The feud between Gun Barrel City Councilman Marty Goss and the city's Economic Development Corp. President Linda Rankin appears to be no where near a resolution.

The Gun Barrel City Council ordered EDC officials Sept. 23  to review and revise their 2014-2015 budget for a second time before it can be adopted.

The action will force both the EDC Board of Directors and the council to schedule emergency meetings within the next week because the agency’s budget expires at the end of September. The EDC cannot open its doors, pay salaries or conduct other business without a budget in place by Oct. 1.

EDC President Linda Rankin said she will determine when a quorum of board members can meet to comply with the council’s order to re-examine the budget, which the council first reviewed in August. The time crunch complicates the scheduling of meetings, she said.

The decision followed a presentation of the budget by Councilman Curtis Webster who is the council’s liaison officer with the EDC. Councilman Marty Goss, a longtime critic of Rankin, said he objected to some of the budget’s provisions and demanded more changes.

Goss asked the council to table all items related to the budget before the presentation, but Webster demanded that he be allowed to proceed with the presentation of the $403,855 budget.

The election of a new president to lead the EDC is pending, and
Goss suggested that the EDC board consider the election of new officers during the upcoming emergency meeting, rather than waiting for the regular October meeting.

Rankin rejected the suggestion, saying “Let’s not get into everything tonight.”

At the September meeting of the EDC board, tie votes prevented the election of a new president or vice president because one board member was out of town. The tie votes are expected to be broken at the October meeting.

Rankin, who is one of the nominees for president, said she wants to remain as the board’s leader because she is in the middle of several projects that she would like to finish.

Goss twice previously attempted to convince council members to remove Rankin from the EDC but failed. Rankin and Goss publicly clashed during several council meetings.

Rankin attributed the conflict to a disagreement between her and Goss on the pursuit of a location for a Gun Barrel City business park. Goss accused Rankin of inefficiency and "lying" about projects.

Mayor Jim Braswell recently accused Goss of pursuing a vendenta against Rankin, and another Rankin supporter, Carroll Strickland, suggested Goss should resign from office in an address to the council.

Rankin and Goss are pictured below.