Finance & Administration Council Committee - Regular Meeting

Hey. Good good afternoon, everybody. It's 04:00.

Great. Somebody's put

a sign in your

Good afternoon. It's 04:00. We'll get today's meeting going.

Good to see you, buddy. Yeah. Good listening.

Following today's please go ahead and record your attendance by pushing the appropriate button. Sorry to interrupt the party. We've got business to attend to.

We invited you.

Alright, we do have a quorum. Next step is approval of minutes from the Tuesday, 04/14/2026 meeting.

Approve unless there's no to change. Second.

I motion to second. Any comments or questions? If not, please record your vote on whether or not to approve. First item under new business is a municipal lane, so I'll just read it by title only. It's resolution twenty six zero forty seven. Resolution by the city council of Jonesboro, Arkansas to place a municipal lien on property located at 1603 South Matthews, Partial 01 Dash 144214 Dash 06900 owned by Trevor Anderson in the amount of $465

Move forward to full council. Second.

Motion stated before full council. Any questions or comments from the committee? Anything from staff or the public in attendance? Do y'all care about this municipal lien? No? Okay. If there's no questions or comments, please record your vote on whether or not to forward it to full counsel.

Not working. You're gonna have to voice vote.

Voice vote, all those in favor of forwarding resolution 26,047 to full council, please say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Alright. Wow, just like the good old days. Alright, next up is resolution 26,048. I will go ahead and read it in its entirety, so please bear with me. A resolution authorizing the entry into an agreement to issue bonds for the purpose of assisting in the finance of industrial facilities within the city of Jonesboro, Arkansas to be leased to Nicherae, how do you what, how? Nicherae. Nicherae, sorry.

Nicherae Global Foods LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Innovation Cuisine Enterprises Inc. For their affiliate pursuant to the authority of the laws of the State of Arkansas, including particularly Amendment 65 to the Arkansas Constitution and the Municipalities and Counties Industrial Development Revenue Bond Law, whereas the city of Johnson, Arkansas is authorized under the provisions of amendment 65 to the Arkansas constitution and the municipalities and counties industrial development revenue bond law, Arkansas code annotated 14 dash one sixty four -two zero one to own, acquire, construct, equip and lease facilities to secure and develop industry and to assist in the financing thereof by the issuance of bonds payable from the revenues derived from such facilities and whereas Nicherey Global Foods LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of innovation, I just forget how to talk, cuisine, I'm not stroking out, I promise. Cuisine Enterprises Incorporated or their affiliate collectively by the company as evidenced in its interest in acquiring, constructing an equipment and industrial facility within the city if permanent financing can be provided through the issuance of bonds under the authority of the act, and whereas the city desires to assist the company in order to secure and develop industry within the city and to aid in the financing thereof under the provisions of the act, and whereas it is desirable that the city enter into an agreement to issue bonds for such purpose.

Now therefore be it resolved by the city council of the city of Jonesboro, Arkansas that section one, the mayor and city clerk are hereby authorized to enter into an agreement to issue bonds in substantially the form and substance attached as Exhibit A, Section two, subject to compliance with the statutory notice requirements, a payment in lieu of taxes agreement shall be considered for approval at this meeting of the city council at which the ordinance authorizing the issuance of the bonds is considered for approval. Section three, the city shall hold a public hearing on the question of the issuance of the bonds on 05/19/2026. The city clerk and bond shall coordinate the publication of the notice of public hearing section four severability in the event any title, section, paragraph, item, sentence, clause, phrase, or word of this resolution is declared or judged to be invalid or unconstitutional. Such declaration or adjudication shall not affect the remaining portions of this resolution, which shall remain in full force and effect as if the portion so declared or judged invalid or unconstitutional was not originally a part of this resolution. Section five repeal our ordinance is or resolutions of the city in conflict here with or hereby repeal to the extent of such conflict.

Move forward to full council. Second.

Motion state before full council. Any questions or comments from the committee? This is a pretty standard bond issuance.

Hi, Mr. Chairman. I just had a as Michelle and I were just talking, you don't care to just explain it like you explained it to me just for the general public, I think that'd be and even for anybody else that may have a question, I think that was your explanation was helpful.

Welcome. Sorry I pronounced it wrong. Had my moments.

So this is to authorize, this is one of the, another instance where the city is incentivizing and encouraging a company in this instance to come and make an investment of $180,000,000 in your community. And how we implement that is through ad valorem tax abatement, the issuance of industrial development revenue bonds. So the city is serving as a conduit issuer. They're gonna provide access to implement a sale leaseback transaction. Essentially, company is gonna sell their facility to the city and then immediately lease it back.

Now whenever you do your normal bonds, you sell those to the public. We probably all have them in our four zero one ks. In this instance, that is not the intent. Intent. The company is gonna lend itself the money. So it would be similar to you borrowing money from your four zero one k and then paying yourself back. But we do it that way because that's what Arkansas law requires. So as I was explaining to mister McClain, this does not result in a financial obligation to the city. There is the taxing authority, none of the assets, none of that is pledged. The sole security for this transaction is the facility and the rents that will be paid pursuant to that.

So the tax abatement terms are 65%, which is what y'all typically do, what we've done on all the transactions, and then a period of thirty years. Here, they're starting with a greenfield and building a brand new state of the art facility. So I can answer any more questions. Mr. McClain, if there's something else If you want

and I asked the question just a minute ago, what if there's a default for some reason?

So if there is a default, again none of the assets of the city are at risk. The sole risk is to the facility itself. So it would be like having a mortgage. If you don't pay your mortgage payment, then people can foreclose on your house. Here.

Any other questions from the committee?

Does anybody have any questions for the gentleman about timing? Anything else that y'all might be interested in? Y'all just I have their

to hear it, yeah. They'll talk.

If they like to talk about the project, feel free. Yeah.

Hi, guys. I met some of you already. My name is Joe Kent. I'm the President and CEO of Innovation Cuisine. Innovation. There's going be a test after this. Nichade is our parent company. They're an eighty five year old frozen food company based in Tokyo, roughly $5,500,000,000 company. I don't think we'll default. So I think we're good there. But we are extremely excited to be here. And I was sharing with Brian earlier that it's not the first rodeo for us or especially for me. We were here about three and a half years ago looking at doing a project that didn't get off the ground. So it took three years to come back. We're glad to be here.

We're planning to build 175,000 square foot facility that will produce chicken and rice products. You got a lot of rice here, so that's good. It's out in Craighead Industrial Park. We have hired Mr. Glenn Scott early on. We want to be part of the community. So he's going be moving here at the beginning of next year. So we're excited about it. Thank you for having us. Any questions?

I understand you're going to break ground this summer later possibly be open in 2027. Is that correct?

I would like that. We're hoping to break ground at the August is our target right now. I think that the facility will be fully functional around the 2028, January, February. It's a target. We're projected to when fully operational have about 200 new jobs. So we're excited.

Will average salary be out there?

Well, the average wage that we agreed to with the state on average is going to be $22 something was part of the covenants. Certainly we have a lot of different folks that are going be in there from finance to manufacturing. When you talk about everyday production workers, that's going to be hourly wages. But you have mechanics, you've got QA, R and D. We're building an R and D center which is exciting so we can bring customers in, showcase our products.

Thank you very much.

Well, thank you. Appreciate being here. Look forward to seeing you next week.

Thank you. Anything else from staff or the committee or any public in attendance? If not, do we still need to

We can try this.

Everyone try electronic? Mhmm. Please press the appropriate button on whether or not to forward resolution twenty six zero forty eight to full council.

It is not registering. All

those in favor of forwarding resolution twenty six zero forty eight to full council please say aye. Aye. Any opposed? That was the last item under new business. Under pending items, I know at the last meeting there were I guess maybe two or three things brought up.

One was the update on bidding of our bank accounts. I know that a meeting was held by the revenue committee, depository committee, I'm sorry, last Friday Friday and that they are working on getting the notice put in the paper and all that. So that should be happening fairly soon, within the next two or three weeks probably, Steve. Is there anything you want to add to it? You may have any questions about it?

The other two things that were asked about were a discussion on the performance of tournaments, maybe a little bit more from Mr. Cearns and then a discussion on performance of the shooting range. Jim, are you ready to are you prepared to talk about that stuff today? We said that we could do it at this meeting. Don't want prepare, but I'll do my best.

Well, I'd rather you not wing it if you're not fully prepared, but I know that was one thing that was asked at the last meeting, I think at the next finance meeting, please be ready to prepare for that or present that information. I definitely do not want you to wing it. Does anybody have any other business for the committee? At that point, we'll move to public comments. Anything from the public about something we haven't already discussed on today's agenda? If not, next item's adjournment.

So moved. Second.

All in favor say aye. Aye. Any opposed?