Galveston Economic Development Partnership President Jeff Sjostrom reviewed recent successes in development in Galveston and credited Galveston City Council for its support. Listen  Download

"This growth is being led by sound public policy," Sjostrom said.

Mayor Lyda Ann Thomas presented several proclamations.  Listen  Download

Council Member Joe Jaworski said that the explosion at the BP Amoco Plant has caused him to reconsider, but not necessarily change, his support for the proposed BP LNG plant on Pelican Island. Listen  Download

“It would be ignorant not to make the connection between what happened yesterday and the proposed LNG site,” Jaworski said.

Several members of STOP, Stop The Terminal on Pelican Island, addressed the city council to object to plans for the LNG plant.  Listen  Download

"We are terribly disappointed that there was no discussion, no meaningful debate," said Tom Curtis, complaining that the plant was approved by the Board of Trustees of the Galveston Wharves without public discussion.  "We feel bringing petrochemical plants into the bosom of Galveston seems to me antithetical to everything that this island has been.

Members of the city council repeatedly said that they could not engage in discussion with the protestors because the item had not been posted for pubic deliberation, but they repeatedly exchanged comments with the protestors anyway.

Thomas and at least three other city council members also engaged in a brief, un-posted, conference in her office before the meeting.  They stressed that they were not discussing city business, only what prayer to deliver at the public meeting meeting.  The result was 30 seconds of silence for the victims of the BP explosion and the victims of the school shooting at Redfeather Lake in Minnesota.  Listen  Download

 

The city council met in a joint session with the Galveston Park Board of Trustees earlier in the day.  Listen  Download