Granbury Fires City Manager Over Tourism Complaint

CBS 11's Sana Syed Reports:

GRANBURY (CBSDFW.COM) - A small North Texas town fired its city manager this week, alleging that he wasn't doing enough to promote tourism.

Granbury's town square is known for it's little shops and it's historic buildings, some of which have been around for more than 150 years.

Business owners say the tourism industry in Granbury is the heart of the city.

"We were the heart - with the heart dying, the rest of the body is going to get weak," said Dianne Davis.

Davis has owned the Merry Heart Tearoom for 25 years. She says the tourism industry in Granbury took a dive after Harold Sandel became city manager in 2006.

"We lost our identity as a great place to go. The place that Texas history lives," she said.

Davis joined residents and business owners at city hall last night to tell the city council they felt Sandel did not do enough to promote tourism. The council unanimously decided to fire Sandel.

Assistant City Manager Ron Berryman is now filling in the interim.

"I think he [Sandel] knew it was inevitable because of the tension and the things that were being said. He knew it was coming - just didn't know when," said Berryman.

Berryman says tourism brings in millions of dollars to the city of Granbury. Just last year, the city made close to $500,000 from people staying in local hotels.

Berryman tells us the city spends close to $300,000 a year on advertising, but tourism has declined by about 18% in the past two years under Sandel.

We asked business owners if they felt the recession played a part in that.

"You can blame things on the economy - but other communities are rebounding faster than we are," said Sara Baker.

Business owners say they are very satisfied with the decision to remove Sandel, who did not respond to our requests for an interview.

The new interim city manager says the city will kick off a new tourism campaign in the next few weeks.

A new city manager is expected to be hired in a few months.