09/15/2014 MINUTES - Laserfiche WebLink

Home Browse Search

Council/PEDC Meeting September 15, 2014 Page 7 voters can vote in or vote out the sales tax if they think there is miss -use and that it was a local issue. Mr. Turner questioned the remedy. Mr. Moore said the remedy was to move forward, have written contracts, and to make sure they follow the approval process. Council Member Lancaster said there was another remedy and that was to simply do away with this useless organization. Mr. Turner said two lawyers could look at a set of facts and come to different conclusions. He said Mr. Moore had discredited Defenbaugh's report and said there was no criminal conduct. Mr. Turner also said he had reviewed the Defenbaugh report and there was criminal conduct. He said the way to resolve this was to convene a grand jury, get a prosecutor and issue subpoenas. Mr. Turner said if nothing had been done then it would clear the name of people and if there had been criminal conduct and the tax payer monies had been squandered the way he believed it had, then let the criminal penalties fall. Mr. Moore said he agreed that attorneys will disagree and have different opinions. Mr. Moore said if it was criminal, that was for the District Attorney to review. Mr. Turner said he understood Mr. Moore was initially hired by Mr. Gilbert. Mr. Turner also said this was tax payer money, that he did not want it abused and that the people had not gotten the value for their dollar. Mr. Moore said they had gotten some value. Mr. Turner responded by saying there had been an awful lot of money squandered. Mr. Moore said promotional activity sometimes takes two or three years before you see results. Mr. Turner said over the past twenty to twenty -five years the tax payers of this community had put 25 -30 million dollars into PEDC. Mr. Wilson confirmed with Interim PEDC Director Shannon Barrentine that PEDC received about $250,000 annually, which was 21 million dollars total income received by PEDC. Mr. Turner said 21 million dollars was a heck a lot of money. Council Member Lancaster said the spreadsheet she had indicated that it comes to 35 million dollars and she got it from the PEDC. Mr. Moore suggested that the State Comptroller could provide that answer. Mr. Moore referenced different cities and comparisons, such as the Cowboy Stadium and the baseball Park as related to Type A or Type B sales tax. Mr. Turner said it was good when the money was properly used and not squandered. Council Member Lancaster said Paris did not have any of those things, those were wonderful and she would love for them to be in Paris. Council Member Pickle said the Council was to blame because they were the ones to decide who to put on the PEDC. He said it was obvious they had done a poor job of making appointments to PEDC over the years. Council Member Grossnickle inquired of Mr. Moore if it was an unusual situation for an EDC not to have a lot of success stories. Council Member Grossnickle said Paris was competing against multiple cities, both in state and out of state. He said you are very lucky when you attract Kimberly -Clark or Campbell Soup and those were done without the aid of PEDC, but by good citizens who worked hard to make those deals come true. Council Member Grossnickle said most cities believe that an EDC is a useful function, but Paris had a capital of people who banded together to try to decide that they should vote it out. He also said Mr. Gilbert was the one being accused of all this wrong doing, yet under him PEDC was the most successful during his time and he actually received awards. He referenced Mr. Gilbert receiving national attention for being one of the most successful EDC's and said whether they squandered money or not, they