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Regular Council Meeting <br />August 10, 2020 <br />Page 4 <br />limited to land, other in-kind assets, and to the extent allowed by law, if any, the <br />extension of the Corporation's credit to another entity or person. <br />Mayor Clifford said he placed item b on the agenda to better define what they had <br />previously approved. Council Member Pilgrim said he placed item a on the agenda. Council <br />Member Savage inquired as to how long PEDC had been in existence and whether or not there <br />had always been five directors. City Attorney Stephanie Harris said the election was in 1993 and <br />since the board had been in existence, there had always been five directors. Council Member <br />Knox said she thought the reason PEDC requested to expand to seven board members was so <br />they could form committees. Ms. Harris confirmed that PEDC had to have a minimum number <br />of five directors, but could have more. Council Member Pilgrim said the past and the present <br />PEDC board directors had reached out asking that the number of directors be increased to seven. <br />He said seven minds were better than five minds, and that the PEDC had a lot going on. Council <br />Member Stone said there had been communication issued within the PEDC and expressed <br />concern that adding two more directors might add to the communication issues. Council Member <br />Hughes said he served on the PEDC Board and five was fine. Council Member Savage asked <br />them to help him to understand after thirty years why now they wanted to increase the number of <br />Directors. <br />PEDC Board Member Mihir Pankaj asked if he could address the Council and Mayor <br />Clifford said that was fine. Mr. Pankaj said they had many projects at the time and increasing <br />the number to seven would allow them to form committees. He said they really needed more <br />help. Council Member Pilgrim asked about the number of new projects. Mr. Pankaj said the <br />PEDC had two or three companies wanting to gets deals done and a couple of more prospective <br />companies. <br />Council Member Stone inquired if other board members felt the same way. Mr. Pankaj <br />answered yes, and said former board member Marion Hamill was present at the meeting to <br />speak. Mr. Hamill asked what it would cost to have two more board members? He said the <br />biggest concern was always having a quorum because there were five members and seven would <br />make it better. Mr. Hamill also said being on the board took a lot of time. Council Member <br />Hughes said he believed people contacted Council Member Pilgrim about this but he had not <br />received any phone calls. Council Member Stone said she never gets calls from anyone. <br />Council Member Hughes said he trusted Josh Bray and they had been friends a long time and he <br />was surprised that Josh had not called him. City Attorney Stephanie Harris reminded City <br />Council this item was brought to them on June 22 because PEDC unanimously requested that <br />City Council increase the board to seven members. Council Member Knox said she was at the <br />PEDC meeting when they unanimously voted to increase the number to seven, and she was <br />going to support the PEDC Board. Council Member Portugal said she was also at the meeting <br />where PEDC unanimously voted to increase the number to seven. <br />PEDC Board Member Josh Bray said Derrick Hughes was correct, and they had known <br />each other for twenty-five years. Mr. Bray said he did not call anyone about this. He also said <br />he would love to go from five to seven, because seven minds were still better than five minds. <br />Carol Hufnagel said yesterday was gone and business trends change, and that having seven <br />members was good for their future. Council Member Savage said the future is important but you <br />