It’s not every day that a business hands a city a $275,000 check with no strings attached—well, except for the minor detail that the money never actually touches city hands. But here in Amarillo, the process of giving away free money has become a bureaucratic puzzle worthy of a city council meeting.
At Tuesday’s meeting, Amarillo City Council members debated how to allocate a generous community outreach donation from Buc-ee’s, the beloved beaver-themed travel center that recently opened its doors. The donation—$275,000 in what we’ll affectionately call Buc-ee Bucks—was pledged to support local non-profits as part of the company’s deal with the Amarillo Economic Development Corporation.
Sounds simple enough, right? Not quite.
The $275,000 Question: Who Gets the Buc-ee Bucks?
Rather than hashing out one unified plan, the council decided that each member would personally distribute $55,000 of the funds to local non-profits of their choosing. That’s right—each elected official now gets to play philanthropist with their own little pile of beaver-branded generosity.
“That puts us in a tough position because there’s so many good organizations, charitable organizations that do so many good things for the community,” said Councilmember Don Tipps, presumably realizing that choosing between worthy causes is harder than picking between Buc-ee’s famous brisket sandwich and a bag of Beaver Nuggets.
Adding a legal twist to the conversation, City Attorney Bryan McWilliams made it clear that the money was never actually entering city coffers. Instead, Buc-ee’s is simply taking suggestions from the council on where to send its donation. In other words, the city is just a middleman in this corporate act of goodwill.
To Committee or Not to Committee?
Councilmember Les Simpson proposed forming a subcommittee to help make these all-important funding decisions. His idea? Recruit community members with expertise in local needs to weigh in before the council hands out the cash.
“We can consider, perhaps, instead of us just sitting up here deciding, whether each of us might want to nominate a couple members of the community that maybe have background in the community, know about the community, to work through the possibility of making recommendations to us,” Simpson suggested.
Councilmember Tom Scherlen wasn’t having it.
“I really think we need to make that decision. We were elected, Buc-ee’s reached out to the City Council for us to do that,” Scherlen said, making it clear that this was a job for elected officials, not an appointed committee.
Ultimately, the council sided with Scherlen, deciding that each member will personally allocate their share of the funds—because what better way to ensure fairness than to let six different people individually decide where the money goes?
A Beaver-Sized Delay?
Despite the council’s eagerness to move forward, there’s one small hitch in the plan. Councilmember Simpson is heading out of town for few weeks. Understandably, this might slow things down, though Simpson assured everyone he’d still work on his allocations from afar.
Mayor Cole Stanley, however, urged swift action.
“I feel like you take the gift, you receive it as a gift, and then you disseminate it, you disperse it. You get the money out of your hands. You don’t tie it up in further delay,” Stanley said, in what might be the most common-sense statement of the night.
Final Thoughts: Just Give the Money Already
At the end of the day, Buc-ee’s gave Amarillo a gift with one simple request: figure out where to send it. But in classic government fashion, even free money comes with discussions, debates, and a bit of procedural hand-wringing.
For now, Amarillo’s non-profits will have to wait a little longer while the council finalizes their selections. But rest assured, at some point, $275,000 of Buc-ee Bucks will find its way to the community—just as soon as the council figures out exactly how to spread the wealth.
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