Cameron City Councilwoman Julie Ausmus defends voting in favor of renewing the contract of Economic Development of Cameron.

City Council stays split on EDOC contract renewal

A social media campaign to influence Cameron City Councilwoman Julie Ausmus to vote against renewing the city’s contract with Economic Development of Cameron fell short Monday. 

Ausmus, who represented the swing vote on a resolution continuing Cameron’s association with EDOC, said she would not vote against EDOC because it would mean an end to Cameron’s economic development efforts. 

“I think we should have economic development in Cameron. Right now, the way we have economic development is through EDOC, because 10 years ago a group of business people got together after the full-time economic development director resigned and went to another part of the state. They’ve been doing that ever since. Right now, we don’t have the money to hire a full-time economic development director,” Ausmus said. 

Earlier this month, Councilwoman Becky Curtis chided EDOC Director Terry Rumery for what she described as a lack of progress after a decade of work and the city annually paying $36,000 for Rumery’s services. Her tone did not change Monday, joining Councilman Alexander Williams in voting against finalizing renewing the deal Monday with Ausmus, Mayor Roy Estes and Councilman Dennis Clark voting in favor of renewal.

“[Rumery] made it clear that this EDOC brought in the [Cameron Coop expansion], a coffee shop and the dog pound that doesn’t bring in any income. There is another story to that, so I’m going to put that aside ... All of the commerce we’ve had over the last 10 years is not EDOC,” Curtis said.

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