Loading...
03-21-2011 (WEDC) Minutes Minutes Wylie Economic Development Corporation Board of Directors Meeting Monday, March 21, 2011 — 7:00 A.M. WEDC Offices— Conference Room 250 South Highway 78 — Wylie, Texas CALL TO ORDER Announce the presence of a Quorum President Marvin Fuller called the meeting to order at 7:00 a.m. Board Members present were: John Yeager, Chris Seely, Mitch Herzog, and Todd Wintters. WEDC staff present was Executive Director Sam Satterwhite and Administrative Assistant Gerry Harris. Ex-officio members Eric Hogue and Mindy Manson were present. CITIZEN PARTICIPATION There being no citizen participation, President Fuller proceeded to Action Items. ACTION ITEMS ITEM NO. 1 — Consider and act upon approval of the March 18, 2011 Minutes of the WEDC Board of Directors Meeting. MOTION: A motion was made by Mitch Herzog and seconded by John Yeager to approve the March 18, 2011 Minutes of the WEDC Board of Directors Meeting. The WEDC Board voted 5 — FOR and 0 — AGAINST in favor of the motion. ITEM NO. 2 — Consider and act upon an Ad Valorem Tax Abatement and Sales Tax Reimbursement Agreement between the City of Wylie, Wylie Economic Develop i.e.nt Corporation, Greenway-Springs, LTD, Greenway-Columbia, LTD, and Greenway-Wylie. In review, on December 20, 2007 the City of Wylie, WEDC, and Greenway Investment Company entered a tax abatement and sales tax reimbursement agreement. The intent of the agreement was to publically participate in the environmental remediation of the 15.72 acre Greenway-Springs site which is due west of Home Depot. The structure of the Agreement was to provide an 80% tax abatement on all new value located within Reinvestment Zone No. 6. In addition, the WEDC agreed to reimburse Greenway .25% - .5% of the taxable sales receipts generated within the Reinvestment Zone. 0.5% of the sales receipts are reimbursed on the Greenway-Springs site, .25% are reimbursed on the Greenway-Columbia site, and .25% are WEDC — Minutes March 21, 2011 Page 2 of 5 reimbursed on the Greenway-Wylie site. To date the only property which has generated sales tax or has benefitted from the abatement is the Greenway-Columbia site. On March 11, 2011 Greenway requested that the City of Wylie/WEDC terminate the Agreement. Greenway indicated that there is a buyer interested in one of the Greenway-Wylie properties fronting Home Depot and that the buyer refuses to move forward with the purchase due to potential liability created by the terms of the Agreement. Further, Greenway stated that there are three different ownership groups associated with Greenway-Wylie, Greenway-Columbia, and Greenway-Springs. Greenway-Columbia is the only entity benefitting from the Agreement and from an accounting standpoint it is difficult for Greenway Columbia to reimburse Greenway- Springs for remediation expenses (S140,000 to date). Since July 2009, the WEDC has refunded sales taxes generated in the amount of S4,929.61 to Greenway-Columbia. Also, since the 2008 tax year the Collin County Tax Assessor has abated S37,055.31 in property taxes which otherwise would have been collected by the City of Wylie. In regards to the overall effectiveness of the program, staff believed it was well intended but fell short of the desired outcome. It was the general perception at the time the Agreement was created that in order for the Greenway-Springs site to receive a Final Certificate of Completion from the TCEQ, all of the soil impacted by the Electroextraction landfill would have to be removed from the site. Greenway to their credit was able to have the soil downgraded in terms of its contamination level which allowed it to remain on-site and a Final Certificate of Completion was issued at a relatively minimal expense. While there are still compaction issues and increased development costs, the Certificate was issued by the TCEQ which was the primary goal of the Agreement. Not to the benefit of Greenway, the retail momentum has shifted from the 544/78 intersection to Woodbridge Crossing along with the most significant retail downturn in at least the last 20 years. In reality, had Greenway been required to relocate the impacted materials on the Springs site, a Certificate of Completion would most likely not have been issued due to the costs and the lack of return based upon limited productivity of the property. Staff had no issue with terminating the Agreement. The question was whether the WEDC Board would require Greenway to refund the 54,929.61 in sales tax reimbursements. Based on a recommendation from the WEDC Board pertaining to their reimbursements, the Wylie City Council will consider the 'termination' on 3-21-11 with as well as the status of 537,055.31 in abated taxes, Mr. Fuller commented that he would support terminating the Agreement and waiving the sales tax reimbursements. Further Mr. Fuller supported a recommendation to the City Council to waive the reimbursement of abated taxes. MOTION: A motion was made by Todd Wintters and seconded by John Yeager to terminate the Ad Valorem Tax Abatement and Sales Tax Reimbursement Agreement between the Wylie Economic Development Corporation, Greenway-Springs, LTD, Greenway-Columbia, LTD, and Greenway Wylie, WEDC — Minutes March 21, 2011 Page 3 of 5 L.P. and recommend that the City of Wylie also terminate the Agreement, and that the WEDC waive the repayment of any and all Sales Tax Reimbursements paid to this date. The WEDC Board voted 5 — FOR and 0 —AGAINST in favor of the motion. ITEM NO. 3 — REMOVE FROM TABLE: Consider and act upon issues surrounding reclassifying the WEDC Administrative Assistant job title, job description, and salary. A motion was made by Mitch Herzog to remove consideration of Item No. 3 from the table. Staff presented that the WEDC support personnel is currently classified as an Administrative Secretary per the City of Wylie job descriptions. The WEDC Administrative Secretary has an annual salary of$43,222.40, receives allowances for phone of S1,199.90 and car of$1,720.16. Car and phone allowances were designed specifically to cover costs and in stalls opinion should not be considered part of salary being that the job function requires both daily travel and access to a cell phone. There arc 13 steps, or salary grades within this job description of an Administrative Secretary, with Mrs. Harris at Step 12. Finally, the WEDC Administrative Secretary is an hourly employee and not salaried. The Board was presented with the job description for an Administrative Secretary, which is primarily focused on secretarial duties, which at the WEDC is performed at a very high level. However, the current job description does not accurately describe the daily requirements placed upon WEDC personnel as they relate to budget and accounting duties, monitoring compliance of WEDC performance agreements, acting as WEDC liaison with state agencies, knowledge and application of the Texas Open Meeting Act, development of proposals and review of contracts, preparation of material for Board Meetings, coordination of economic development activities with all City of Wylie departments, and most importantly accept and independently complete assignments with time sensitive completion dates. The current salary fairly compensates the clerical aspects of the job. However it is the previously listed job functions which are required, but not contemplated in the job description and associated salary. As there is not a comparative job description within the City of Wylie which contemplates all the duties of Administrative Secretary and a Project Manager, staff proposed a new job title and description specific to the WEDC of Senior Assistant, While 'Senior' many time refers to supervisory capacity, the WEDC title will refer to responsibility and experience level, in addition expectations over and above that of a clerical worker. Staff presented a proposed Senior Assistant job description for the Board's review, Staff proposed a mid-year salary adjustment from $43,222.40 to $48,770 effective April 1, 2011. The proposed increase would have an impact to the FY 2010 — 2011 budget of approximately $3,600. Staff also proposed to classify the Senior Assistant position from an hourly (non-exempt) employee to salaried (exempt). The current Administrative Secretary is required to be available for early morning meetings, work through lunch, work after 500 p.m., work weekends when necessary, and represent the WEDC by participating in community events in the evenings and WEDC —Ni mutes March 21, 2011 Page 4 of 5 weekends. The City of Wylie compensates hourly employees for any work over 40 hours by awarding comp time at the rate of 1.5 hours for every hour worked and can be used at the employee's discretion and supervisors' approval. The maximum comp time which can be accumulated is 30 hours. The WEDC Administrative Secretary has rarely fallen below the 30 hour maximum and would accumulate considerably more hours if there were no maximum. Being that there is an expectation that there will be 40+ hour work weeks, the salaried (exempt) status will formalize that expectation. The U. S. Department of Labor requires that an employees'job function and duties meet several criteria prior to being exempted from hourly wages. The proposed job description and current WEDC employee meets the Exemption •for Administrative Employees under the Fair Labor Standards Act. Staff recommended that the WEDC Board of Directors approve the creation of a Senior Assistant job title, approve the Senior Assistant job description as presented, approve at mid- year a salary for the Senior Assistant of $48,770, and authorize the WEDC Executive Director to approve a Budget Amendment reducing the Land "uclget in an amount equal to the increase in personnel expenses which is estimated at $3,600. The Board was supportive of the recommendations but wanted the record to reflect that there would be no salary cost of living or merit increase for the Senior Assistant in the FY 2011 — 2012 WEDC Budget. Further, the Board reiterated its position that there will be no new positions funded for the foreseeable future. MOTION: A motion was made by Todd Wintters and seconded by Chris Seely to create the position of WEDC Senior Assistant and job description as presented, approve an annual salary of S48,770, and authorize the WEDC Executive Director to approve a mid-year budget amendment reducing the 'Land' budget and increasing Personnel expenses in an amount equal to S3,600. The WEDC Board voted 5 — FOR and 0 — AGAINST in favor of the motion. ITEM NO. 4 — Consider and act upon issues surrounding the construction of a 96,000 square foot industrial facility at 1405 Martinez Lane. Staff reported that following the Board meeting on 3-18-11, staff was informed that a 15' overhead door at the east end of the facility was not sized properly during the planning stage of the project. Increasing the height to 20' will reduce concrete cost on the panel but increase costs associated with the door and motor. Staff authorized the change to be made in the field with an estimated change order of$3,000. Staff also reported that they will be developing alternatives to reduce the volume of dirt spoiled on the northeast corner of the property. No action was requested by staff for this item. WEDC —Minutes March 21, 2011 Page 5 of 5 EXECUTIVE SESSION The WEDC Board recessed into Closed Session at 7:52 a.m. in compliance with Section 551.001, et.seq. Texas Government Code, to wit: Section 551.071 (Consultation with Attorney) of the Local Government Code, Vernon's Texas Code Annotated (Open Meetings Act). • Deliberate a pending or contemplated litigation surrounding Project Re-tool. Section 551.072 (Deliberations Regarding Real Property) of the Local Government Code, Vernon's Texas Code Annotated (Open Meetings Act). • Deliberate the purchase of real property generally located near the intersection of State Highway 78 and Birmingham. RECONVENE INTO OPEN MEETING The WEDC Board of Directors reconvened into open session at 7:54 a.m. ADJOURNMENT With no further business, President Fuller adjourned the WEDC Board meeting at 7:54 a.m. )1710 Marvin Fuller, President ATTEST: Samuel D.R. Satterwhite Executive Director