The back-and-forth arguments about who should be on the ARA board were, and are, confusing even to the participants. Here’s an attempt at a primer.
Currently, there are 16 ARA board members, theoretically representing different constituencies, as follows:
Dr. Charles Urdy (Chair), Community At-Large Rep
Andy Ramirez (Vice-Chair),
Hispanic Chamber of Commerce
Karen Box (Secretary),
Capital City Chamber of Commerce
Cal Varner (Asst. Secretary),
11th Street Business Owner
Jeffrey Archer (Acting Treasurer),
Banking/Real Estate Rep
Leonard Mann (Officer At Large),
12th Street Business Owner
Carrie Wilson (Community Rep to the Executive
Comm.), Anderson CDC (Robertson Hill NA)
Herman Lessard, Austin Area Urban League Spencer Hayes, Greater Austin Chamber of Commerce
Terry Smith, Huston-Tillotson College
Rev. Sterling Lands, Pastoral Community
Vera Givens, Community At-Large Rep
Juliet Nious, Community At-Large Rep
James Johnson, Chestnut Hill Addition NA
Ora Lee Nobles, Blackshear/Prospect Hill NA
Letty McGarrahan, Guadalupe Assoc. for an
Improved Neighborhood (GAIN)
One seat is vacant, formerly held by the treasurer, Douglas Mae Clack; Archer was the “assistant treasurer.” The officers noted above form the Executive Committee, which critics claim make the real decisions, and which is padded with such non-jobs as “assistant treasurer,” “officer at large,” and “community rep to Executive Committee.” The latter, Carrie Wilson, is claimed by ARA to represent Robertson Hill, but was chosen by Anderson Community Development Corp., developers of SCIP II, against the wishes of the Robertson Hill NA. No bona fide neighborhood rep (the last three on the list) has ever served on the Executive Committee.
The community would like to see some of these seats (such as the Chambers of Commerce) banished from the board. The community did attempt to add more legitimate stakeholders, including one from each of the following categories:
Swede Hill NA
Kealing NA
NAACP
Youth rep (likely from East Side Story)
Ebenezer Baptist Church
Robertson Hill NA (the real one)
Guadalupe Neighborhood Development Corporation East Austin Economic Development Corporation Our Lady of Guadalupe Church.
The first five of these were approved by the ARA, although it later backpedaled on Ebenezer. Another wrinkle was the community’s insistence that board members actually be chosen by the constituencies they represent — not true of Varner, Mann, Wilson or Lands — and that the “community at-large reps” actually live along the corridor, which none of them currently do. Indeed, more than a couple ARA board members don’t live within the Austin city limits. — MCM
This article appears in October 24 • 1997 and October 24 • 1997 (Cover).