Nixon council establishes parameters for new Tourism Board

The Nixon City Council voted Monday, June 5 to establish the terms and requirements for the new Tourism and Development Board and approved the leadership of that advisory board as well.

However, the council voted not to change the name of the board to the Municipal Development District on the advice of City Attorney Eddie Escobedo due to the ramifications such a move could have on the city’s budget.

Monday’s meeting saw the swearing in of new City Council members Patsy Vigil Scherrer and Melissa Mendez Pompa, both of whom took their seats on the council dias and participated in the decision-making process. It also saw appreciation plaques being given to the family of the late Mary Ann Fatheree, who served on the council until her death in January, and to Jarrod and Jen Birmingham after Jarrod Birmingham was the headline performer at last month’s Feather Fest on Cinco de Mayo.

On a motion by Justin La Fleur, the council adopted a motion that members of the Tourism and Development Board would be appointed by the council for a term of two years from the date of appointment and “shall not be convicted felons or previously convicted of a crime of moral turpitude.”

“All members shall be registered voters of the city of Nixon, having primary or secondary residence within the city limits of the city of Nixon,” La Fleur said. “All current appointed members must comply within six months, and all future members must meet requirements to be considered for the position at the time of appointment.

“We have one proposed member and one current member that we're going to give them time to comply with their residency issue. And going forward, those will be the residency requirements.”

The council approved the elected officers of Chairman Travis Hansen, Vice Chairman Briana Dominguez, Secretary Pablo Aguirre, Treasurer Nina Hernandez and Sergeant-at-Arms Mark Soto.

When it came time to discuss whether the name of the board should be changed, however, Escobedo told council members that using the name district would essentially create a separate taxing entity that would take away money from the city.

“When a district is created, it's its own taxing entity,” Escobedo said. “So, it would impose such taxes, you know, on the citizens as well. Basically, the way that is done is a percentage of the tax income that's received by the city is taken away and put in for funding for the district. And again, that would potentially affect the budget.”

The issue of creating an economic development district (EDC) has come up previously, but because of the city’s limited budget and sales tax income, it was not approved. Escobedo said for an EDC to be approved, it would have to go before the voters.

“The reason for that is because of the taxation issue,” Escobedo said. “Any board that's created that has the word district in it is creating its own taxing entity and that affects the citizens and affects the budget of the city. So therefore, we have to get basically a majority of vote on yes or no, on an election to be able to do that. And it has to be held in a regularly scheduled election date.”

Escobedo said the intent of the city was not to create a district, but to “create and advisory board so that way, the city council still maintains control of what's recommended by the board.”

“If it's a district, that control is essentially lost,” he continued. “The only control that city council would have, according to the code, is to select who the board members are and that's it. And again, the reason that it's advisory in nature is because it's basically a volunteer-type position to give advice to city council on making decisions moving forward. Ultimately, the intent was to keep the control of decisions regarding that particular board here in city council.”

Hansen responded by saying that none of the members of the board want to take control over the decision-making process.

“I think we wanted to keep our hands out of that,” Hansen said. “We just want to take some of the legwork off and bring ideas to y'all. And y'all can either shoot them down or say, yeah, keep getting after it. It's not our job to make decisions on behalf of the city.”

Council members then voted unanimously to keep the name of the group as the Tourism and Development Board as they were created to be advisory in nature.

The council also had discussions with the board about the proposed veterans park that would be built next to City Hall. A full story on that portion of the meeting will appear in next week’s Inquirer.