City in talks over immigrant facility

— By Lacie Morrison
lmorrison@mineralwellsindex.com
Representatives of Emerald Companies spent more than an hour Tuesday in executive session with City of Mineral Wells council members and the members of the Local Government Corporation “regarding commercial information.”
According to their Web site, Emerald Companies is comprised of four divisions: correctional management, correctional health care, prison enterprises and correctional support services. Their site states, “The Emerald Companies is dedicated to providing the latest solutions in the criminal justice industry.”
Reconvening into open session almost two hours later, the council members unanimously approved allowing the city manager and staff to negotiate further on their project.
City Manager Lance Howerton explained that the city was approached by the company about the possibility of constructing an illegal immigrant detention center.
“The staff’s been working on the project for a short period of time,” he noted. The representatives Tuesday gave the council members a detailed presentation.
Few details are being made public since negotiations are ongoing.
Howerton’s evaluation was also discussed during closed session Tuesday; it appeared that the evaluation was positive as councilman Chris Crawford suggested a pay raise for Howerton “based on his outstanding performance and salary comparison to other cities.”
The council members unanimously approved increasing the salary to $115,000 from $100,526, effective immediately.
When asked when the last formal evaluation of the city manager was done, Mayor Clarence Holliman replied, “We’ve really not done a formal, thorough evaluation of Lance because we’ve taken him for granted because things have gone so well.
“The long hours and hard work is paying off … so consequently, we thought it appropriate to take a minute and talk with Lance and compliment him on a job well done.”
He noted that the city’s charter does not require evaluations of the city manager.
Howerton, who’s been in his position since 1993, said it has been a few years since his last evaluation.
The city council also approved awarding a bid to Action Excavating for the wet demolition of three structures in Wolters Industrial Park in the amount of $33,900. The rear of the buildings – Nos. 237, 239 and 240 – face Ross Road.

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