The Real Cost of Prisons Weblog

City Council members unanimously voted Thursday night not to continue studying the proposal, which would have established a privately run detention center to house undocumented immigrants from countries other than Mexico for the Department of Homeland Security.

"We did our research on it and found out it wasn't a good fit for our community," La Vernia Mayor Brad Beck said Friday.

Developer Richard Reyes, who tried to interest both La Vernia and Floresville in the project, couldn't be reached for comment Friday. Reyes operates Innovative Government Strategies, a consulting firm in Boerne.

The La Vernia City Council voted on the issue immediately after convening for its meeting Thursday, pre-empting several planned speeches critical of the project, said Kathy Crisp, a local real estate agent.

Crisp was one of two residents who spoke after the vote, thanking the council for its support.

Crisp said the town of about 1,000 rallied against the proposal because residents didn't want La Vernia's image to be that of a prison town.

"This was something we were just adamant about," she said. "We did not want it close to our schools. We did not want it in our community."

A petition bearing more than 2,000 signatures from people living in and around La Vernia was handed to the council after Thursday's vote.

Beck said he was surprised at the amount of opposition the council received after word spread that the city was looking into building the facility. Wilson County commissioners failed to pass a resolution Aug. 14 seeking developers to build it in Floresville.

"We were simply in the research phase on this," he said.

Initially, Beck said, the proposal seemed appealing because it would have generated about $300,000 annually in additional revenue for the city from fees the federal government pays to house detainees.

In the end, he said, the council agreed a prison was not the best tool for economic development.

"I think there's cleaner ways of doing it with less risk," Beck said.