hub with the potential to become a regional economic powerhouse.