Lies, Secrecy and Cover-ups!

Lies, Secrecy and Cover-ups! This seems to be the theme now with Mayor Ford, Mr. Harrison, Pat Miles and Bethany Shockney. I think I covered the "lies" in my response to Ford's Announcement and other posts on here. The Cover-ups are detailed in the Potential Lawsuits posted on here and also the Illegal dumping by the City. Lets discuss the Secrecy issue!

On May 3, 2018, there was a called meeting of the EDC Board Operations Committee at 8:00 a.m. to discuss the PEP Program for incentives in Speer Industrial Park South. Jimmy Greene, Vice-Chairman and I (chairman) arrive at City hall at the same time and walk in together at approximately 7:55.
As soon as we enter the EDC office we are told by Donna Butler (then Executive Assistant) that we cannot go into Bethany's office, "there is a private meeting going on". So Jimmy and I wait outside for a few minutes. Bethany then opens the door to her office/conference room.
In there was Bethany Shockney, Executive Director of EDC, Pat Ford, Mayor of Pulaski, Ronnie Brindley Chairman of the Industrial Development Board and Janet Vanzant, County Executive.
I think Jimmy and I were both very shocked to see these people in what was referred to as a "Private meeting".
Bethany immediately started into the meeting about the PEP program and never mentioned anything about the prior meeting.
After this meeting, I immediately called Janet to ask about it. I told her we were told it was a Private Meeting. She was upset and had no idea it was labeled as such. Janet immediately said that is a violation of the Sunshine law and I won't deal with that,
She went on to say that the meeting was to discuss P.I.L.O.T. programs. PILOT stands for Payment In Lieu of Taxes.
I asked her why I as Chairman of EDC and Jimmy as Vice Chairman were not allowed in this meeting. She had no idea that we were not included and did not know a reason why we were not included.
She told me she would get to the bottom of this and let me know. A little while later she called me back and said, Bethany told her it was a meeting to discuss the future of the PILOT incentives and David and Jimmy had nothing to do with the IDB.

HELLO!!! I as Chairman of EDC automatically gives me a voting membership to the IDB Board and since the inception of both boards the Chairman of both have worked closely together on all issues.
The only member of the IDB that attended this meeting was Ronnie Brindley. Pat Ford, Bethany and Janet are not members in any capacity.

Here is my issue with this meeting, besides it being illegal. Only a few hand selected people by Pat Ford and Bethany Shockney attended this meeting to discuss PILOT incentives. Folks, this is a VERY IMPORTANT subject which every member of EDC, IDB, City Council and County Commission should have input. Very few people know what a PILOT incentive is. Ford thought it was the guy that flew the plane until just a couple years ago. Again, PILOT stands for Payment In Lieu of Taxes. This is an incentive given to industries to encourage them to come to Giles County. The way it works is this. For example a 20 year PILOT gives an industry a tax break on property taxes so years 1 - 10 they pay no property taxes, year 11 they pay 10%, year 12 - 20% etc and after 20 years they pay full property taxes. EVERY new industry we have landed here since 2008 has received a PILOT incentive. We have even given them to existing industries for expansion, i.e. Tenneplas, Frito Lay, Integrity to name a few. PILOTS are very standard in the industrial recruitment world and are encouraged by the State of Tennessee. On larger investments like Magneti at over $54 million initially, the State will throw in their own incentives to help lure them to Tennessee.

The good part of PILOT programs is that it does NOT cost the City and County anything. The better part is that it creates jobs. With Jobs comes income for local people. Those people spend their money locally too. Then after the 10 initial years, revenue starts coming into the City and County.
Bethany created a spreadsheet to show when the income from all the PILOTs would produce revenue. We have PILOTS issued in 2008 which means that one should begin paying 10% this year in 2018 or 2019 depending on when it was issued Over the next 10 years we should begin to enjoy the rewards of recruiting those industries long before Pat Ford was ever involved. Now Pat Ford and Terry Harrison want to secretly stop this practice.

In 2008, our unemployment was at 18%. Without our TEAM working diligently to recruit new industries and offer new incentives we might still be at very high unemployment and have NO jobs in Giles County.
Pat Ford is NOT a TEAM PLAYER!
Lets send him home! WE NEED NEW LEADERSHIP!

Here is a list of Pilots over the last few years

Industry	Year	Purpose	Amount

Frito lay	2013	Equipment Pilot	$5,500,000.00
Integrity	2013	New Building	$6,200,000.00
TCF/CLarage	2013	Expansion	$3,328,596.00
Magneti	2013	New Investment	$54,000,000.00
Proper Polymers	2015	New Investment	$13,100,000.00
SaarGummi	2015	Expansion
Spears Coastline	2011
Valley Packaging	2015	New Building	$30,000,000.00
Windsor Mold		Expansion/Equip	$12,000,000.00

TOTAL			$124,128,596.00

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