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Special Meeting June 7, 2005 ABEP. Mr. Wagner asked for an explanation of what they meant by E-1. Mr. Ollendorff replied that it would be one of our existing citizen boards or a new one combining them. He stressed that this is just a draft Plan at this point. It is a bunch of ideas that Plan Commission members and staff have put together. They will have a public hearing. His guess is that E-1 of the Plan will be more focused after the public hearing. He does know that they are not suggesting that ABEP be continued. Mr. Wagner wanted to know what they were suggesting. Mr. Ollendorff said that what they are suggesting is that we think about some kind of citizen participation in economic development, which could be IDA, LCRA or some kind of combination; TIF or the Plan Commission themselves. They are saying we should look at some mechanism for citizen involvement. Mr. Wagner couldn’t understand why Mr. Ollendorff would mention every economic planning board he can think of and rule out ABEP. Mr. Ollendorff replied that he knows this because of Plan Commission and staff discussions. Mr. Wagner asked if they disliked ABEP. Mr. Ollendorff said that he was not commenting negatively on ABEP. Mr. Wagner needs to understand more about why, then, ABEP is being left out of the long list of boards that he just mentioned as possibilities. Mr. Ollendorff said that he was hearing, for the first time five minutes ago, that some Councilmembers were reading a couple of lines in the Plan and someone interpreted it as to whether this meant continuing ABEP. Mr. Ollendorff reiterated that he simply knows the answer to that question – they are not talking about ABEP. Mr. Wagner stressed that he wanted to know definitively what was meant by E-1. Mr. Ollendorff said that he was not arguing; he was just trying to give Council the best explanation he could. Ms. Brungardt said that she had originally wanted to discuss the Mayor’s comment about the makeup of ABEP. She thinks that the question is whether or not Council wants a body of people to work on a civic discussion or as an ongoing civic support mechanism for economic growth issues. She isn’t certain whether or not our current population distribution of ethnicities necessarily reflects any particular tangential necessity. Council is discussing the possibility to make a body, such as a new commission to advise us on managing economic decisions or if the Council is interested in exploring ways to reinvigorate the Chamber of Commerce. She has heard from many, during her time involved civic involvement, citizens that the City needs to do something about the absence of the Chamber of Commerce. She would like for the Council, in managing this part of the discussion, to decide how much the missing Chamber of Commerce is impacting the health of our city. That is an important question to think about. She continued saying that if Council wants to create a board or commission that serves us, as an economic advisory group, then it should be determined what the profile should be for that group. She wondered if it should have the diversity ratio per the City’s population distribution in terms of color and ethnicity and religion. If this is what Council wants, then it needs to be detailed very clearly. Council also needs to do so in a way that makes sense. She would want to be involved in building a commission that was built on a diverse community, but also one that was built with the necessary expertise, as well. As with ABEP, there was a tremendous amount Page 4