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Council/PEDC Meeting <br />September 15, 2014 <br />Page 3 <br />comptroller's oversight was limited to the administration sales tax that retailers remit the sales <br />tax it receives, it goes to the Comptroller's Office, and the Comptroller's Office retains it for <br />about 6 weeks, and then remits it to the City. Mr. Moore said the City is supposed to promptly <br />turn it over to the EDC. Mr. Moore also said the EDC had oversight of the sales tax training, and <br />was responsible for the annual report due every February, he said there was a $200 penalty for <br />failing to file the report. <br />Mr. Moore said the expenditures do not have to be primary job employers, but could be retail <br />such as Home Depot and Lowes, that they could pay for job training and targeted infrastructure. <br />He said in 2003 Representative Mark Homer authored the bill that allowed this. He said the <br />Board could provide water, sewer, electric, drainage, streets and roads for business development. <br />He also said the money did not have to be spent on a primary job employer, and it did not have to <br />be a manufacturer. He handed out Greg Abbott opinion GA86 issued in 2003, in which the AG <br />ruled the board of directors could make the decision about promotional expenditures subject to <br />the review of the City Council. Mr. Moore said any sort of promotional expenditure was <br />supposed to publicize for business development. He also said 10% was an annual limitation for <br />promotion, but in the current fiscal year they may have an unexpended portion for promotion, <br />and if so that could roll over to the new year in addition to the 10% that is allocated for the new <br />year. <br />In regard to gifting monies, Mr. Moore said the EDC could not gift monies without a written <br />contract or a performance agreement that sets out a capital investment, jobs to be created or <br />retained and some sort of penalty provision. Mr. Moore touched on business recruitment, in that <br />if you are going to hire a third party to do business recruitment then basically you have to have a <br />written contract approved by the Board. He said the Council appoints the Board members and <br />can remove them, but the Board of Directors oversees the sales tax and it ultimately goes to City <br />Council for approval of expenditures. Mr. Moore said he understood they amended their Bylaws <br />which were approved by the City Council and that included anything spent over a certain dollar <br />amount must go to the City Council for approval. <br />With regard to conflicts of interest statute, Mr. Moore said there was an AG opinion that noted <br />that the conflicts of interest Statute does not apply to Type A or Type B corporations because, <br />they were not considered local public officials. He said conflict of interest statements do not <br />apply to nonprofit corporations unless bylaws, articles of incorporation or City ordinance impose <br />the requirement. <br />Mr. Moore referenced page 5 of the report and noted that the report said it should be destroyed <br />when the information was no longer needed. Mr. Moore stressed that the report should not be <br />destroyed without reviewing the records retention schedule. He said he had covered the PEDC <br />financial review and lack of oversight. He said they could adopt a travel policy as Council did or <br />adopt a travel policy on what were allowable and not allowable expenditures. Mr. Moore also <br />said tracking of fund expenditures must be required to account for the use of public funds. With <br />regard to PEDC paying for expenses which should have been incurred by other entities, he said <br />he noted a couple of the expenditures included promotional expenditures, such as the incubator, <br />grand opening session, and promotional expenditures. He said these expenses were consistent <br />