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Regular Council Meeting <br />July 24, 2017 <br />Page 7 <br />Council Member Jenkins said jobs were needed in Paris, he supported PEDC but at this <br />time he thought that maybe they did need to do something different. <br />Council Member Lancaster said she could not and would not take the right of citizens to <br />vote on the direction the City is taking. She said it was important and the citizens were the ones <br />they needed to listen to. Council Member Lancaster said she was in favor of the vote. <br />Council Member Trenado said he was also in favor of the vote. He inquired of City <br />Attorney Stephanie Harris if they could divide equally between economic development and <br />streets the way the ballot was worded now. Ms. Harris said it depended on what kind of <br />economic development they wanted to do, but not as written. She said the only economic <br />development tax that was allowed under the law was a Type A and Type B. If they want to <br />divide the money differently, they would have to word the ordinance differently. Trenado asked <br />if the way it was worded now would require the funds to go to streets. Ms. Harris answered in <br />the affirmative. Mayor Clifford said if citizens approve the proposition on the ballot, they could <br />pass a resolution redirecting the $600,000 currently used for streets and materials to economic <br />development and the end result would be the same. Mr. Godwin said if the voters approved the <br />proposition that it would have to be voted on every four years. <br />Council Member Knox said this has gotten very convoluted very fast. While she liked <br />the idea about 380 in lieu of streets, they also needed to do the streets, but she said she was not in <br />favor of abandoning economic development. She said she thought they needed to table this for a <br />little more investigation and discussion. <br />Council Member Portugal commended the mayor for bringing this to the Council. She <br />favored tabling this to get answers because she said they did not know what a chapter 380 was. <br />She said this was thrown at them without a workshop or Council retreat so they could talk about <br />their vision for economic development. <br />A Motion to accept the ballot language with the understanding that the City Council is <br />planning to instruct the City Manager to divert the $600,000 from streets into a fund that would <br />fund economic development through Chapter 380, if the proposition is approved by the voters <br />was made by Mayor Clifford and seconded by Council Member Lancaster. Council Member <br />Drake confirmed that the instructions to divert the $600,000 would only happen if the <br />proposition passed. Mayor Clifford confirmed that and said if the proposition fails, then nothing <br />would change. Council Member Knox said either way, the citizens would get to vote whether or <br />not they have economic development to the tune of $600,000 or $1.2 Million Dollars. Mayor <br />Clifford said that was correct. <br />Mayor Clifford called for a vote on the Motion. Motion carried, 6 ayes - 1 nay, with <br />Council Member Portugal casting the dissenting vote. <br />14. Discuss and authorize execution of a professional services agreement with Grantham & <br />Associates to provide engineering design and related professional services for the Church <br />Street Reconstruction Project, in an amount not to exceed $200,000. <br />