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March 28, 2024 10:51 am
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Council rejects economic development contract with Citywide

By VERNON ROBISON

The Progress

The Mesquite City Council decided in a split 3-2 vote to reject a contract extension for economic development services with Citywide Consulting owned by Mesquite resident Cody Law.

Citywide has been under contract with the city since January of this year and the current contract is set to expire on Sept. 30. The existing contract has been a three-month agreement at $15,000 per month with an option to extend every three months.

In an Aug. 24 meeting, the Council had made a similarly split vote not to renew the ongoing contract with Citywide. But concerns were expressed at that time about major economic development projects that are still in the pipeline with Citywide and what would happen to those going forward.

Specifically mentioned among these was a proposed deal being called “Project Washboard”; a code name for a major manufacturer that has not yet been identified because it is still under a nondisclosure agreement.

According to Citywide, Washboard is a $181 million capital project which would bring $8.6 million in property tax revenues to the city over 10 years.

At the Aug. 24 meeting, there was some uncertainty expressed on how the economic development efforts for the city would move forward. City Attorney Adam Anderson had said that there was still a month of the current contract where Citywide could propose an alternative contract which would extend past Sept. 30.

At last week’s meeting, City Manager Andy Barton said that the Citywide proposal before the Council was essentially the same contract as before. The only difference was an increase in the fee to $20,000 per month.

Councilman Brian Wursten, who was one of two votes in favor of renewing the Citywide contract in August, said that he was surprised with how quickly the Council’s relationship with Citywide had deteriorated.

“Cody has got so many things that are out there and so many things he is working on,” Wursten said. “He is deeply tied in to so many of these that I think it would be a travesty not to give him some time to get them done. I think we have done him wrong in how we have handled this.”

Councilman George Gault, who had been a key vote against the contract renewal in August, said that he was not opposed to considering the renewal. But he wanted specific measurables on what Citywide planned to accomplish.

“If there are essential tasks remaining that only Cody can do, I’d agree to maybe a month at a time,” Gault said. “But only provided we see a list of those tasks in writing. So we have something to measure and we know what we are going to get for the money.”

“I agree Cody has done a good job on Washboard,” Gault added. “But I don’t agree that he has actually got an economic development program in place.”

Councilman Wes Boger feared that the deal with Project Washboard might be sullied if Citywide was not allowed to see it through to completion.

“I feel like its a slap in the face of people at Project Washboard by not extending this,” Boger said. “They have told me on multiple occasions that if it wasn’t for Cody they would not have chosen Mesquite to locate. They really rolled out the red carpet for them. So I feel like it would be a bad signal to send them and to anyone else that is working with Cody.”

Boger added that if the contract was not approved, the city would have no one else under contract to provide economic development services.

Gault expressed disagreement with this. “If the contract expires at the end of the month, we are not out of business,” he said. “We have got LVGEA (Las Vegas Global Economic Alliance) working on it still. My understanding is that LVGEA is taking (Project Washboard) to the governor’s office next week to talk about state incentives. So that will still be ongoing.”

Councilwoman Karen Dutkowski pointed out that the proposed contract with Citywide asked for an additional $5,000 per month without promising any more value to the arrangement.

“I haven’t really seen anything more that we are going to be getting for the money in the way of reports or transparency or accountability from him,” Dutkowski said. “And I think it is really important that we get that.”

But Wursten countered that Law had attended every city council meeting since the current contract began. “He has moved his family to the community, he attends all of our meetings and he is always easily accessible by phone,” Wursten said. “You could have asked him at any time. You’re talking transparency? I can’t believe that we are actually saying stuff like that.”

Wursten also disputed Gault’s idea that LVGEA would be a solution to the city’s economic development issues.

“How many different entities do they represent?” Wursten said of LVGEA. “And what in the world makes us think that they will put us as a priority? We are replacing something that is strongly tied to this community and is dedicated to making it better with a huge organization that, you know, if something isn’t good (in Las Vegas) we will send it up to Mesquite.”

Wursten said that whatever the decision was with Citywide, he was not at all ready to settle on anything with LVGEA. “That is going to be a fight because I am not sold on LVGEA in any sense,” he said.

Wursten made a motion to approve the new three-month contract with Citywide. The motion was seconded by Boger. But the measure was rejected with Gault, Dutkowski and Ramaker voting in opposition.

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