CA-2 should be pulled

Item 2 in the Consent Agenda for Tuesday's Special City Council meeting should be pulled for further discussion. (CA-2  is a resolution to approve awarding a contract to construct an extension of the Andy Wells walking trail along Nolan Creek into the downtown area; and to build a plaza-like section downtown along Avenue D.)  I recommend pulling it because

1. It is a very large contract, $5 million.  Half of it comes from TxDOT, but the other $2.5 million is from bonds -- borrowed money that the city has to repay with interest.  As a matter of good practice, the council should pay close attention when approving so large an expenditure.
2. As Mayor Corbin pointed out, not many people understand what we are getting for $5 million.
3. There were a lot of questions about this item at Thursday's council meeting, not all of which were fully answered.  I will be very surprised of more questions did not occur to the council since then.

At this stage of the project -- awarding the construction contract -- there is not much the council can do other than accept the project as-is or cancel it.  (That's why it was on the consent agenda, I assume.) But they can use this final hearing on a high-dollar, high-profile  project to educate themselves and their constituents on how we got here.  If I could ask questions, they would include

• What is the history of this project?  Who initially suggested it and how did the plan change over time?  At what points was it reviewed by the City Council?
• What other high-priority projects were not funded?