Tuesday night’s Bryan city council meeting included the better part of an hour and a half on the ongoing debate of what the city has spent on the Traditions development since 1998.
Councilman Mike Southerland initiated his own investigation in January, which has been criticized by other council members and questioned by city management.
Southerland initially reported the city spent $73 million dollars on Traditions, versus the city management’s calculation of almost $59 million. That’s what led a council majority agreed to hire an outside accounting firm. Tuesday night, CPA Brian Reed of Dallas told the council he was within one dollar of the city’s figure.
As for the difference, councilman Ben Hardeman said Southerland calculated several figures that should not have been included. One, was putting in twice, the $7.8 million dollar purchase price of nearly 1,000 acres of land.
Hardeman also brought up Southerland’s interest in BTU’s cost of moving a major electric transmission line out of Traditions…which Hardeman said was already in the plans of another BTU project.
Southerland debated Dallas CPA Brian Reed, who was hired by the city, over several parts of his report.
Councilman Rafael Pena, who also challenged the third party investigation, was questioned by city manager Kean Register…which led to Pena demanding an apology from Register.
In the end, Southerland will meet with the city manager and his staff as the councilman continues to ask for more information. That was followed by what turned out to be the loudest exchange of the night…involving Mayor Jason Bienski and Southerland.
The mayor had the final comment of the evening, making what he described to WTAW News an apology on behalf of the entire city council.
Click HERE to read and download a memo from Dallas CPA Brian Reed.
Click HERE to read and download Dallas CPA Brian Reed’s presentation to the city council.