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2001-04-11-Minutes 609 MINUTES OF THE PARIS ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT CORPORATION -- REGULAR MEETING April 11, 2001 The Paris Economic Development Corporation met in regular session on Wednesday, April 11, 2001, 4:00 P. M., at Heritage Hall, 1009 West Kaufman Street, Paris, Texas. President Michael Rhodes called the meeting to order with the following Directors were present: Jay Guest and Don Wall. Also present were ex-officio boardmembers Terry Christian, Executive Director Gary Vest, Mayor Michael J. Pfiester, City Attorney Larry W. Schenk, Director of Finance Gene Anderson, and Assistant City Clerk Tommy Haynes. President Michael Rhodes called for approval of minutes from previous meeting, and advised that minutes from the February 14, 2001 and March 1, 2001 meetings had been presented. President Rhodes asked if there were any corrections or additions to the minutes. There being none, a motion was made by Director Don Walls to approve the minutes as presented. The motion was seconded by Director Jay Guest and carried unanimously. President Michael Rhodes asked Gene Anderson, Director of Finance for the City of Paris, to give the financial report for March. Mr. Anderson came forward giving the expenditure report for the month of March, advising the Board that there were routine expenditures along with there not being anything unusual on the balance sheet. Mr. Anderson pointed out from the revenue report there was a sales tax correction for the month of March of $57,137.58. Mr. Anderson also passed out a separate handout containing the sales tax collections back to the origin for comparison. Mr. Anderson pointed out that the sales taxes were down approximately $17,000.00 compared to the same time last year, which is not a significant number. Mr. Anderson said also on the handout under the - interest earned column, there is a negative number and why that was 610 Minutes of the PEDC April 11, 2001 Page 2 needed is because they had to do a correction due to a double posting of an interest payment in February; and when that was corrected, it more than offset the interest that was actually earned during the month. Mr. Anderson moved to the next page and called the Board's attention to a payment of $ 410.00 to the agency for the bond debt, which is usually paid one or twice a year. The next page is the February Report showing sales tax of $102,782.78, and the interest number of $11,344.00 is overstated due to the double posting. He said the unusual expenditures for February were the International Piping System's payment, payment to the auditors for the audit report of $22,025.00, and the interest payment of $136,655.00 on the bonded indebtness. A motion was made by Director Jay Guest, seconded by Director Don Walls, for approval of the financial report as presented. The motion carried unanimously. President Rhodes announced that he did not have a report, but asked Gary Vest to report on the litigation involving Narda M. Brown and Danny Myles. Gary Vest pointed out that the Board had been furnished a letter from Ed Ellis and he is just bringing the Board up to date regarding the law suit, Miles/Brown vs. the Paris Industrial Foundation, and as you can see there is a copy of the letter from the Court of Appeals. Mr. Vest informed the Board that the court entered this order to date and the appeal was dismissed for want of prosecution. Mr. Vest said that an opinion came from the Justice telling them that they had 30 days to protect their appeal. Mr. Vest said that Mr. Ellis would take care of advising them and getting them off of the property so something could be done with that property. Mr. Vest said the first thing they would do is go out for bids to clear out the timber on the property. 611 Minutes of the PEDC April 11, 2001 -- Page 3 Mr. Vest said regarding the advertising campaign, they have had 129 responses. They have had three prospects that came through direct contact because of their efforts. One of those came through the website, and another prospect came from the California campaign, which is a company they are still working with. Mr. Vest said he has been very active in the legislative matters and gave the Board a summary of the Economic Development activity in legislature. Mr. Vest advised that there have been quite a few bills introduced that would affect the Economic Development sales tax. Mr. Vest informed the Board that he went to Austin last week and testified before the House of Economic Development Committee. He said there were four bills and he testified for two of the bills and against two bills. One of the bills was Mark Homer's bill, House Bill 282, which relates to the sale of assets of certain economic development corporations. Mr. Vest advised that they tried to come up with a way to address this bill where it could be specific, but they could not come up with a way to make it palatable to the Economic Developers throughout the state. Mr. Vest said that Mr. Homer asked the committee to leave it pending. He also testified for House Bill 3178 relating to the requirement that certain persons associated with development corporations complete a training seminar on the operation and administration of development corporations. Mr. Vest advised that this bill is going to require that City Administrators, County Clerks, along with Executive Directors of Economic Development Corporations to attend a training seminar at least once every 24 months. Mr. Vest said this bill was left pending and the committee recommended that Mr. Jim Solis clean the bill up and refer it to the House Floor, so it will not be coming back to the committee. One of the things Mr. Solis cleared up in the bill was that the training would be provided by the Texas Department of Economic Development and their argument on that was that the Texas Department of Economic Development does not have the expertise to provide this training, so Mr. Solis amended the bill to reflect that the department could contract the training out, which will probably be contracted out to the Minutes of the PEDC April 11, 2001 · Page 4 Texas Economic Development Council, or to someone who can provide this training. Another bill that Mr. Vest testified in favor of was House Bill 3298 by Bonnen and that bill relates to the contracting authority of any authorized uses for corporate revenue by certain industrial development corporation, which is what we are presently doing. He said it came in question with a law firm in Houston as to whether or not that was legal, so Representative Bonnen wrote it into law to make it clear that it was legal. Mr. Vest said that bill passed out of committee while he was there. Another bill that he testified against was House Bill 3271 introduced by Representative Coleman and it relates to the regulation of state subsidies granted for economic development purposes. Mr. Vest said why he mentioned this bill is because it is similar to a bill that Jim Solis had written called House Bill 932, which they were up in arms about. There was also Senate Bill 275 written by Senator Schackley, and you will remember that Senator Schackley is in El Paso and El Paso is one of the cities that is exempt from having a sales tax corporation. Jim Solis is in San Antonio which is also exempted from the sales tax corporation. Garnett Coleman is from Houston who is also exempted ,and they want the sales tax corporation to go out of business. Mr. Vest explained that Representative Coleman's bill would require all state entities or any corporation that is formed by a municipality, if they wanted to give an incentive to a prospect, they would have to run that through the comptroller, and do a cost benefit analysis. He said the comptroller would run it through the Texas Department of Economic Development and they would make a recommendation, then the comptroller would report to the legislature. Mr. Vest advised the Board that this would add about a year to any incentive they wanted to do and possibly two years, which would kill the ability of the EDC's to function. 613 Minutes of the PEDC April 11,2001 -- Page 5 : Mr. Vest advised the Board that he attended the TTC Legislative Meeting in Austin on February 26th and 27th, 2001. They just had the Lamar County Day in Austin on March 28th and 29th, 2001 and Director Don Walls made an excellent presentation to the Texas Department of Transportation on behalf of the East Texas Gulf Highway Association. Mr. Vest said they hosted the Northeast Texas Roundtable in February and they had a tour of the Kimberly-Clark Corporation after the meeting. In March, their meeting was in market and he and Kenny attended that meeting. At this time, Mr. Vest passed out a brochure on the sale of Oliver Rubber Plant along with a copy of the 2001 PEDC's Community Profile. Mr. Vest informed the Board that Kenny attended the National Association of Manufacturers in Chicago and Kenny worked in a participating booth with TXU Electric. Mr. Vest announced that Kenny had resigned today and is going to work for Guaranty Bank. Director Melba Harris arrived at 4:30 P. M. and assumed her seat at the table. Mr. Vest gave a update on Sesaco Corporation. He advised that the tax abatement has been approved by the City, Council and Paris Jr. College. Mr..Vest said the PEDC had approved two revolving loan funds and as it turned out, they are only going to use one of those. He advised that he has given the request for payment in the amount of $62,500.00 to Mr. Gene Anderson. Resolution No. 2001-004, resolving that the Paris Economic Development Corporation fully supports the consolidation of CHRISTUS ST. Joseph's Health Care System and McCuistion Regional Medical Center for the purposes of improving the health care in our community and the region, was presented by City Attorney Schenk. A motion was made by Director Minutes of the PEDC April I 1, 2001 Page 6 Jay Guest, seconded by Director Melba Harris, for approval of the resolution. The motion carried unanimously. Resolution No. 2001-005, resolving that the Paris Economic Development Corporation endorses HB3106 to increase the motor fuels tax by 5 cent, which said increase will amount to as little as $1.44 per month for a typical Texas motorist, and which said user fee increase will pump an additional $4.8755 billion into our state's transportation system over the next 10 years to help handle the overwhelming congestion problems the State faces today, was presented by City Attorney Schenk. After discussion, a motion was made by Director Don Walls, seconded by Jay Guest, for approval of the resolution. The motion carried unanimously. President Michael Rhodes announced that the next item on the agenda is a closed session in accordance with Sec. 551.086 of the Open Meetings Act, to discuss possible incentives, pending negotiations, and commercial or financial information from business prospects regarding the following: A. Prospect for the Oliver Rubber facility. · B. Request for support of a state project. President Michael Rhodes declared the open session closed at 4:45 P. M. and the closed session open. At 5:15 P. M. President Michael Rhodes announced that the Board would go back into open session at 5:15 P. M. -- Minutes of thc PEDC April 11, 2001 · Page 7 President Rhodes asked if there were any further business and there being none, he declared the meeting adjourned. MICHAEL RHODES, PRESIDENT ATTEST: MATTIE CUNNINGHAM City Clerk