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Regular Council Meeting Minutes <br />2-16-09 <br />Page 15 <br />Mayor Rinker said we well understand that. <br />Mr. Yarbrough replied he has competitors and they don't need to be looking at, there are other <br />companies going after the same thing. He should not have to open his books up and say, here, <br />here's what I am doing, here, you go do your thing right next to me. That can cost me millions of <br />dollars. <br />Council President Buckholtz said he wants to stay here as moderator, but he is not promoting it <br />or putting it down. He does not know if there is anything in terms of the people that sign the <br />lease. Do they have any privacy issues, like, they don't want 20 neighbors coming to someone's <br />house and saying, you signed that lease? He does not know. He's just saying, we have asked, <br />we have not gotten. Some of it is competition from their end, some of it is privacy from the <br />people who signed the leases, he would guess, but it would be helpful to know that. <br />Mayor Rinker said, adding to that, at the end of the day, because it is something we have said <br />from the very beginning, at some point, the Village will need that information because we are a <br />public entity and we have to be transparent and if we can't get that information where everyone <br />is satisfied that we know what we are dealing with, he does not see that we are ever going to <br />enter into a lease, but we have not been able to get far enough down that path, and he thinks one <br />of the reasons is that everyone is afraid that pulling the proverbial trigger is suddenly going to be <br />a terrible thing. We have not stonewalled anyone. We have tried to get a lot of information out <br />there. We will continue to try. <br />Council President Buckholtz said this came up in Caucus. This is the example of where it would <br />not be something that we would send out to homeowners but anyone attending Caucus. The <br />legislation, and he knows the general perception of this, the legislation is to give the Mayor the <br />authority to enter into negotiations. One of those stipulations, and he knows that sometimes <br />people think that is a done deal, the crazy term "done deal". One of the things that each and <br />every Councilperson brought up in one way or another was exactly what you are saying. We do <br />not execute the agreement without knowing, he does not care if it's.secret, in a small room and <br />no one can hear it. That was something we wanted to see, drill sites, prospective drill sites, what <br />they have in leases, what they did not have in leases. They were willing to do that or at least that <br />was a point of negotiation. Once again, that's just one of the things that gets lost. This wasn't <br />voting to say, yep, let's bring in the rigs tomorrow. This was legislation to give this man the <br />authority to carry out on behalf of us certain negotiations. We don't need to be in a rush. <br />Seth Beal said we have provided leases relative to this project. They are on the website. <br />Mayor Rinker said the other point is at some point whatever the Village is able to negotiate, <br />Council then has to ratify. It's important to us to know that we don't facilitate another well <br />being drilled in proximity to one of our neighborhoods. <br />Mr. Beal said we had agreed to that.