Thursday, November 05, 2009
FreeFlight officials said Wednesday they are considering layoffs at their plant because McLennan County commissioners on Tuesday turned down their request for a $700,000 loan.
“We have to do something within the next few days, and there is the possibility of a reduction in force,” said Tim Taylor, FreeFlight’s president and CEO. The company, located near New Road on Interstate 35, employs more than 50 people who make navigation equipment for aircraft.
The Waco City Council on Oct. 20 approved a loan to FreeFlight from the Waco-McLennan County Economic Development fund, but county commissioners shot it down.
FreeFlight reportedly wanted to use the money to maintain its employment level during tough economic times while also expanding its work on new products.
Most commissioners, though, thought the loan amounted to a bailout.
“I have sympathy for anybody losing their job, but we’re dealing with a bigger picture. I represent a precinct with a high unemployment rate, and a lot of residents there are the first to be laid off,” said Precinct 2 Commissioner Lester Gibson. “We’ve got a lot of small businesses struggling in this town. What do they do? This is capitalism. You sink on your own or make it on your own. I don’t think I should have specific sensitivity to FreeFlight.”
FreeFlight human resource manager Terri Turley didn’t like the commissioners’ stance.
He fired off an e-mail to commissioners that said, in part, “I just want to thank you guys for not doing your part on helping a good, solid Waco high-technology business.” It went on to say that FreeFlight makes avionic products that protect people traveling the world, but that it has trouble recruiting skilled personnel.
“Do you know how hard it is for me, the HR manager, to even get people to move to Waco?” Turley said in the email, which he provided to the Tribune-Herald. “Four out of five people I interview would rather live and work in Austin or Dallas or any other big city.”
He concluded that “now we know that county commissioners do not support good-paying jobs in Waco.”
Jim Allmon, president of the Waco Aviation Alliance, said he was stunned by the commissioners’ vote.
“I would not be surprised at all if these people don’t start shopping around for a new town,” said Allmon, president and CEO of Blackhawk Modifications in Waco. “I think this sends a bad message.”
Allmon said the city and county did come through in 2008 for L-3 Communications, a local aircraft modification company that employs 1,600. They made a $2 million in economic development grant available for a new hangar.
FreeFlight is not nearly as large as L-3, said Allmon, but the company is a major player in its area of expertise and “is a huge cheerleader and supporter of Waco” in its dealings with other aviation companies.
The company moved to Waco from Georgetown in 2001, and new owners bought it in July 2008. They soon encountered challenges “due to financial conditions at large and because large customers and contracts did not come through as they projected,” said Sarah Roberts, an economic development specialist at the Greater Waco Chamber of Commerce. Roberts and the chamber’s business retention and expansion team joined the company in seeking financial assistance from the Waco-McLennan County Economic Development Corp.
The corporation’s board members are Waco City Manager Larry Groth, McLennan County Judge Jim Lewis and Bill Clifton, who represents the Waco Industrial Foundation, which often makes land available to companies. They make recommendations to county commissioners and city council members on projects that may merit funding.
The development corporation has never loaned money to a company, only provided grants.
But Roberts said since the FreeFlight request involved keeping a company in business, “the board thought the assistance would be more prudently structured as a loan, a collateralized loan.”
She said she does not believe a grant was ever considered.
mcopeland@wacotrib.com
757-5736
Comments
By Dale
Nov 6, 2009 5:49 AM | Link to this
Hey Not Stupid, that is "boring", not "boaring".
By notstupid
Nov 5, 2009 3:13 PM | Link to this
why would any smart person want to live in waco and get less than $10.00 per hour??????
boaring town with sinky water
By Dale
Nov 5, 2009 10:15 AM | Link to this
For one thing, Waco has too many city councils (Baylor Board of Regents, McLennan County Commissioners Court, Waco City Council). The majority of the people live outside of Waco, yet Waco seems to fund most everything for the other incorporated towns in the county. That is one reason why Waco's tax rate is so high. People get all the benefits but live in the burbs and do not have to pay taxes to support it. Waco is an incorporated city, yet they have given away too much control to the County and to Baylor. It should stand on its own and forget the county involvement including money. The County is supposed to take care of County business, not City business.
It is the same old story. Good paying jobs come to town. Owners sell out to another company. The new company packs up and moves to another city. At some point this cycle has to end. The county and Baylor need to stay out of the city's business for one thing. The city needs to quit footing the bill for everyone else except their own citizens for another (i.e., Public Library, Health District, etc., etc.) If Waco keeps paying all the bills, then why do we even need a Commissioner Court or even a County Government for that matter. It is time for the political climate in this city to change, because the current system is getting old and tired.
Thanks ST for letting us all know why only uneducated people live in Waco. Is that the reason you are still here?
By Playing the Violin
Nov 5, 2009 10:00 AM | Link to this
Valuable Advice:
The next time a company around here needs some backup funding, it would probably be a good idea to make certain your socks are clean about it. Let me clarify: This company stood to receive 700g's plus of "help" for their "issues". Where's the problem?
HUUUUUUGE CONFLICT OF INTEREST!
Do the research: Who owns the building? Who's on the city council and can influence a vote? Why was this deal proposed to be unbanked, unrecorded, and unaccountable? Why was the last 250G's of it going to be furnished as a conditional grant (not having to be paid back)? Where would that money have wound up if there was no paper trail or accountability for it? Who stood to gain (probably more) than the employees would have?
It's a tough world we live in, and that world is getting more corrupt by the minute. Thank goodness the county put a stop to this ONE instance before it happened. Thank goodness, on Tuesday, the dignified voters of Hewitt put a stop to TWO more instances before they happened. But for every one of these CONFLICT OF INTEREST deals that get stopped, you can bet the farm and all the produce that grows in it that there's DOZENS that get by the public's usually blind eyes unnoticed.
We are waking up though!
By KyleG
Nov 5, 2009 8:36 AM | Link to this
Ha Ha LOL! You think I was up at 5:41 this morning?
BAM sounds very informed... which makes BAM not me.
By Peter
Nov 5, 2009 8:23 AM | Link to this
I can't believe I am going to quote Lester Gibson, but he is 100% correct. This is capitalism. You sink on your own or make it on your own.
I just wish G.W.B and B.H.O would have taken this advice. The government should not be in the business of picking winners and losers.
By archmark
Nov 5, 2009 8:18 AM | Link to this
Why didn't Waco city councilman & chief wingnut Jim Bush lower the rent on HIS building that HE is renting to Free Flight Systems? Something stinks about this deal. Inquiring minds want to know...
By stickinthemud
Nov 5, 2009 7:15 AM | Link to this
sounds just like the smartass that he is
By kyle
Nov 5, 2009 7:03 AM | Link to this
BAM must be kyle
By BAM
Nov 5, 2009 5:41 AM | Link to this
I missed the part of the story that said the CEO and all these highly paid employees have already voluntarily taken bone-deep salary cuts temporarily to get through these lean times. Or where the two 30-something venture capitalists who own the company have sold their North Dallas houses, moved into an apartment together and put all their savings into the company to save it (and/or sold one of the other companies they own). No, it's just so much easier for this comfortable class to just pick the pockets of innocent taxpayers for the fourth time. Good to see this scam come to an end.
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