HELEN RAMIREZ'S AWAITS WACO'S DECISION ON CITY MANAGER

The decision will be made on Tuesday afternoon at the regular Waco City council meeting.

I cannot predict who will win the prize.  But I can tell you about the data.

There is a key reason why Waco pays it city managers so much more than Brownsville, which is in fact a larger city. 

The City of Waco is in constant negotiations with Fort Hood.  The U.S. Army will not tolerate a Waco city manager adept at playing by the mayor's rules and not the rules which bind Waco and Ft. Hood.

When compared to the other candidates, Ramirez is the least qualified.  She has no awareness about how to manage a city with ties to a massive military base.

But then we all know how this works.  The candidate deemed most trustworthy to carry out the orders of the mayor and council, wins.  But in this case Ft. Hood will not tolerate a city manage beholden to a corrupt city council.  Waco is a lot better than Brownsville when it comes to ethics.  

We shall see how Waco handles this appointment knowing the winner must be able to work with the commanders at Ft. Hood. 

Waco is not Brownsville. it is Waco plus Ft. Hood.  All of the other candidates know how Ft. Hood interacts with the City of Waco.  They have first-hand experience in working with Ft. Hood. 

Ft. Hood is the largest military base in Texas.

The City of Waco years ago signed an agreement to pay exiting Ft. Hood military personnel for 6 months while they do job training for local jobs.  

Ft. Hood remains a big part of the City of Waco.