ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT CORPORATION
OF WAYNE COUNTY, INDIANA
Board Meeting Minutes
Monday, March 4, 2013
BOARD MEMBERS PRESENT:Cohen, Elzemeyer, Green, Guiley, Hackman, Meredith, Robinson, Warner, Witte

BOARD MEMBERS ABSENT:

Ahaus, Clark, Smith

STAFF PRESENT:

Shaffer, Doty, Geres, Hutchison

GUESTS PRESENT:

Burns, Denny – Wayne County Commissioner
Groth, Norene – Wayne Bank & Trust
Oler, Ron – Richmond City Council
Plasterer, Jeff – Wayne County Council
Ronald, Louise – Palladium-Item
Soukup, Mark – Wayne Bank & Trust
Sowers, George – Attorney for EDC

CALL TO ORDER
Board Chair Robinson called the meeting of the Board of Directors of the Economic Development Corporation ofWayne County, Indiana to order at 4:01 p.m. on Monday, March 4, 2013, in the Richmond Room at Earlham
College in Richmond, Indiana.
APROVAL OF MINUTES
Robinson stated the minutes from the February 4th, 2013 board meeting were on pages 2 - 4 of the board packet
and allowed time for the board to review them. Motion by Witte, second by Hackman to approve the minutes
from the February 4th, 2013 monthly Board of Directors meeting. Motion carried.
TREASURER’S REPORT
Elzemeyer reported the treasurer’s report could be found on page 5 of the board packet. He reported the EDC
was under budget $21,520.33 for the month of February. He reported the main item to consider was the $6,100
from the county in the contingencies line item. This is for a contract not yet paid and is shown as money coming
in. This will show as an expense once paid. He reported the YTD summary could be found on page 10. He pointed
out that legal services was ahead of schedule and is working to catch up, and pointed out the utility payment
reimbursement for the electrical service on the billboard at the GIP. He said there was nothing out of the ordinary
to report. Elzemeyer ran through the account summary as of February 28, 2013: Operating - $121,934.07, SilverEagle - $76,947.44, Discretionary - $65,305.38, Grant Administration - $6,466.23, and Escrow - $5,012.21. Motion
by Guiley, second by Cohen to approve the February financial statement as presented. Motion carried.
EDC STAFF REPORT
Geres – Geres reported she had contacted the cleaning service about reducing the monthly rate after losing space
to Wayne Bank and was able to negotiate a 38% reduction in fees. This included them coming once per week
rather than twice. Hackman questioned what the 38% amounted to. Geres stated the new rate is $108 per month,
down from $175 per month, roughly an $800 yearly savings. Shaffer added this was the best rate possible, that we
could not request any RFP’s for the service because we had to use who the bank uses for security purposes.
Doty – Doty reported the website update is to be completed by Irongate Creative by mid-March. She reported
they will also be working on a one page brochure to market the MIP Phase II. This page could be used as a standalone piece or could be added to the factbook and/or electronic factbook. She is also looking into creating a hard
copy folder to leave behind after site visits with a die-cut space for business cards. She also noted that social

media continues to go well and Google analytics show numbers are still up. Shaffer added that in-house marketing
efforts will include creating a one piece page to handout to businesses at BR&E visits explaining the new criteria
for EDIT grants, available programs and incentives, and our compliance procedure. Robinson asked if anyone had
any feedback and Doty reported she could use more ‘ask the EDC’ questions. Doty said if you hear of anyquestions concerning the EDC to submit them to her and they would always be anonymous. Robinson stated thiswas a good way to get the dialogue going.
Shaffer – Shaffer reported pages 13 & 14 were the project spreadsheets and they had been cleaned up. The BR&E
spreadsheet is up to date and she’d possibly add a column in the future with the business name to report afterthe project was complete. She had Geres review the attraction spreadsheet with data from IEDC’s database andremoved 20+ dead, closed, or inactive projects. She reported there were 2 attraction projects in February and one
currently. She had Geres review parameters requested against available buildings and had 5 properties to submit
for this project. She stated the company showed a high interest in Richmond.
Shaffer reported she had launched a formal Business Retention & Expansion (BR&E) program – visiting 1 companya week. She’s made 10 visits to-date with existing companies and 3 more are on the calendar. Geres had been
setting these meetings up and Renee’s been accompanying her to see how those meetings are conducted andwhat questions are being asked. Eventually they will split-up, doubling their efforts, each visiting 1 company aweek.
Shaffer reported on the strategic plan, saying that after talking with the board and elected officials, the contract isbeing revised to state the EDC is to develop a strategic plan for the corporation rather than a county wide
comprehensive plan. After speaking with several consultants, she has come to realize the term ‘strategic plan’means many different things to many different people, so she is developing a scope of services to better identify
the goals and objectives of such a strategic plan for the corporation. She is also including a budget, as she has also
learned the fees to develop such a plan can range anywhere from $25,000 to $100,000. She will prepare a draft tosubmit to the board and elected officials to make sure everyone is agreeing on the goals and objectives of thestrategic plan. She also reported most consultants she spoke to said they could provide a list of the data needed
and we would work in-house on obtaining the data to further reduce the costs of the development of thestrategic plan. Hackman questioned the timing of things and Cohen asked if he was expressing concern of not
meeting the deadline as outlined in the EDC contract. Hackman replied yes. Denny Burns, Wayne County
Commissioner liaison, pointed out the September 1, 2013 deadline is for that of a preliminary plan only. Theboard questioned Burns if it would be a problem if the date is not met, and Burns replied, “No it would not.”Shaffer reported the EDC had partnered with Smith Dairy and the Indiana Clean Cities Coalition to offer aworkshop on the benefits of Compressed Natural Gas (CNG.) There were 50 some participants including elected
officials, utility providers, truck fleet operators, potential investors, environmentalists and service providers. Afterthe workshop she toured potential CNG sites with potential investors. The next step will be to compile
information and send to the companies that were not able to attend. If we cannot solidify the demand for a public
CNG fueling station, Smith Dairy will move forward with a private one for just their use. Meredith pointed out theneed for such a station, stating he has a vehicle that uses CNG and the closest fueling station to Richmond iseither Indianapolis, Indiana to the west or Columbus, Ohio to the east. Meredith suggested companies look into
purchasing government owned CNG automobiles they auction off after a few years use for just a fraction of theprice of new ones.
COMMITTEE REPORTS
B. Finance – Committee chair Elzemeyer reported the finance committee met on February 21st, 2013 andreviewed the GL and February financial report and went over the same things discussed in the treasurer’s report.
He reported the committee discussed the financial/accounting services and that Alaina would work to do more inhouse which should cut down on those expenses. The committee also signed cards for the newly opened Wayne

Bank Grant Administration savings account, discussed the change in cleaning service fees, and discussed issues
with server space and potential expenses involved with that.
C. Executive – Robinson reported the executive committee also met on February 21st, 2013. The committee
discussed the ratification of First Merchant’s Trust 403(b) resolution. First Merchant’s had sent a new document
to ratify at the next board meeting changing the language from ‘profit sharing’ contribution to ‘non-elective’contribution. Also discussed were the EDIT grant qualifications. Shaffer had met with the commissioners alongwith Cohen, Elzemeyer, and Green to discuss creating an EDIT grant qualification policy and all were in favoring ofmoving forward with the policy presented. A few changes were made to the policy presented at February’s board
meeting. Bullet one now reads, “Organization is creating or retaining, a minimum of 8 full-time equivalent jobs.”
The word retaining was added and 8 was changed from 10. Bullet three now reads, “Training grant requests fundprograms that provide employees with certifications…” The word ‘employees’ replaces ‘Wayne County residents.’
Also presented was the final revision of the compliance form. From the copy presented at February’s board
meeting, items 1 and 2 asking for names of employees were removed because of concerns of privacy issues. For
existing projects, the compliance form will ask for 1. a copy of the W-3 form for the year immediately preceding
the grant application and 2. a copy of the W-3 form for all years subsequent to the grant approval. For newprojects, item 1 will be incorporated into the EDIT application, and the compliance form will only request the W-3form for all years subsequent to the grant approval. Also discussed was the skills gap event to be held on March
7th, 2013 from 11:30 am to 2:00 pm. This is an initiative started by Ivy Tech, modeling after a program inLafayette, Indiana, to fill the gap employers are seeing in skill sets of the available workforce. Lastly, Valerie hadprovided the committee with an update on the strategic plan. Robinson stated the committee would next meeton March 21, 2013.
OTHER BUSINESS
A. Ratification of First Merchant’s Trust 403(b) Resolution
Shaffer reported First Merchant’s had provided a new resolution changing the language from ‘profit sharing’
contribution to ‘non-elective’ contribution. Motion by Guiley, second by Green to ratify the previous resolution
with the one presented. Motion carried.
B. Discussion on Proposed EDIT Grant Qualification Policy
Shaffer reported the proposed EDIT grant qualification policy could be found on page 16. She had met withthe commissioners along with Cohen, Elzemeyer, and Green to discuss creating an EDIT grant qualification
policy and all were in favoring of moving forward with the policy presented. A few changes were made to thepolicy presented at February’s board meeting. Bullet one now reads, “Organization is creating or retaining, aminimum of 8 full-time equivalent jobs.” The word retaining was added and 8 was changed from 10. Bullet
three now reads, “Training grant requests fund programs that provide employees with certifications…” Theword ‘employees’ replaces ‘Wayne County residents.’ Witte questioned whether to add a minimum wage forexisting jobs retained. Hackman stated a lower paying job is better than no job. Meredith questioned the$500,000 minimum investment, stating it was a salty figure that would keep the lower end guys out. Shaffer
reminded him companies need to meet only 3 out of the 4 qualifications. Witte also pointed out the minimum
investment number was chosen after reviewing past grants and that these were only ‘soft’ guidelines. Shaffer
stated these were only basic guidelines to work with. Ron Oler, Richmond City Council liaison, suggested using
language such as ‘50% above the minimum wage,’ as they do in their tax abatement ordinance, rather than adollar amount to avoid having to change the policy as wages increase. Warner suggested replacing thewording ‘meet 3 out of the 4 conditions’ with ‘applications should generally meet the following conditions.‘
The board discussed changing the term ‘policy’ to ‘guideline’ and the implications of that. Cohen asked thereal purpose in creating such a policy and Burns spoke up and said, “Me!” He stated the commissioners werelooking for guidelines to test for consistency and fairness in approving EDIT grants and had asked Shaffer tocome up with some sort of guidelines. He said the commissioners and board were coming from two different
places – that as commissioners, they are the gatekeepers of taxpayers’ money. Shaffer added it was importantto establish guidelines to prohibit requests for infrastructure to keep funds intact for job creation. Shafferstated the dialogue was good, and after such a lengthy discussion on the topic, it was decided to keep theconversation going until the next board meeting. Shaffer stated she would run it through the executive
committee, send out an email with revisions, and requested for suggestions to be emailed to her.
C. EDC Contract
Sowers reported on the proposed amended contract, stating Geres had provided the board with a marked up
copy of the contract outlining the changes. Sowers went over the changes requested by the EDC: section 1Aon page 20 of the board packet – ‘comprehensive plan for the economic development of the county’ changedto ‘strategic plan for the corporation;’ section 1C on same page – language ‘corporation shall be primarily
responsible for the development of such a preliminary comprehensive economic development plan’ removed
and language ‘in developing its preliminary strategic plan, the Corporation shall contact other entities inWayne County which affect economic development for the purpose of gathering those entities’ strategicplans and initiatives to insure that all facets of economic development are addressed in its strategic plan’added. Also added in this section is a list of those entities to be included but not limited to. This language wasadded after discussing the goals and objectives of such a desired plan with Jeff Plasterer and Peter Zaleski at
the January executive committee meeting. Sowers stated the commissioners accepted and approved thoseamendments and had provided amendments of their own: section after 5G – language was added stating theboard may vote to vacate or reduce the number of appointments made by a municipal entity that does notfully contribute 50% of its EDIT funds. Motion by Green, second by Witte to approve the amended contract aspresented. Motion carried. Sowers distributed copies to be signed.
ADJOURNMENT
Robinson thanked everyone for attending and adjourned the meeting at 4:43 p.m.

NEXT BOARD MEETING – 4:00 p.m. on Monday, April 1, 2013,Ivy Tech Community College, McDaniel Hall, Room 1147/1148, Richmond, Indiana 47374