The State of the City

Killeen Mayor Timothy Hancock is an intelligent man.  He has a dry but accurate sense of humor.  But I think he'll tell you what I'm going to: he's not comfortable as a public speaker.

Tonight at the KCCC, Mayor Hancock delivered a rambling "State of the City" address.  He promised to show us "where we've been; where we are; and where we're going."  It was a promise kept, if you could follow him through discursions and sudden jumps to new topics.

(My raw notes of Hancock's speech are online.  Dan Kott's video will be available on the YouTube EyesOfKilleen channel in the morning.)

The largest part of the Mayor's talk dwelt on the past:  successes in improving city services; police and fire protection; awards; grants; and advances in quality of life during his time of city service, which began in 2000 when he was elected to City Council.  So the "where we've been" piece was pretty well covered.

In the "where we are" category, he stressed the city's financial soundness and our need for more infrastructure, particularly a controlled-access SH 201; better rail service; and a second runway.  He also made a comment that city employs are stressed because they don't know who their boss is going to be; I'm not sure where he was going with that, and the city workers I know don't seem particularly stressed.

Hancock ended the meeting on "where we are going": he said that the past must be set aside.  In a few weeks, there will be a new mayor and a new city council; and perhaps after that a new city manager.  People who want to continue to rehash the old disputes are just getting in the way of those new people who will want to move forward.

In an aside that didn't fall into any of the above categories, Hancock defended the city's partnerships with the Chamber of Commerce and Killeen Economic Development Corporation (KEDC).  The reason those partnerships are necessary, he said, is because the city, while it's good at  providing city services, is not very good at economic development.  The City needs to partner with the private sector to be effective in bringing in new jobs and industries.