DRAFT

City of Lawrence

Public Incentives Review Committee

November 3, 2010 minutes

MEMBERS PRESENT:         Dennis Highberger, Cindy Yulich, Mike Gaughan, Brad Burnside, Brenda McFadden, Aron Cromwell and Mayor Mike Amyx, Scott Morgan

MEMBERS ABSENT:           none

STAFF PRESENT:              David L. Corliss, Diane Stoddard, Roger Zalneraitis, Toni Wheeler

PUBLIC PRESENT:            Hank Booth, Beth Johnson, Matt Gough

Mayor Amyx called the meeting to order at 4 pm.

Ms. Yulich moved to approve the minutes from the April 26, 2010 meeting, Mr. Highberger seconded the motion.  Motion was approved with Vice Mayor Cromwell abstaining due to not being at the April 2010 meeting.

Roger Zalneraitis, the City’s Economic Development Coordinator/Planner, introduced the project and Plastikon. Mr. Zalneraitis indicated that the company has requested two items from the City- industrial revenue bonds and a job training incentive of $500 per employee up to a total of 126 employees.  He explained that the industrial revenue bonds offer some financing advantages for the company, but they are not any risk to the City and no tax abatement is involved.

Mr. Highberger asked about the application and the company’s statement that 100% of the materials would be purchased within the City.  Mr. Highberger also asked about part of the application, question number 25, in light of his position representing the Sustainability Advisory Board.  Mr. Zalneraitis indicated he would follow up with the company to answer both questions.

Mr. Zalneraitis explained the benefit cost model and explained the rationale for two models, one taking into account the change in the building value and one not taking that into account.  Mr, Morgan asked if the model took into account new revenue for the school district as a result of new students.  Mr. Zalneraitis confirmed that it did.  Mr. Zalneraitis briefly explained the model.  He then covered the outline of the incentive agreement for Plastikon.  He clarified that the table was only an example, not what was agreed to at this point.  Plastikon projects that the average manufacturing job would be $15.75 per hour.  He indicated that the projected wage was in line with other manufacturing positions in Lawrence.  He then covered the method of calculating compliance, which was in line with the new economic development policy adopted by the City. 

Mr. Highberger indicated that he thought this was a great project and liked the job incentive, but asked about averaging each of the categories and how over-performance in one area could skew the overall target.  He wondered about a safety factor to be built into the formula.  Mr. Morgan suggested a weighting factor for one of the criteria.  There was concern about that expressed because of how to weight one category over another.  Ms. Yulich indicated that could be something that could be examined for the future.  Mr. Highberger suggested that a maximum of 125% in each category could be applied to address the over-performance issue.  Mayor Amyx indicated that we don’t want to overcomplicate this because this is the type of company that we want.  With that in mind, Mr. Highberger agreed and withdrew his suggestion. 

Mayor Amyx asked if there were any further questions.  Mr. Morgan was interested in getting the information about how school revenue is calculated. 

Mayor Amyx complemented everyone involved in this project.

Mr. Highberger made a motion to recommend the employee training incentive and the industrial revenue bond be recommended to be approved by the City Commission as proposed.  Ms. Yulich seconded the motion.  The motion was approved unanimously

The meeting was adjourned at 4:18 pm.