November 19, 1999

Dear Mr. Brawders,

In the minutes of the November 16^th meeting of the Jefferson Development Corporation (JDC), it states that the terms for JDC Board members Shirley Dempsey, Jeff Hamann, David Olsen and David Schornack will end in January 2000, and that these positions will need to be renewed or filled with new candidates.

My letter of November 2^nd to the City Council regarding JDC Board membership was also discussed at this November 16^th JDC meeting. The minutes state that Gaylin Morgan will speak to you regarding this issue.

As my November 2^nd letter points out, the JDC Board is considering eliminating the general membership, which leaves the unanswered question of how these Board members will be chosen.

According to my copy of the JDC by-laws, its Board started with nine members but two additional seats were created in recent years. Two are City of Jefferson officials, appointed by the Mayor with the approval of the Common Council. One is from the Chamber of Commerce, appointed by its board. Six seats are from the JDC membership.

I urge you to restructure the JDC Board to be more like the other Mayor-appointed commissions of the City. Without a general membership, the JDC becomes even more self-appointing than it is now.
I think the Mayor and the Council should have the sole power to appoint these Board members. I don't believe this would be a significant disruption of the JDC's function.

This new system would introduce more direct public accountability and perhaps a more diverse representation on the JDC Board. At the November 16^th meeting, the JDC self-appointed its second Board member from PremierBank, Jim van Lieshout. He is a vice-president there and JDC President Gaylin Morgan is a member of PremierBank's board of directors.

My April 1999 request to join the JDC as a general member, as van Lieshout had been, has remained unanswered by the JDC. To me, an adequate answer would be "Yes, you may be a member" or "No, you may not be a member" followed by an explanation.

I also urge you to ask the JDC to move the JDC meetings to a more reasonable time of day. JDC members manage to attend gatherings such as Rotary Club, American Legion, etc. during the rest of the day. Meeting at 6:45 a.m. discourages the general public from participating in this aspect of Jefferson's economic development. The early meeting time also contributes to the poor attendance record of the JDC Board in general, which has been unable to reach quorum several times in recent years, according to Mr. Morgan. Even your own Council representative to the JDC, Bob Coffman, missed three of the last six JDC Board meetings.

I would be glad to meet with you and Mr. Morgan to discuss my letter and these other issues. Please feel free to call me at 674-5200 during the day, or at 674-3661 in the evenings.

Sincerely,

John Foust