The city of Bastrop is exploring what a regional economic development partners corporation could look like after Bastrop County Precinct 4 Commissioner David Glass proposed the idea.
Glass discussed his push for a regional economic development partners corporation—an organization he believes could help attract new companies and industries to the area and support long-term growth—during a Feb. 12 meeting he sponsored.
The Bastrop County-led initiative would bring together officials from:
- Bastrop
- Bastrop County
- Elgin
- Paige
- Private companies
- Rosanky
- Smithville
- Webberville
Bastrop city staff are preparing to collaborate with officials from these cities on a strategic plan that would guide the formation of a regional economic development partners corporation.
What we know
Although Smithville City Council approved a resolution during a Feb. 23 meeting in support of the creation of the regional economic development partners corporation, the Bastrop City Council and the Bastrop Economic Development Corp. had hesitations after reviewing the resolution and draft bylaws that Glass submitted.
Officials from each raised a variety of concerns, including those about:
- The cost of participation
- The lack of transparency
- The ability for nongovernmental organizations to “buy” a seat on the board
- The lack of a clear return on investment for participants
“We need a strategic plan for ourselves to understand what we’re trying to do so that we can grow here, grow in Smithville and grow in Elgin,” Bastrop Mayor Ishmael Harris said. “If something isn’t going to work in our community, it should be no problem for us to send it another city's way.”
Elgin City Council has yet to vote on the creation of the regional economic development partners corporation, according to city documents.
Zooming in
Bastrop County, a region that spans 896 square miles, is experiencing a majority of its growth in unincorporated areas, according to city documents.
However, Bastrop City Manager Sylvia Carrillo-Trevino told Bastrop City Council that Bastrop County “lacks a clear vision of economic development” in response to the absence of a strategic plan.
Although there was a drafted resolution in support of a strategic plan—which would identify strengths, opportunities, gaps in workforce or education, and the roles of each of the participants—Bastrop City Council unanimously denied the resolution during a March 10 meeting.
“The fact that [an operating budget] amount was identified, without a plan, gave great concern to all of the cities,” Carrillo-Trevino, who has served as the interim director of the Bastrop EDC for more than two years, said of the draft bylaws.
Some context
During a joint Oct. 21 meeting between Bastrop City Council and the Bastrop EDC, officials weighed the future of the voter-approved nonprofit.
However, Bastrop EDC Operations Manager Angela Ryan told Community Impact on March 17 that she is not aware of any further discussions on the matter.
“We just hired Jill Strube from Smithville, and we’ve been brainstorming how we can best assist local businesses as well as other ideas,” she said.
What else?
Bastrop City Council directed Carrillo-Trevino to work with officials from other Bastrop County cities of Elgin, Smithville, Paige, Webberville and Rosanky on a strategic plan of their own.
“I’m 100% in support of you going to have those conversations so that we can really establish what we’re trying to do with this,” Harris told Carrillo-Trevino during the March 10 meeting. “I feel like we’re the heartbeat of Central Texas, and we have to protect that by not letting anyone else come in and tell us how to do it.”
