The reimbursement of paid incentive funds was the primary focus of the Ouachita Partnership for Economic Development board meeting Wednesday, where Camden Mayor Julian Lott voiced concerns about what he considered undue pressure on the city to deliver $90,000.
During the meeting, OPED Executive Director James Lee Silliman gave background information stating, “OPED had funds available and we paid out workforce training incentives under incentive agreements with both Aerojet and Lockheed recently. And those incentives were paid under existing funds that we had under our control here.”
Silliman noted that while originally the incentive payback was approved at $180,000 by the City Council, City Attorney Michael Frey said it would take a majority of the elected council to approve the ordinance and the original 4-3 vote did not allow that.
At the March City council meeting, the proposal was brought up again, but Aldermen L.E. Lindsey amended the resolution to include half of the requested funds, with the suggestion that the other half could be supplied by the county.
“It was brought back up for reconsideration under the recommendation of the city attorney… The council had some discussion; one of the alderman wanted to amend the amount of money to reimburse OPED basically by half and wanted to see if the county would help to contribute with these workforce incentives,” Silliman said. “We’ve not received that money yet. That’s not to say that won’t. I guess the question now is do we go before the Quorum Court and ask if they have any funds available to assist us in replenishing our incentive funds.”
Silliman said that the Ouachita County Quorum Court already has a budgeted amount of money given to OPED for operating funds paid in quarterly installments, and the first quarterly installment had already been received received.
Jim Golden, President of OPED, said, “We may need to have an executive board meeting with the Judge and Mayor Lott present, to discuss the county/city involvement and what direction we want to go and bring that information to the full board.”
Lott said, “I’d much rather we all sit and meet like that, In that meeting you speak of. The alderman that made the change didn’t talk to me first or anything like that. Sometimes I get a courtesy call. But he, along with James Bell, talked about meeting with the OPED board,” Lott said.
“They may have talked to a board member, but just to clear the air, there has not been a meeting,” Golden said.
Lott also took exception to an email he was sent asking when the funds would be available and noted that, as previously stated, Ouachita County paid every four months.
“I’m not holding a check back from you guys. When I see someone talking to me directly in an email with 30 other people, it makes it seem like to me it’s an accountability question. It doesn’t take 30 people on an email to make me write the check. I’m not the person who writes it, I’m the person who agrees to sign it after it’s been ratified,” Lott said.
“Every time money comes up, you want it all at one time,” he added.
Board Member Helen Aregood said that the discrepancy between county funds OPED receives and city funds is due to the fact that the county has a line item in their budget for OPED, while the city doesn’t.