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E-mail This StoryMayor Pat Evans and members of the Plano City Council met Friday morning at the Ambulatory Care Pavilion at the newly opened Children’s Medical Center at Legacy for a Mayor’s Breakfast hosted by the Plano Economic Development Board, Inc.
The Mayor and Plano’s business leaders held an open dialogue, exchanging information and ideas about the business climate in Plano and to develop and maintain relationships with each other, said Elaine Hamm, director of business retention and expansion for the Plano Economic Development Board.
“The dialogue during the breakfast is valuable because we meet with business leaders in Plano to exchange ideas that would benefit Plano,” said Mayor Evans. “This is our hometown and we want to hear ideas of how to make it better.”
The Plano Economic Development Board invited several businesses from the Legacy Business Park and the group of nearly 30 representatives discussed several key issues.
Mayor Evans took pride in announcing the City’s efforts to be more aware of the environment and become more self-sustainable.
“The City of Plano has a schedule of program to provide incentives to encourage businesses to be more environmentally-minded,” City Manager Tom Muehlenbeck said to the business leaders to promote environmental awareness.
Transportation was a key issue that the addressed during the Mayor’s Breakfast. Several business leaders noted that their employees often have difficulties maintaining environmental awareness by using the DART busing system if there are no cost- and time-efficient options.
Another hot topic at the Mayor’s Breakfast was the recent report of Plano being voted as the most affluent city of its size by the U.S. Census Bureau.
“The City of Plano is very affordable in many ways despite the results from that report,” said Deputy Mayor Pro Tem Harry LaRosiliere. “More importantly, Plano was voted as the No. 1 city in America to build personal wealth. I think that is a more accurate measure of the environment the City of Plano wishes to promote.”
Mayor and the attending members of the City Council -- Scott Johnson, Mabrie Jackson, Harry LaRosiliere and Lee Dunlap -- agreed to discuss the issues and possible solutions in further detail in future sessions.
“We would not have known about many of these issues unless we held a meeting like this,” Mayor Evans said. “Now, Plano residents will start to see the tangible solutions to these issues.”
