Staff Reports
JEDCO forgave $35,330 in principal and interest for Queen Wood Products for the year 2020 as per the agreement which has certain employment requirements in exchange for loan forgiveness.
Board member Lynn Daughrity asked who approved and verified that Queen Wood Products had complied with the terms of the agreement. The question launched a 15-minute discussion Wednesday night centered on wording. Other board members were reluctant to indicate they had done the verification.
“Queen Wood provided documentation to JEDCO that they had complied,” said JEDCO Treasurer Doug Thompson. “JEDCO turned that over to the auditors. The auditors verified that the terms have been met.”
Thompson then made a motion to accept the City of Jefferson Audit statement indicating the terms had been met. JEDCO Vice President and Secretary Raymond Sanders seconded the motion. It passed 5-1 with Daughrity opposing.
“I’m opposed on the grounds I think it’s improper wording and it has implications for future meetings,” he said. “I’m opposing who we’re saying verified.”
The mention of JEDCO Executive Board or Executive Committee was brought up as having reviewed the material, but who is a member was not discussed. An Executive Committee or Board is not authorized per the JEDCO bylaws.
The agenda called for the forgiveness of $37,905 which, according to Sanders, is the amount of forgiveness for Pour Technologies, which has not come before the board yet.
A brief discussion on the condition of the minutes of the corporation was then held and again re-iterated by Sanders how poor the records were prior to his taking them over.
Haggard then closed the discussion on the matter and moved on to the next agenda item.
According to Haggard, the bank, First National Bank of Hughes Springs, has a situation where there are only two people on the JEDCO board authorized to access the accounts. Haggard said this is because the bank does not have all the necessary information from some of the board members.
David Ozee indicated he has not supplied the information but would, “take care of it tomorrow.”
The discussion then centered on where JEDCO funds are being kept. Sanders said “First National has paid us no interest in four years. Verabank has said they’ll pay us around 0.6% as long as we have half a million dollars or more. [Haggard] talked with Riverside but they require the funds to be in a CD and that is not an option.”
Sanders and Thompson said they would gather information on possibly moving the funds to another bank and present it at the next meeting.
The board then held a closed session to discuss potential new business and property acquisition.
Haggard indicated they would not be taking any action on the items discussed.
After the closed session they discussed future meetings and workshops, taking no action.