Economic Development Authority of the City of Richmond, Virginia
Board Meeting
October 29, 2009
Members present:
Mr. Richard Johnson, Chair
Ms. Anne Gordon Greever, Vice-chair
Mr. Dennis Ryan
Ms. Helen Alli
Mr. Kelvin Hanson
Ms. Tonya Scott-Hickman
Others present:
Mr. Brendan Williamson, Department of Economic Development
Ms. Jan Reid, City Attorneys Office
Ms. Lisa Jones, Reese and Associates
Mr. Kevin Brown, Economic Development Authority
Mr. Joe Young, Economic Development Authority
I. Call to Order
Mr. Johnson called the meeting to order at 4:12 pm in the boardroom on the eighth floor of the AdvanTech building at 501 E. Franklin Street.
II. Public Comment
•No public comment was offered.
III. Approval of the Minutes of the Previous Meeting
•Mr. Johnson, with unanimous approval, deferred action on minutes of the previous board meeting, making a note to re-email the packet Ms. Alli. Ms. Greever made a suggestion that the packet be scanned into a PDF file so that it could be easier to access before the meeting.
IV. Unfinished Business
•Ms. Reid, who sat in on the board meeting in place of Ms. Ashley, reported that there are no new updates on the EDA Revolving Loan Fund.
•Mr. Brown stated that Ms. Ashley and Mr. Chapman were working on getting the CARE and Extra CARE Loan Program completed.
•Ms. Alli is interested in elaboration on the working capital and the inventory of the CARE plans. However, Ms. Greever stated that REDC already offers help in those areas.
•Mr. Johnson then turned the floor over to Ms. Greever to give the status on the 2nd and Marshall Proposals.
Ms. Scott-Hickman entered the meeting at 4:29 pm.
•Ms. Greever proposed that the board needs to brainstorm on the key elements for the project, so that they can make a decision on the proposals. There also needs to be some sort of report card established for evaluating each of the proposals.
•Mr. Hanson then added that the Board needed to make sure of the plans economic impact. He states, that we as the EDA have responsibilities to help Richmond thrive by using both local contractors and local businesses where applicable.
•Ms. Greever and Mr. Johnson discussed whether or not the Board should be involved in leasing out the property, or to just go ahead and sell the property entirely.
•Mr. Hanson made a point that we should talk to all four proposals since there were only four proposals given.
•Ms. Scott-Hickman stated that the proposal from Revitalize Richmond/Virginia was a little too vague, and she felt it was not responsive enough to the RFQ.
•Mr. Johnson agreed with Ms. Scott-Hickman that the RFQ just didnt seem to make the cut.
•The Board then motioned to simple send Revitalize Richmond/Virginia a letter saying thank you for the offer, but we would rather work with you on a different project in the future. Mr. Johnson, Ms. Greever, Mr. Ryan, Ms. Alli, and Ms. Scott-Hickman were all in favor.
•Mr. Williamson then stated that one proposal in particular should be looked at simply because it is different from all the others. This is the proposal in which the Board would lease out the property.
•Mr. Johnson then stated and confirmed that everyone is okay to move forward with the remaining three proposals.
•Ms. Greever scheduled that the proposals be heard on November 11th at 9:00am.
•Mr. Johnson then states that the elections for the board will be held on November 17th at 4pm.
•Ms. Greever suggested limiting the presentations for the proposals to 30 minutes.
•Mr. Johnson stated he would like to hold a Board Meeting following the presentations.
V. Financial Overview
•Ms. Jones opened with an explanation on the Financial Statements for the previous month.
•Mr. Johnson inquired why RFQ advertising was paid out the AdvanTech account.
•Ms. Alli then questions why it cost approx. $7, 300 to advertise the RFQ.
•Ms. Greever then stated that the ad was published in Richmond, DC, and other publications, and that it does indeed cost a lot of money to get that kind of ad circulated well enough.
•Mr. Johnson then posed the question of whether or not we are making enough money.
•Ms. Jones then continued with the Financial Statements.
•Ms. Greever made note that these statements should also be scanned in as a PDF for future meetings.
•Ms. Jones finished her portion of the meeting at 5:20pm
VI. Report of the Officers
Report of the Chairman
•Mr. Johnson reported that he had met with Mr. Chapman and Ms. Ferrara and discussed with them whether or not one of them wants to serve as the Director of the EDA.
•Several Board Members questioned their ability to be able to serve both positions.
•Mr. Johnson stated that neither of them was ready to make a decision yet on that topic.
•Ms. Greever requested Ms. Reid to ask Ms. Ashley what we need to do and who we are to use as the director.
•Mr. Johnson wants to know if this has already been drafted for city council, and if so how far along is it.
•Ms. Greever, Ms. Alli, and Ms. Scott-Hickman all agreed that we need to appoint our own director of the EDA, and that we should not have to piggy-back off of the DED.
•Mr. Brown suggests that we go before the city council to find out how to make this happen.
VII. Committee Reports
Incubator Committee:
•Ms. Scott-Hickman asked what process we are following as an Incubator. What are we doing, and are we acting correctly as an incubator. She also poses advice on how we approach new leases and tenants. There needs to be a better job of performing credit checks. She, along with the board, also wants to see a breakdown of the charges to the tenants instead of just one lump monthly sum.
•Mr. Johnson proposes that we can either follow the leases out with flat fee as long as costs are being coved, or there can be a breakdown of charges making the rent not exactly all inclusive.
•Ms. Greever is interested in seeing if we can start to house more city offices in the building to help improve the rent roll. With the merger of departments it might be beneficial to explore this avenue immediately.
•Ms. Greever noted she would like Mr. Ellison to make up a proposal to the city to see if they want to be tenants in the building.
•Ms. Scott-Hickman stated that there needs to be a policy established for the use of the EDA credit card. We need to clarify who can use the card, and how much they can spend.
•Mr. Johnson added that there needs to be a routine review of what is on the card.
•Mr. Johnson also noteed to Mr. Young to check and see if there is already a policy for the credit card established by the treasurer.
•Ms Greever proposes that instead of using an EDA credit card that there simply be debit account that is available for Mr. Ellison to use.
•Mr. Johnson would like Mr. Ellison to also look into that option.
VIII. New Business
•Ratification of action of Executive Committee for the Hippodrome-Taylor Mansion LLC.
•Mr. Johnson introduces the Ordinance 2009-217
•Mr. Johnson calls a vote with everyone in favor of the ordinance.
•Mr. Ryan makes a note that this ordinance was a favor that Mr. Chapman and Ms. Ferrara needed to be handled by the board as quickly as possible. He states that with our swift action for them they need to now return the favor to the EDA with a decision on whom if anyone will serve as director.
IX. Adjournment
The meeting was adjourned at 6:24 pm.