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Regular Council Meeting <br />August 26, 2013 <br />Page 6 <br />Mr. McIlyar said that Council directed him to prepare a draft agreement between the City <br />and the Red River Region Incubator for the City's partial funding of the Incubator for 2013- <br />2014. He said the agreement was forwarded to the Incubator Chair Sydney Young, but he wasn't <br />sure if she had a lot of time to review it because she had been out of town. He said he was <br />awaiting input from Mrs. Young. Council Member Wright wanted to know if the agreement <br />protected the City in the event that a person gives bad advice at the Incubator and a tenant goes <br />broke. Mr. McIlyar said it was an independent contractor agreement and the City was asking the <br />Incubator to indemnify the City. He further said that Mrs. Young had forwarded to him a copy <br />of the Incubator Client Agreement they use with their tenants and it also contained <br />indemnification and hold harmless language. Council Member Frierson confirmed with Mr. <br />McIlyar that he had not heard back from Mrs. Young with regard to any proposed changes for <br />the Incubator. <br />A Motion to table this item was made by Council Member Drake and seconded by <br />Council Member Wright. Motion carried, 7 ayes — 0 nays. <br />20. Presentation by Dr. Hashmi on Paris Economic Development Corporation's expenses, <br />budget, financial oversight, and policies. <br />Mayor Hashmi explained the purpose of this presentation was to put in place checks and <br />balances so in the future no one could say that they were wasteful, unorganized and non- <br />transparent. He said this presentation was not meant as criticism but to protect the taxpayers' <br />money from abuse, to institute policies and procedures that protect everyone and to help the City <br />of Paris to out - perform other cities in securing the most for the money spent on economic <br />development. Mayor Hashmi said taxpayers' money should be considered as a joint account of <br />all the people of the community. He said maybe there was an explanation of all of the expenses <br />but questioned if the City got what it wanted for the money spent. He said PEDC was formed <br />when the voters approved a proposition for an additional sales and use tax within the City of <br />Paris, Texas as the rate of one -fourth of one percent to be used for the benefit of a corporation to <br />carry out industrial development programs consistent with the purposes and duties set out in the <br />Development Corporation Act of 1979. Mayor Hashmi said the slides he was going to present <br />were obtained by him through a public information request and he personally paid for the records <br />and the slides. Mayor Hashmi presented slides depicting credit card statements and credit card <br />receipts for hotels, airline tickets, meals, alcohol, staff lunches, and working lunches. He noted a <br />receipt from McCall & Armstrong, a receipt for a hat purchased from a company related to a <br />PEDC employee, a fee for travel upgrade, car wash receipts, and receipts for personal snacks. <br />While going through the documents, Mayor Hashmi said for many of the receipts there was no <br />record of who attended or for what purpose the money was spent. <br />Mayor Hashmi said there was much more of the same and he could continue, but was not <br />going to do so. He also said some of the hotel expenses were for Lamar County Day volunteers <br />and those volunteers were kind enough to travel to Austin, cook burgers and help promote the <br />City and he wanted to thank them. He said many volunteers could not afford to take off work <br />and stay overnight. Mayor Hashmi said he thought they should continue with Lamar County <br />