Crockett Council Considers Consequences
By Greg Ritchie
Messenger Reporter
CROCKETT – Crockett City Council is set to meet Monday, Sept. 16, to handle city business and discuss and possibly take action on the matter of Woodrow Jones, recently reported to be hired as Crockett Economic and Industrial Development Corporation (CEIDC) Office Manager.
The council will vote to receive financial assistance through the Texas Water Development Board. The Messenger recently learned the city has been approved a historical amount of grant money. Crockett is set to receive over $8.3 million of grant funds and 0% interest financing for over $3 million of the loan portion of the projects.
The city plans to use the funds to make improvements to the city’s sanitary sewer system, including the planning, development and construction of improvements to the North Wastewater Treatment plant and sanitary sewer system facilities. The funds are also set to go towards the planning, development and construction of a new water well, transmission main, and treatment facilities.
On the agenda, the council will discuss Jones’ recent employment at CEIDC, to either ratify or reject his employment. As reported recently in The Messenger, Jones was hired under unusual circumstances, with no public posting of the position able to be found, reportedly only one candidate interviewed for the job and the position never coming up for any kind of discussion, approval or budgeting.
Council will need to decide what the fate of the new position will be, before heading into what should promise to be an interesting executive session. Executive sessions are used by public bodies to discuss and debate topics such as legal and personnel matters, which cannot be discussed in open.
The agenda for the meeting states the council will “consider the actions of CEIDC Executive Director regarding recent employment and financial matters and take necessary disciplinary actions, if any.”
The Messenger is still investigating this bizarre turn of events and should have more in-depth coverage in our Thursday newspaper.
Greg Ritchie can be reached at [email protected]
