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Regular Council Meeting September 9, 2013 Page 3 Next, Mrs. Clifford told the City Council that the PEDC Board voted not to request an attorney general opinion with regard to the incubator funding, because the incubator was no longer in the PEDC budget. She said she was pleased that the funding of the incubator had been resolved and that it would be a viable resource for Paris' local small businesses. Mrs. Clifford said she agreed that the City needed a Team Paris, because the best people to sell Paris to visitors interested in doing business in Paris were those who work, live and do business in Paris themselves. She said that they needed to ensure all people who are interested and qualified for a role in Team Paris be given a fair chance to participate. Mrs. Clifford said it was appropriate for PEDC to offer to pay the reasonable expenses of the volunteers, and the Board would address policies that define reasonable expenses and initiate policies for the recruitment of volunteers for Team Paris. Mrs. Clifford reported that PEDC Director Steve Gilbert previously identified seven Type A economic development corporation that he considered to be peers and those cities were Brownwood, Denison, Greenville, Marshall, Mt. Pleasant, Sherman and Sulphur Springs. Mrs. Clifford said she gathered data from the State Comptroller's Office for comparison and the chart she depicted reflected that in fiscal year 2012, PEDC spent more than any of those peers for personnel, administration, and marketing in both absolute dollar amount, as well as a percentage of income. She said PEDC spent approximately $900,000 or 74% of their current year's income on these categories. She also said that no other peer city spent more than 27% in these categories. Mrs. Clifford expressed that in her opinion these expenditures were excessive, and that travel and entertainment were clearly a significant portion of those expenditures. Mrs. Clifford expressed concern about PEDC paying for legal fees for incubator clients and the amount of money spent on promotion. She said PEDC must accurately track expenses. Mrs. Clifford said best practices for tracking of expenditures was to call things exactly what they were, such as travel, entertainment, conferences and advertising. In closing, Mrs. Clifford said hopefully, the PEDC Board and staff would soon be able to again focus on their mission, which was to promote, assist and enhance economic development through the creation of primary jobs for the betterment of the citizens of Paris, Texas. 10. Presentation by William Strathern on Paris Economic Development Corporation's expenses, budget, financial oversight and policies. Council Member Grossnickle said they had heard a lot about PEDC and questioned if this presentation was necessary. He also said he would prefer to table this presentation, because it was a PEDC issue. Mayor Hashmi said Mr. Strathern had requested to be on the agenda, as had Mr. Cecil. Referencing the presentation by Mr. Hayes, Mayor Hashmi said he had not prevented anyone from giving a presentation to City Council. A Motion to table this item indefinitely was made by Council Member Frierson and seconded by Council Member Grossnickle. Motion failed, 2 ayes — 4 nays, with Council Member Drake abstaining from the vote.