Live from the LDFA: A2/Ypsi SmartZone

The board of the local development finance authority (LDFA) meets today at 8:15 a.m. in council chambers at city hall. [.pdf of July 15, 2014 LDFA meeting packet] The Chronicle plans to offer a live audio broadcast of the meeting. After the meeting, the live stream audio player will be replaced with an .mp3 recording of the proceedings.

Update: The board failed to reach a quorum, but received reports. The update on the jobs audit is that the audit firm Abraham & Gaffney will be planning to audit jobs figures in the Ann Arbor SPARK Salesforce database. The board also received an update on the formation of LDFA satellites in Adrian and Brighton. One of those satellites will be selected as a partner for the Ann Arbor/Ypsilanti SmartZone as it seeks a 15-year extension past its current 2018 end date. A city council work session on the topic of the LDFA expansion is currently planned for Sept. 8. A vote is is planned by the council in October. 

On the agenda is a year-end report from Ann Arbor SPARK, the LDFA’s vendor for entrepreneurial support services. The fiscal year ended June 30, 2014. Also on the agenda is an update on the effort to extend the term of the LDFA past its current end date in 2018.

The LDFA’s last meeting, on June 17, 2014, included discussion of the LDFA’s capture of the local school operating millage and whether those captured taxes are reimbursed to the state’s School Aid Fund. After that meeting, The Chronicle reported that communications staff at the state treasury and the Michigan Economic Development Corporation had confirmed that under the LDFA statute, that reimbursement is not required for the Ann Arbor/Ypsilanti SmartZone.

Listen live to the audio broadcast using the embedded live stream player below. The two text boxes are identical in content. They are used to provide notes to the listener during the live broadcast. The first box forces the view to the bottom of the file. The second one can be manually scrolled.

[.mp3 of July 15, 2014 LDFA board meeting]

2 Comments

  1. By Fred Zimmerman
    July 15, 2014 at 10:32 am | permalink

    Nice tech. The lack of a quorum is somewhat underwhelming. Who was absent?

  2. July 15, 2014 at 11:44 am | permalink

    Here’s the roster of board members:

    Carrie Leahy, Ann Arbor, Chair, Term Expires 6/30/2016
    Ned Staebler, Vice-Chair, Ann Arbor, Term Expires 6/30/2015
    Richard Beedon, Ann Arbor, Term Expires 6/30/2017
    Caryn Charter, Ypsilanti, Term Expires 6/30/2017
    Vince Chmielewski, Ypsilanti, Term Expires 6/30/2015
    Eric Jacobson, Treasurer, Ann Arbor, Term Expires 6/30/2017
    Sally Petersen, Ann Arbor, Council Member, Term Expires 6/30/2016
    Stephen Rapundalo, Ann Arbor, Term Expires 6/30/2015
    Bilal Saeed, Ypsilanti, Term Expires 6/30/2016

    Present were: Rapundalo, Petersen, Jacobson and Leahy.

    Absent were: Staebler, Beedon, Charter, Chmielwesi, Saeed.