Which came first: the money or the approval? That’s the question someone should be asking at city hall these days as it relates to the discussion of gas leases on city-owned land, including property at Love Field.
The Morning News has a short but interesting story today about the issue, which apparently caused a little excitement at Wednesday’s council meeting. It appears that city staff negotiated a $34 million upfront agreement with two drilling companies in exchange for rights to drill for gas on city-owned land. Then, without bothering to wait for council approval of the action, city staff turned around and committed $20 million of the anticipated revenues from the leases toward the city budget, which the council approved without understanding that the prospective revenue was part of the budget. Wednesday, when a couple of council members (Angela Hunt and Mitchell Rasansky) questioned both the process and the lease agreement, city manager Mary Suhm and mayor Tom Leppert pulled the extortion card: If you don’t vote to approve this agreement, Suhm said "residents can expect across the board cuts in city services" according to the News story. And, of course, they also used the argument that just because the offer is on the table today doesn’t mean the money will be there tomorrow, so there’s no time to waste…
Buried in the story was another interesting tidbit: Even if the council approves the lease, each individual drilling site must obtain zoning approval from the council, which means public hearings, etc. Bet some of those hearings will be interesting, particularly for those people who will be living next to or near the drilling sites.
Still, though, why would city staff spend money it doesn’t have from a lease agreement the council hadn’t even approved, much less reviewed? Makes you wonder who is in charge down there, doesn’t it?
