Danville IDA Meeting (5/9/15)

No other media source covered this meeting. Honestly, I can’t fault them for that.

Tuesday morning, 11 AM. It’s time for the Danville Industrial Development Authority’s monthly meeting. For the second month in a row, all the members are here. That’s almost a new record.

Everybody’s here.

Today’s agenda is roll call, the finance reports and then a closed session. That’s the same as last month’s meeting. Let’s take a look at the crowd of people in the gallery!

Good seats are still available.

It’s city manager Joe King, a mystery person and R.J. Lackey. I tried to find out who the mystery person was, but they left at the beginning of the closed session and was never seen again. Well then, let’s get to business with Finance Director Michael Adkins’ reports. The only thing noteworthy is that the reports show the IDA has bought properties at 2000-2008 N. Union St.

That’s interesting, because I don’t seem to remember any motion passed from previous sessions to authorize that purchase. I’m going to look into that.

Michael Adkins knows where all the money is, folks.

Now we move to the closed session, so we’re kicked out. The mystery person leaves and Joe King & R.J. Lackey stay for whatever they’re going to talk about.

Yes, I’m standing in the hall by myself.

Five minutes later, R.J. Lackey comes out, says goodbye and heads down the steps. Five minutes after that, Linwood Wright comes out looking for that mystery person. I tell him he was long gone and he shrugs and goes back into the meeting. A new mystery person comes out of the elevator and knocks on the door. Joe King takes him away from me and tells him something. I ask mystery person #2 if he has any comment for the media and he says “Danville is a great place to do business.” then he tells me that he is in the cellphone tower business. Twenty minutes after that, they move back to open session.

The IDA passes a motion to sell a parcel of land on either Bishop Ave or Bishop Rd. (I forgot which). That has to be for a new cell phone tower, and I’m able to confirm that after the meeting. City Attorney Clarke Whitfield reminds the board that they’ll be electing new officers at the next meeting. I’m 100% confident that nothing will change there. That’s it as the meeting is adjourned.

I stick around and ask Max Glass and Shirley Primiano their opinions about the IDA board being exempted from term limits. To my surprise, both said that they didn’t know about that. We know that means they don’t read SouthsideCentral, so shame on them for that. But I find that amazing. The IDA meetings don’t have a public comment session. I’m going to see if that can be changed.

There you go. A complete start-to-finish narrative of a Danville IDA meeting and it’s only on SouthsideCentral. If it wasn’t for SouthsideCentral, you’d have no idea that this meeting ever happened. And that’s a shame.