Revitalization authority leads to council spat

GALVESTON — Mayor Joe Jaworski accused Councilwoman Elizabeth Beeton of “character assassination” during Thursday’s workshop session after she laid into former Pittsburgh Mayor Tom Murphy by citing media reports of his fiscal leadership.

She incurred Jaworski’s ire by reading an account that suggested Murphy had run up a huge budget deficit at Pittsburgh city hall.

The spat came at the end of an hourlong session in which former mayoral candidate Betty Massey introduced Murphy and outlined how she and Jaworski had spent the past few months exploring the possibility of ending decades of talk, followed by inaction on cohesive redevelopment of the island.

Murphy had just given a presentation extolling the virtue of managing urban redevelopment through an authority, which some have come to call a revitalization authority, set up outside city hall rather than the city government.

Beeton’s comments came as she agreed with Councilman Steve Greenberg, who had said he was not in favor of “forming another authority that is not responsible to the city manager.”

Murphy said Beeton and Greenberg were good examples of people for whom a little knowledge is a dangerous thing. He said the account referred to his campaign to get Pittsburgh out from under an unfair state funding regime.

Jaworski, who had invited Murphy to Galveston, said he was offended by Beeton’s behavior, as did Councilwoman Dianna Puccetti.

“I don’t understand why you’re so destructive,” Puccetti said. “My blood pressure is so high right now, I need some chocolate.”

Murphy, who holds a master’s degree in urban studies, likened the island to Humpty Dumpty, full of wonderful pieces that needed someone to put them together.

“You have a sense of community about yourselves that shows a passion about your home,” he said.

He said Pittsburgh had seen about $600 million in private investment spawned by $140 million of public money on one site alone as the city worked through a redevelopment authority during the 1990s after losing a huge part of its population to failing industry during the previous 20 years.

Murphy said his own city’s property values had jumped between 160 percent and 225 percent during the past seven years and Galveston stands on the threshold of a similar opportunity, especially around the University of Texas Medical Branch.

“If you look at the property between The Strand and the university and have a dream about it, it could be a game changer for Galveston,” he said.

The challenge, he said, was for the city council to introduce into its redevelopment process a separate body that can concentrate solely on the island’s revitalization in a manner that’s efficient, profitable and transparent.

“Trust and confidence will enable you to do some high-quality deals,” he said.

Jaworski said several community leaders had been considering the legal implications of forming a revitalization authority.

Beeton argued the city could just hire someone accountable to the city manager to work on such issues and noted the city already has a redevelopment authority, which oversees projects in tax increment reinvestment zones.

She said every development mentioned in Murphy’s presentation had been financed in part by a form of funding similar to tax increment reinvestment zones.

Beeton said she was concerned developers and other real-estate professionals who make up the Urban Land Institute’s membership could benefit more than the city if it allowed an outside authority to undertake redevelopment rather than a city hall department.

Puccetti said Beeton had dismantled the island’s redevelopment authority for the same reasons she now was advocating that it lead any revitalization process.

Beeton responded that she was not advocating Galveston Redevelopment Authority take on the revitalization role and apologized to the Urban Land Institute for questioning its motives in suggesting a new authority.

Massey said an entity dedicated to revitalization was essential.

“You have an opportunity to transform this community, but in order to do that, you need a focused body that gets up in the morning and goes to bed at night and that’s all it’s doing,” she said.

Council member Rusty Legg asked City Manager Steve LeBlanc whether there was any source of funding that could be used to set up a revitalization authority.

LeBlanc said there were funds not yet allocated from Round Two of the federal government’s Community Development Block Grant disaster recovery program, as well as the city’s annual CDBG funding.