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01/19/2017 MINUTES PARIS ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT CORPORATION MONTHLY MEETING PEDC Board Room 1125 Bonham Street Paris, Texas 75460 Thursday, January 19, 2017 4:00 O'CLOCK P.M. MINUTES Board Members Present: Staff Present: Richard Manning, Chairman Michael Paris, Executive Director John Brockman, Vice-Chair Paula Brownfield, Administrative Assistant Don Wilson, Secretary/Treasurer Chris Stout, Economic Development Associate Ray Banks Derrick Hughes (came in at 4:12 p.m.) Ex-Officio Members Present: Guest(s) Present: Ken Higdon, Lamar County Chamber Deanna Manning John Godwin, City Manager Legal Counsel: City Council Liaison: Stephanie Harris, City Attorney Billy Trenado Call to Order. Mr. Manning called the meeting of the Paris Economic Development Corporation to order at 4:00 p.m. on January 19, 2017. Citizens' Input Mr. Manning invited those present to speak during Citizens' Input. No one came forward and the Citizens' Input was closed. Discuss and possibly approve Minutes of the December 8, 2016, Special Meeting and the December 20, 2016, Monthly Meeting. Mr. Banks pointed out in the December 20, 2016 minutes; the first bullet point under the Executive Director's Monthly Report, the "$70 million dollar budget for the next ten years" was a very small amount for ten years. He questioned if that number was right. This was corrected for the minutes by Mr. Wilson and Mr. Paris by saying this was a "$70 million dollar a year budget for District #1 which is the Paris District." Mr. Manning asked for a motion to approve both sets of minutes. Mr. Banks made a motion to approve the minutes. Mr. Wilson seconded the motion. Vote was 4-ayes and 0-nays. t 95/ . oAi' a §§66+a-6J at \AJ MFs� s$s� t49 OZ4 Discuss and possibly approve December 2016 Financials. There was a question about an expense for E-File Cabinet, which Mr. Paris reminded the Board was for the Cloud storage we are using to organize and keep our files. E-File Cabinet is a yearly fee for file storage. Advanced Alarm is two separate charges; the first was our yearly alarm fee and the second was $57.00 for a sensor battery. Mr. Banks asked about amending the budget for the Park Street Project. Mr. Wilson suggested that we look at amending the budget at that end of March and then again at the end of the September, our fiscal year-end. Mr. Wilson informed the Board that on the Cash Flow Analysis we have a total of $3,195,319 in cash and reserves; with a balance of $494,863 for bond payment and cash balance of $2,700,455 in our unrestricted funds. Mr. Banks made a motion to approve the December financials. Mr. Brockman seconded the motion. Vote was 4-ayes and 0-nays. Discuss and possibly approve a Resolution for the expansion of Highway 271 coming up to Paris, Texas. When approved this would be signed by the PEDC Board. Mr. Paris said that the North East Texas Regional Mobility Authority (NETRMA) is asking for our support for the expansion of Highway 271 between Tyler and Paris, Texas. Judge Superville and the Lamar County Commissioners have already signed a Resolution with their support. The Resolution is going before the Paris City Council at their meeting on January 23, 2017. NETRMA is working with the seven counties in this corridor to show their unified support for TxDot to accelerate the schedule for expanding Highway 271. The Resolution in support of Highway 271 was read out loud in the meeting and Mr. Brockman made a motion to accept the Resolution as read. Mr. Wilson seconded the motion. Vote was 5-ayes and 0-nays. After the Board voted in favor of the Resolution, it was signed by all the Board Members and the Executive Director. A report and discussion for updating the PEDC office phone system. Chris Stout started the report with issues the current PEDC phone system is having. Our system: is more than ten years old, is a discontinued system with outdated equipment and no parts, has no service agreement or warranty, has no service technician to call when there are problems, has a voice mail message system that goes into a continual loop when someone tries to leave a message, and has phones that have been moved frequently. There is a main phone line and a separate internet line running concurrently into the building and we are the hub for the rest of the Depot lessees. • Cross Country Communication provided two quotes: 1) Allworx Connect 324 — has a greater potential for expansion in the future. Plus the Allworx has more features, like forwarding calls to your cell phone. 2) ESI 50L has what we need for an office phone. Both systems will meet our needs. • Folkerson Communications provided a quote for the ESI 50L that was a bit higher, but the voice mail was a 4 port 30 hour, which was twice the size of Cross Country's voice mail. Folkerson Communication sent more references than Cross Country, but they both are using some of the same phone systems. t 95/ . oAi' a §§66+a-6J at \AJ MFs� s$s� t4sozs • Web Fire Communications was a different type of phone service; this is a hosted service through a system that Web Fire has set up off site. Being an internet based service, if our internet goes down so do our phones. This company would take care of all the phone services through the internet and charge us a monthly fee. The ESI phone system is recommended by two of the companies and their quotes both have a one-time price that includes equipment and warranty. Later we could be paying for a few service calls, but not continual monthly bills. All were in agreement that the phone system we have is very unprofessional because it is outdated. The Board likes the idea of having someone in the community they can call if the phones go down. Some of the Board Members were ready to take a vote on a phone system, but the Agenda had this item for report and discussion only. Discuss Board expectations for an economic development video. Mr. Paris reminded the Board that money was set aside for an economic development video. The video idea is to have the PEDC, along with the Chamber, the VCC and maybe even the City; work on a video for each entity that has continuity between all the entities. This would give a recognizable presence to all the videos with different messages showcasing each entity. The questions were then asked of the Board: what do you think the video should look like, when promoting our community where should we place our emphasis, what areas of economic development should be highlighted. Mr. Paris gave an example of a plant manager telling how good it is to do business in Paris, Texas. Another scenario would be BodyGuard and the Mallicotes' talking about how good Paris is for start-up companies. Mr. Manning stated that PJC and our local workforce are important to show potential industries. Mr. Wilson asked if we would be writing and developing our own content or if the video company would do that for us. The idea would be for both the video company and us to have input on the content. Mr. Higdon and Mr. Paris both agreed that the RFP should be open to video companies around the area. Mr. Banks wanted to make sure that it was narrated. Mr. Hughes stated that we need to include the diversity of the community. Mr. Wilson wants to make sure that after the project is started the Board will have a say to the content and whether to expand on some of the subject matter. He also talked about how we do not want pounding music in the background. Mr. Paris thanked the Board for their input. Synopsis and discussion of Director Bank's requests: Mr. Paris said he focused on four basic elements to create a synopsis in answer to Mr. Banks bullet points below. • Mr. Paris' assessment of the PEDC when he arrived: The organization was in disarray and lacked creditability with the City Council and with the community. • Actions Mr. Paris took to improve the PEDC in the last twelve months: He stated that our organization has worked hard to improve integrity, transparency and solid customer service between us and the public. t 95/ . oAi' a §§66+a-6J at \AJ MF-s� s$s� t4csozs o How have those actions benefited the City of Paris and its citizens? Mr. Banks stated that reading about the twelve businesses that came to support the Spec Building, in hindsight we should have brought in company managers to the meeting instead. Discuss and possibly approve employee benefits at PEDC. A motion was made by Mr. Banks to table this item until after the Executive Session. Mr. Wilson seconded it. At 5:31 p.m. the Board placed this item back on the table. Mr. Paris stated that the preferred option allows for a $35 office visit, this Plan will cost $2,389 a month. The deficit to the PEDC budget will be $8,345 and this should be covered by reducing other budget items. He recommends the preferred option since the TML will manage our benefits. He also recommended Dental and Vision stay on this plan for the employees. The Board discussed the Dental and Vision that was added to Option 1(Plan P8555-150-30-A $35 OV) and most agreed that it should be left in the benefits package. Mr. Banks said that the total of three employees Dental and Vision for the year was $1267 and that it should not be in the insurance package. Mr. Brockman made a motion to approve Option 1. Mr. Hughes seconded the motion. Vote was 4-ayes and 1-nays. The dissenting vote was Mr. Banks. Executive Director's Monthly Report. • BRE meetings are scheduled with our industries in February. We are asking the industries to participate in a Business Retention and Attraction Survey giving us insight to each industry and to our industries as a whole. • ROI is producing leads and arranging introduction phone calls for us. • Marketing through Constant Contact with email blasts is seeing a 30% open rate and a 5-8% click rate. We are using Google Analytics to track our online presence. • An advisory group will be working on Airport Marketing. • The marketing travel schedule will be presented at our next meeting. • The signage for the Build-to-Suit site is in place at 2305 NW Loop 286. • Highway 82 Coalition is working toward the highway becoming 4-lane. Convene into Executive Session: At 5:21 p.m. the Board convened into Executive Session. Reconvene into Open Session and possibly take action on item(s) discussed in Executive Session. The Board reconvened into open session at 5:29 p.m. • Mr. Banks made a motion to change the PEDC organizational chart to eliminate the position of Assistant Executive Director and add Economic Development Associate in lieu of that. Mr. Hughes seconded the motion. Vote was 5-ayes and 0-nays. t 95/ . oAi' a §§66+a-6J at \AJ MF-s� s$s� t A-s s ozs • Mr. Wilson made a motion to approve the Economic Development Associate job description and as presented on 01/13/2017. Mr. Banks seconded the motion. Vote was 5- ayes and 0-nays. Discuss Future Agenda Items. No future agenda items were discussed. Adiourn Mr. Banks made a motion to adjourn. Mr. Wilson seconded the motion. Vote was 5-ayes to 0-nays. The meeting was adjourned at 5:38 p.m. Respectfully submitted, Paula Brownfield Administrative Assistant Paris Economic Development Corporation