Monday night the Paris City Council discussed the return of oversight of the PEDC to the City Council.
Council Member Sue Lancaster began, “I was interested in how oversight was lost on PEDC. I was interested in how we did lose focus. I did much research on it, and I agree with Mr. Pickle that we need to have as much oversight as possible to get it back on the right track. I did find that Mr. Gilbert hired Jeff Moore to give him talking points to the City Council to reduce the oversight. And that bill was $409.
What I read in Mr. Moore’s talking points was that these were concerns that might impact the ability of the EDC: requiring City Council approval of all EDC projects creates time constraints and additional bureaucratic processes. That was one thing, maybe not bring everything back to the City Council. It exposes potential projects to political barriers. The City Council typcially does not have nor take the time to deliberate on the details of economic development projects. This is why we have the EDC’s.”
After outlining Attorney Moore’s talking points Mrs. Lancaster commented, “But in fact, that lack of oversight led to some misuse, questionable use, and I am certainly wanting that put back on the City Council. Yes, it’s going to take time, but maybe in the things that happened in the past won’t happen in the future. I would like to see intense improvement of information from the PEDC and put that back with the City Council. I recommend that we change back to getting more in detail as to what’s going on. I don’t mind taking the time to do it. I think it’s important.”
Council Member Pickle then said, “Two weeks ago, we went to visit with the Kilgore and Tyler EDC and it was very informative and I think that we all came back with the idea that we made this a lot more complicated on ourselves than we should have. I have presented the Mayor and Mr. Godwin with a copy of the way the EDC contracts enter into a contract on an annual basis with the city of Kilgore. The employees are the employees of the city. The properties are also under the protection of the city.”
He continued, “The board continues to operate, continues to make recommendations. I’m not wanting to diminish the responsibility of the PEDC but I think there are some things to consider. Some better controls. The financial part of it could be run through Mr. (Gene) Anderson. The City Attorney representing the PEDC. There are changes that aren’t going to happen in the next week. My main concern was that we go out and that we appoint good representatives of the community. We need to make good decisions on who we put on those boards.”
John Godwin spoke about the response received from the Texas Attorney General’s office regarding the PEDC investigation. Captain Gregory Lucas of the Texas Attorney General’s Office sent a written comment to the council about the investigation saying, “Crimes like this are reported to local law enforcement.” With little information from the Attorney General’s Office, there was no discussion.
The Council also unanimously agreed to approve the awarding of Contract B1 to B.Bray Construction in the amount of $2,425,002.00 for the 2013 Bond Fund Water Sanitary Sewer Replacement Project. The project involves streets West Houston, Campbell, and Maple in West Paris.
After convening into a brief executive session, the council made no action and no discussion.
The meeting adjourned at 6:30 p.m.