ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT CORPORATION
OF WAYNE COUNTY, INDIANA
Board Meeting Minutes
Monday, December 5, 2016
BOARD MEMBERS PRESENT:Barrett, Clark, Elzemeyer, Frame, Jackson, Parker, Upchurch, Warner, Witte

BOARD MEMBERS ABSENT:Green, Russell

STAFF PRESENT:

Shaffer, Doty, Henry, Geres

GUESTS PRESENT:

Oler, Ron – Richmond Common Council
Plasterer, Jeff – Wayne County Council
Shuey, Mickey – Palladium-Item
Sowers, George – EDC Attorney
Thurlow, Kim – Ivy Tech Community CollegeCALL TO ORDER
Board Chair Witte called the meeting of the Board of Directors of the Economic Development Corporation of Wayne
County, Indiana to order at 4:00 p.m. on Monday, December 5, 2016, in the EDC board room.
APROVAL OF MINUTES
Witte stated the minutes from the November 7th, 2016 board meetings were on pages 2-3 of the board packet. Motion
by Parker, second by Frame to approve the November 7th, 2016 of minutes as presented. Motion carried.
TREASURER’S REPORT
Warner reported the treasurer’s report included financials for November. He reported the EDC was under budget MTD by$5,707.88 and under budget YTD by $57,992.37. Warner reported much of the overages will catch up by year end, but1367 Employee Health Insurance, 2229 Other Supplies, and 3321 Postage and Freight will need transfers. Motion byElzemeyer, second by Parker to approve the November 2016 financials. Motion carried.
Warner reported on a transfer requiring Wayne County Council approval. $91.68 would need moved from 1368
Unemployment Tax to 1367 Employee Health Insurance. The transfer is needed due to an increase in premiums, as theinsurance renews annually in December. This increase was unaccounted for when the budget was prepared in 2015, as
the increase was unknown at that time. Shaffer will take this before Wayne County Council on Wednesday, December 7th,
2016 when she will be attending the budget approval meeting. Motion by Frame, second by Barrett to approve the transfer
as presented. Motion carried.
COMMITTEE REPORTS
A. Finance – Warner reported the finance committee met on Thursday, December 1st, 2016, reviewed the general ledger
and discussed creating a line item for other non-budget items such as the donation for the old Reid Hospital clean-up
and the money raised independently of the budget for the talent recruitment website.
B. Executive – Jackson reported the executive committee met on December 1st, 2016 and reviewed the 2017 budget,
received an update on the work plan, discussed town EDIT contracts, discussed the office lease, talked about the MIP
farm lease which will be for a two-year term, and also received an update about the talent recruitment website.
C. Nominating – Elzemeyer reported the nominating committee met at the end of November and discussed the slate ofofficers. The proposed slate is Jeff Jackson – Chair, Tim Frame – Vice Chair, Lee Elzemeyer – Treasurer, and Bob Warner– Secretary. There were no other nominations from the floor. Motion by Upchurch, second by Barrett to approve theslate of officers. Motion carried.
EDC STAFF REPORTGeres – Geres reported on creating a map and submitting local incentive information for Project Brilliance, hosting a site
visit for Project Flynn while Shaffer was in Japan, helping to prepare Shaffer for her Japan trip, making finalizations to the2017 budget, and attending the budget workshop with Board Chair Paul Witte and Board Vice Chair Jeff Jackson.
Henry – Henry reported on working with the Excel Center on a reverse job fair, facilitating a meeting with Omen Castingsand Ivy Tech to discuss how they can work together during Omen’s start up period to provide training for employees after
they are hired, working on the Project Flynn site visit and contacting local employers to participate in a labor market
analysis, working on the talent recruitment website and making Wayne County high schools aware of the site, participatingin Advanced Facilitation training, working with ACT to get our county to turn gold on the site, community networking, andattending 5 BRE visits.
Doty – Doty reported working on the site visit for Project Flynn and working on the talent recruitment website. She
reported they are in the process of working out the branding, color, logo, and name. She reported on being notified that
Wayne County received an award for advanced manufacturing, mostly likely due to our efforts to attract Blue Buffalo andOmen Castings in 2016. She reported she would be marketing the award and gold level Certified Work Ready Community
designation on the website and through social media.
Shaffer – Shaffer reported business development remains strong with 5 new projects initiating in November. She reported
on hosting a site visit for Project Triangle who is focused on the real estate currently. She then reported on her trip toJapan and showed a slideshow of her visit. She reported on visiting with Indiana’s sister state where the vice governor
hosted a traditional Japanese lunch. She talked about the companies she visited including TBK, Suncall, Asahitec,Yamaguchi, Yukiya’s parent company Yamashita, Honda, Mitsubishi, Takenaka Corporation and others. She reported onlearning of new investment opportunities with 3 of the companies and 1 company received an EDIT application. She
reported on the challenges reported from the companies being workforce, finding plant managers with tenure,communication issues between staff and executives because of the language barrier, and Trump’s threats to tax imports
from Mexico where many of these companies have plants. She also visited Waseda University who has an exchange
program with Earlham College. They spoke about utilizing students as interns who could work at the company while inJapan and then return home and possibly gain permanent employment and vice versa for the Japanese students who will
be studying at Earlham who could intern at our local Japanese companies and return home to Japan and gain permanent
employment with companies.
OTHER BUSINESS
A. EDC President’s New Employment Contract
Witte presented Shaffer’s contract for 2017-2020 with a salary of $110,000 for 2017-2018 and $115,000 for 2019-2020.
All other terms remain the same as the previous contract with the exception of the removal of the Forest Hill’s Country
Club membership which hadn’t been utilized. Motion by Clark, second by Upchurch to approve Shaffer’s 2017-2020contract as presented. Motion carried.
B. 2017 Budget Review
Shaffer reported on the 2017 budget. The total amount is $599,057.24 up 9% from the previous year. Most of the increase
can be attributed to the salary raise for Shaffer and 3% raise for staff as well as the extra $25,000 budgeted incontractual/professional services for project expenditures and costs associated with industrial park development. Motion
by Frame, second by Barrett to approve the 2017 budget as presented. Motion carried.
ADJOURNMENT
Witte adjourned the meeting at 4:43 p.m.
NEXT BOARD MEETING – Monday, January 9, 2017
at EDC of Wayne County, Richmond, Indiana at 4:00 pm