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Regular Council Meeting August 28, 2017 Page 6 A Motion to authorize the city attorney to hire Mr. Fitzgerald on a contract part-time basis was made by Council Member Drake and seconded by Mayor Clifford. Motion carried, 6 ayes — 0 nays. 17. Discuss an Economic Development Program and provide direction to staff. Mayor Clifford said he had asked Mr. Godwin to put together a plan for economic development structure should the proposition be approved in November. Mr. Godwin reviewed the proposed program with City Council, which included termination of the PEDC Board and Operations, as well as obligations of the PEDC. He also reviewed general fund budget changes, employees, road maintenance tax use and need, and creation of an advisory board. Mayor Clifford expressed appreciation to Mr. Godwin for the proposed plan, as did Council Member Drake. Council Member Portugal inquired if three years down the road whether or not a new council decide to change the amount. Mr. Godwin said that was always the option of the Council, and that all that they could do was commit to their budget one year at a time. Mayor Clifford said he noticed PEDC had a net worth of $4.2 million dollars but PEDC's obligation was $6.2 million dollars, which is why it would take almost two years to satisfy all of PEDC' s obligations. Mayor Clifford also said one of PEDC's obligations was a loan guarantee and when that loan gets paid, then the City could have quite a bit of money for economic development. Council Member Drake said this was a good start if the citizens decide this is the way to go. 18. Discuss and act on the fiscal year 2017-18 budgets for Love Civic Center and the Visitors & Convention Council. Chamber President Ken Higdon said he had asked that they send any questions to him, that he did receive questions and sent the responses. Council Member Knox thanked Mr. Higdon and said she had spent the weekend going over everything. She noted the Chamber had a busy few months and Mr. Higdon agreed. Council Member Knox said she did not think this budget process fit in well with what the Chamber had been doing the last couple of months. She said she noticed a lot of gaps in the budget and though it needed to be tabled for a little more work. Council Member Knox made a Motion to table this item. Council Member Knox said she wanted to see an explanation for every single line item and she did not get that. She also said a point that was made by the city manager was that budgets were a good planning tool. Mr. Higdon said they did not take this budget lightly, and the board had put a lot of time and effort into it. Mr. Higdon also said they provided that information with the line items to the city manager and he was sorry she did not receive that information. Mayor Clifford said he got it that afternoon at 3:00, which consisted of about 100 pages and believed he was the only that received it. Mr. Higdon reported they had a great year at the Civic Center and that they had a church that rented space every Sunday that there was not an event, but that would go away soon. Council Member Knox said she printed off a past budget which reflected line item explanations, not in depth but nice explanations. She asked Ken to consider using the same type format. Mr.