Amarillo EDC hires outside council

During its meeting on Monday, the Amarillo Economic Development Corporation voted unanimously to hire an attorney who represents EDCs across the state.

The AEDC has been under scrutiny by the Amarillo City Council over a 2023 wire transfer of $750,000 to The Range for a three-year membership. AEDC officials said that the money used was a combination of funds already allocated to membership payments as well as leftover funds from marketing and project support expenditures.

An internal city audit of the AEDC’s budget over the past three years revealed no inconsistencies with how it has operated. City officials confirmed that the wire transfer was not illegal.

“We’re not sure why the council brought in Mr. Hyde to have him rewrite the articles of incorporation because we have been operating this way for 34 years and there are many other EDCs in our state that operate the same way, so that’s the reason why and approved to hire our own council to review this because we don’t understand why they have approved to change the articles because it has worked well all these years and we think we are doing it properly and within the law, but they don’t seem to think so, so we just want to make sure we are, so we hired our own council to make sure we are,” Scott Bentley, AEDC board director, said.

The AEDC released the following statement:

In recent months, the Amarillo City Council has raised questions about the Amarillo Economic Development Corporation (AEDC), leading to a financial audit of our spending, including our membership to The Range. The audit found no issues of concern.

The AEDC remains committed to economic growth, job creation, and expanding our local tax base. Over the past 30 years, with the support of dozens of city council representatives, the efforts of the AEDC have driven in excess of $2 billion in capital investments across our community. In the last 10 years alone, our efforts have created 7,000 jobs and added $390 million in payroll. We are committed to making Amarillo stronger and providing more opportunities for our family, friends, and neighbors.

It is our hope that we move forward-together. We have some truly incredible opportunities on the horizon, and it’s critical that we all move in the same direction.

That said, it is important we highlight concerns with the council’s continued dialogue regarding our organization that is negatively impacting our economic development efforts, particularly the council’s overtly political move to hire its own attorney, who represents them and not the city or its citizens, to rewrite the articles of incorporation that have enabled our unparalleled economic development success. These articles of incorporation are similar to other EDCs across the state. They have served as the foundation of our organization and many others across Texas since voters approved its creation in 1989, and have held steady under multiple city councils. Facing this challenge, which lacks council unanimity and is an unnecessary cost to taxpayers, the AEDC has hired Jeff Moore, a partner with Brown & Hofmeister, one of the state’s leading EDC experts, to ensure the AEDC can continue serving the citizens of Amarillo and growing the area’s economy.

Andrew Hall, chairman of the AEDC board, said they hired Moore because they felt he would best understand the ramifications of the Amarillo City Council having Hyde rewrite the organization's articles of incorporation.

“We don’t want to make this political. We want to keep our unbiased, nonpolitical status. We just want to keep growing Amarillo and make sure our community is representative and we have that competitive advantage of this great place to live,” Hall said.