MINUTES
OF MEETING
CORAL
SPRINGS
IMPROVEMENT
DISTRICT
The regular meeting of the
Board of Supervisors of the Coral Springs Improvement District was held on
Present and constituting a quorum
were:
Bob Fennell President
Sharon Zich Vice President
Glen Hanks Secretary
Also present were:
Dan Daly Interim Manager
Ed Goscicki Co-Manager –
Dennis Lyles District Counsel
Sean Skehan CH2MHill
Jane Early CH2MHill
Jim Aversa CSID
John McKune District Capital
Improvement Coordinator
Doug Hyche CSID Utilities
Director
Randy Frederick CSID
Drainage Supervisor
Pamela Rower
Stephen Bloom
Kay Woodward CSID Accountant
Jan Zilmer CSID Human
Resources
Steve Trescott SunTrust
Bank
FIRST ORDER OF BUSINESS Roll
Call
Mr.
Goscicki called the meeting to order and called the roll.
SECOND ORDER OF BUSINESS Approval of the Minutes of
the December 17, 2007 Meeting
Mr. Fennell stated each Board member
received a copy of the minutes of the
Mr. Fennell stated on page 29 not
sure should not insured.
Mr.
Hanks stated the numbers of page five, third paragraph lis10 should be list 10.
Mr. Daly stated page 31 at the end
Padgett should be PGIT.
On MOTION by Ms. Zich seconded by Mr. Hanks
with all in favor the minutes of the
Mr. Fennell asked is
there anything we have to actually pass or vote on today?
Mr. Goscicki responded yes, item
four. On item three it is important that
we get buy in from the Board to ensure where we have your funds is where you
are happy with.
Mr. Fennell stated there are no time
sensitive things such as contracts or construction.
Mr. Daly stated item five for the
pension plan we have had on the agenda for awhile.
Mr. Goscicki stated item six is not
a time sensitive issue but is a dollar issue.
THIRD ORDER OF BUSINESS Discussion of SBA Funds
and Bond Proceeds Investment Options
Mr. Goscicki stated I will turn this
over to Ms. Pam Rower and Mr. Stephen Bloom.
Ms. Rower you know from previous meetings. She has been out for a bit of time
convalescing. Ms. Rower’s role has
changed within the organization from Accounting Manager to more Fiscal Analysis
helping on these types of investment issues.
Mr. Bloom has taken over as the Accounting Manager.
Mr. Fennell asked what is happening
with the SBA?
Ms. Rower responded I spoke with Ms.
Woodward today and we do have some options where we can go ahead and withdraw
approximately $927,000 out of the SBA fund, it has come available based on the
new requirements. This will leave
approximately $571,000 in the fund that we will not be able to release. I anticipate in the next few months that they
will loosen their requirements.
Mr. Hanks stated the state has not
done anything to address the concerns about the integrity of these
investments.
Ms. Rower stated they have in a
sense that they have created two funds and
any new monies that are going
into the fund, to make sure that they are in a better account, they have separated
them so they have an A account and B account. They are looking at the riskier investments
they had and there is nothing in the market for them to get rid of these. Those are separated and any new monies are
going into the A Fund, which is a much better portfolio in terms of risk.
Mr. Goscicki stated since the last
meeting the SBA did loosen up the percentages that we can move. These are additional funds we can now withdraw.
Mr. Bloom responded it was
originally 15% or up to $2 million and now it is 37% or up to $4 million.
Ms. Zich asked how can you trust A
versus B? What is the definition of A
and B?
Ms. Rower responded it is the type
of investments they are investing in compared to government securities,
compared to commercial paper, and different investments of that criterion so
they are graded.
Ms. Zich stated I am concerned
because I do not think anyone was aware of how risky the other ones were.
Ms. Rower stated many people assumed
the SBA was a bank account just as other bank accounts, and was federally
insured, as such. I do not think people
understood it was investment pool created by the state to help cities and
smaller municipalities manage their funds.
Unfortunately, it is like anything, we just read about a bank in
Mr. Goscicki stated the SBA is not a
bank account; it is not government insured in that regard but the sale of this
service fund has always been it was a safe, secure, conservative
investment. The sale to local
governments is, you do not have to worry about having your own investment
managers you can put your money here, we are going to invest it, we are going
to be conservative with what we do and clearly some of their investments were
not.
Mr. Hanks asked is there still the
need to move our money out of the SBA?
Mr. Goscicki responded it is still
our recommendation we maximize the amount of withdrawal. I think their credibility has been severely
damaged in terms of where they are and their rulemaking is completely
arbitrary. We are still recommending the
Board authorize the withdrawal of the maximum amount.
Mr. Hanks stated I would like our
people to talk about what we are doing with the money.
Mr. Fennell stated let’s talk a
little about the SBA. Have you looked at
their accounts and what they were doing with them?
Mr. Trescott responded yield is a
very strong indication of what they are investing in. A typical Money Market fund return is 3.75%. They are still paying 4.70% on the A Fund. The A Fund was the original fund and
supposedly had all of the good investments.
The B Fund has the sub-prime mortgage backed securities which is
commercial paper and things like that.
It will probably be quite awhile before you get any money out of there,
it depends on if they can sell it. I saw
the original portfolio before they closed.
Mr. Fennell stated I looked at it a
couple of months ago and it is not that they have not been fairly
forthcoming. I looked at the different
possibilities including commercial paper, T-bills or any kind of bonds and it
was less than 1%. My thought was, I have
junk bonds which are safer than that.
How did they get to this? I would
not think they paid us that well, most of the time we had out money in there,
it was 2% or 3%.
Mr. Trescott stated they were paying
5.70%.
Mr. Fennell stated I do not think
they had security debt funds. What I
think is they invested in Countrywide or some kind of funds like that which
were the people who set up the funds and did not even have the mortgages
backed.
Mr. Trescott stated they had a lot
of Countrywide CD’s.
Mr. Fennell stated with Countrywide
you do not even have a mortgage at that point.
Countrywide is now being bought out by Bank of America at probably dimes
on the dollar.
Mr. Trescott stated it is
interesting how they got into this stuff and why they went into it. They are analyzing that and so forth. The sub-prime mortgage backed securities was
$980 billion around the world.
Ms. Rower stated ,it is as any other
fund, their goal is to create assets and get more assets, so obviously they
were looking for returns and most municipalities are looking for returns. We looked at the banks and your investment
options and said this is a higher paying yield and until this happened they
have paid higher rates for quite some time.
Mr. Fennell stated in our budget we
were ever only getting 2% or 3%. Did we
really get that money?
Ms. Rower responded yes.
Mr. Fennell stated our budget was low
but we were getting more. On the other hand
we were supposedly almost forced to go there.
Mr. Goscicki stated you were not
forced. It is one of those investment
opportunities imparted to us as a convenient safe investment. It was not a forced issue but a safe
investment option for local governments to use.
Mr. Fennell asked was it supposed to
be like a cash money market fund with monies going in and out? It was not meant to be as a CD is to tie up
your funds.
Ms. Rower responded it is an
investment pool so actually it was like having an investment advisor who was
managing the pool so each smaller municipality was not hiring their own. You would assume that type of investment
management or advisory service would yield you better rates but not riskier
investments. Unfortunately, it is like
anything, they are in a business and people have a drive to create more return
and who knew how bad the bubble was going to burst when it burst.
Mr. Fennell stated several banks
did.
Ms. Rower stated Citibank is the
largest bank out there and they had problems with this.
Mr. Fennell stated the bonds get
passed around. Is the Fed still going to
back the bond insurers?
Mr. Trescott responded it fell
through.
Mr. Fennell stated it held the
market for a day or two.
Mr. Trescott stated the bond
insurers are struggling because they insured a lot of the different pools of
the sub-prime mortgage backed securities.
There could be 10 or 15 different layers or slices of that same mortgage
backed security, some would be AAA and those would be insured. If they fall below a certain price there is
an automatic kick out, you have to liquidate and there is no market out there
for them so you take a loss and that brings the insurance factor in. They are struggling with paying those off.
Mr. Fennell stated I am trying to
understand if it was just one of those things that happened or if there was a
shift in policy and changing to take on a lot of risky investments. I can point to half a dozen things which have
a better track record than the SBA fund, not only from a matter of stability,
but from a standpoint of yield.
Mr. Trescott stated remember the SBA
fund was considered a money market fund you could go in and out of it daily.
Mr. Fennell stated that is what I
thought.
Mr. Trescott stated you could go in
and out of it daily.
Mr. Fennell stated as I understand money
market funds, the objective of any person in the money market fund is to
maintain the daily value and second get the best deal you can by doing
that.
Mr. Trescott stated they did not run
their money market fund like a money market fund ,more like a 287 fund, which
is by the SEC. It has a longer maturity,
longer duration, a different quality of securities. This is why the money market funds were
yielding 5% and they were yielding 5.7%.
Mr. Hanks asked with the investments
we are looking at what is the relativeness to where we are now?
Ms. Rower responded we are looking
at several different options. We have
the operating funds we have to look at because obviously we have bond funds, we
have operating funds. We recommend we
keep the daily operating accounts with Wachovia. Ms. Woodward brought up the
fact that we have a lot of customers who get direct billed money taken out,
lock boxes, and that type of thing so from an operational standpoint we would
like to recommend we stay with Wachovia.
However, we have negotiated with Wachovia to get a rate that is their
Government Advantage Interest checking account.
The interest rate is based on a 90 day T-Bill and is considered a
government account so we end up with $100,000 of the FDIC insurance and after
that we are backed by the state and we have the backup of the Qualified Public
Depository (“QPD”). The daily billing
for the water and sewer will remain in Wachovia, it is a very safe, interest
type checking account, it is a money market fund and they do pay you based on the
T-Bill. They do have a minimum
requirement of $100,000, which stays in the account and will not earn any
interest. The remaining is put in a
Government Advantage Money Market fund. This
is what we recommend for Wachovia.
Ms. Zich asked what is the current
rate?
Ms. Rower responded at this time it
is 3.39% based on the 90-day T-Bill.
Ms. Zich asked, is that what the
funds at Wachovia have been in?
Ms. Rower responded no.
Ms. Zich asked what kind of interest
have we been getting?
Ms. Rower responded we have not
gotten interest. They did what is called
interest earnings credit. Because rates
have been typically so low the year before they would credit our fees against
the interest so it was a wash and no interest.
We anticipate the interest will be more based on the rates.
We also have Wachovia accounts we
would like to invest that are the reserves.
They have a special program Fed funds minus 25 basis points and that is on
balances over $1 million. This will give us somewhat of a better return and we
think it will serve our purposes. We are
only allowed six transactions a month so this would be used only for our reserves. Then we have what we consider our bond
proceeds and is why we brought in Mr. Trescott of SunTrust, portfolio
manager. We would like to look at
agencies for the monies which will not be used until 2009. The bond money is sitting currently in US Bank
and they are currently paying 4.4%, so the bond money has been earning interest
the whole time with the trustee, US Bank.
Mr. Goscicki stated the way the bond
fund is set up right now it is all sitting in this account and you can take as
much as you need anytime you need it.
The goal is to develop more of a managed program looking at projected
cash flow of the capital program to try to optimize the investment. There is a piece of it we are saying whatever
we anticipate using in fiscal year 2008/2009, leave it with US Bank to have as
working capital for the Capital Improvement Program and the balance invested to
see if it can earn a little higher yield.
Mr. Fennell asked did you say the $40
million is currently in SunTrust or US Bank?
Ms. Rower responded US Bank.
Mr. Fennell stated US Bank had
something to do with the bond issue.
Ms. Rower stated US Bank bought out SunTrust
Trust Department.
Ms. Zich stated I am looking at the
cash transaction and cash flow charts Ms. Woodward gives us under Section A., there
is a lot of cash sitting there. Is it
not earning any interest now or is it in Wachovia earning some type of
interest? The money from SBA came out of
there and went into the checking account.
Ms. Rower responded that is what we
discussed at the last meeting that it was not an interest bearing account and
the Board made a decision for 30-days it would be fine so we could get the
money out of the SBA. However, we have
spoken with Wachovia and we will be receiving the GAIC at this point which in
November was 4.25% and we will be moving it to that account as soon as we have
approval from the Board.
Ms. Zich stated there was a lot of
cash sitting there before we got the SBA.
Do you mean we were not getting any interest on any of that? There is $1 million sitting there.
Ms. Rower stated it was an Interest
Credit Account so you would not have fees charged.
Ms. Zich stated you are talking $1
million in an account.
Mr. Goscicki stated this is exactly
why we have this item here. We need to
move this money to get an investment portfolio.
Ms. Zich stated that is a lot of
money sitting there.
Mr. Fennell stated obviously we need
to handle our money better. How do we
decide which bank?
Ms. Rower responded one of the issues,
especially when it comes to the operating account because of the items which
are in place – to change all of that when it comes to our billing would be
quite cumbersome and I do not think it would be in our best interest.
Mr. Hanks stated I am set up on
automatic withdrawals or whatever it is so at billing time Mr. Daly puts in an
amount for my account and it takes my money out of my bank, and it is directly
transmitted to Wachovia, so for the 10,000 or however many customers we have,
we would have to change each and everyone of those.
Ms. Zich stated I am not suggesting
you change it. I am suggesting there is
over and above an awful lot of money there we are not using on a monthly
basis.
Ms. Rower stated this is why we are
saying we will keep our operating account with Wachovia, but in another account
that allows for better returns when you have over $1 million. The money on an
operating, daily basis will stay in one account with Wachovia that allows as
many transactions as needed. The other account
with Wachovia you are only allowed so many transactions but you get a much
better rate and it has a minimum balance requirement of $1 million.
Mr. Hanks stated given the terms of
our operations right now we have just gotten our tax rolls and we are in a good
position in terms of what we have available.
When we get to July or August toward the end of the season where do we
stand on that account balance? Are we
going to be down close to that minimum threshold?
Ms. Rower responded we can do a transfer
because it is all within Wachovia. You
are only earning a few basis points additional so if it comes to that account
they will work with us to move it into the other Wachovia account. Because of the fact we want to keep all of the
operating accounts together, it is just working with them on an approach that
gives us a better return without having to pull it out and investing elsewhere.
Mr. Hanks stated it is still easily
accessible.
Ms. Rower stated Ms. Woodward can
pick up the phone to transfer it from one fund to the other.
Mr. Bloom stated having those
accounts within Wachovia gives you that flexibility to be able to move them
back and forth. As far as the Wachovia
accounts, they will work with us and in not difficult to move.
Mr. Fennell asked how does this work
with the US Bank account?
Ms. Rower responded it is separate
because this is our operating account.
If you want to work with US Bank and have SunTrust to work with our bond
proceeds, which is a different issue because that money is more of a scheduled
timeframe, and we are looking at the investments with SunTrust for those monies
which will not be used in this fiscal year, 2008.
Mr. Bloom stated the minimum is the
differential between what we are paying on the bonds and what we are able to
get for the unused monies.
Ms. Rower stated what we are looking
at is when we look at the rates we have available and the yield curve is
nonexistent. You think you go out two
years and that is not the case because they think rates are going to be
dropping significantly. We have to look
at what we think the market is going to do and also protect ourselves. If the interest rates do not drop and we go
out long term and then they do not we are getting a lesser rate than we would
on Money Markets and is why in the current year keeping the money in a Money
Market account will offset it so we have some money liquid through the bonds so
we do not have to make withdrawals and we will not be caught in that
scenario. We are looking at investing
monies that are not projected on the capital expenditures until next fiscal
year.
Mr. Fennell asked are we fully
insured now on our accounts?
Mr. Bloom responded Wachovia is.
Mr. Fennell asked up to how
much?
Mr. Bloom responded $100,000 FDIC and
after they put into a pool to which everybody puts in a certain percentage to
cover all of the losses.
Mr. Fennell asked what about the
money we have at US Bank?
Mr. Bloom responded it is safe in a
very liquid, risk free type of investment.
Mr. Fennell stated you have this
wild trader guy come in and trades away $20 million of it. Now what happens?
Mr. Bloom responded the bond
documents have very specific guidelines as to what they can invest in.
Mr. Lyles stated it is in a trust
account. It is fundamentally different than
the funds staff has been speaking to you about.
Those funds are about as safe as funds can be. They are held in trust and dedicated to a
single purpose.
Ms. Zich stated we really thought that
is what SBA was.
Mr. Lyles stated it is not set up
that way and it never really was. These
funds are in a trust account.
Mr. Fennell stated it is a safer
account but is it insured?
Ms. Rower responded no.
Mr. Goscicki stated our goal is to
move a good portion of the money out of the account to accounts which will be
safe and also meet the requirements.
Mr. Lyles stated they are still
trust accounts. There is a different
level of scrutiny and a lower level of flexibility of what can be done with
those funds, when they are held in trust it is for a specific purpose.
Ms. Rower stated this is why we are
saying for the current operating cycle, the capital expenditures we anticipate
this year are the minimum amount we are keeping in this type of trust. The rest will be invested in governmental
agency investments.
Mr. Fennell stated Ms. Woodward you
deal with our funds day to day; do you have a take on this?
Ms. Woodward responded I would be
interested to see what US Bank is able to do for us. We just went through a closing in September
and chose them to be the trustee.
Mr. Trescott stated the money is in
a Money Market fund at US Bank called a First American Money Market fund again
that would be a AAA rated fund, regulated, certain limitations and the average
life is 90-days. It is very secure so
you do not have anything to worry about with that.
Mr. Fennell stated it is actually
paying out pretty good.
Mr. Trescott stated Friday it was
paying 3.43%; it changes everyday. If it
went under it is backed by the securities you actually own a share of. The $40 million is spread out through all the
different investments. It would be hard
for someone to run off with that type of money.
As to do the investing if you were to go with what Ms. Rower is saying
the money does not actually go to us if you were to choose investing. For example if you were to buy some
securities from us what we do is deliver the securities to US Trust versus our
bank.
Mr. Fennell asked what other
restrictions do we have on the $40 million?
Obviously, we are not planning on using all $40 million dollars in the
next six months.
Ms. Rower responded I know you look
for security and is why we are saying the current year’s capital expenditures
can stay in the Money Market. All we are
saying is we should take some of the funds that we project not to need until
2009 and 2010 to buy some agencies or have some protection. This volatility with the rates and if rates
start dropping as they did two or three years ago and we go down to again with
FED funds in the 1% range, obviously you do not get as good as a return as if
we purchased agencies now. I think this
gives us the best of both worlds in the fact that if rates do not drop and we
purchased an agency at today’s rates and they start going up it allows us the
flexibility ro have some of our money invested.
Ms. Zich asked what agencies are we
talking about?
Mr. Trescott responded it would
primarily be Agencies and Federal Home Loan Bank.
Mr. Fennell asked are they trying to
get more?
Mr. Trescott responded they are not
allowed to buy sub-prime but they had excess earnings. They were taking the excess earnings and
investing in sub-prime mortgage backed securities for their own portfolio. The yield would indicate there is not much of
a spread between the four agencies so it is not perceived as a risk but yield
is a definite indication of the risk factor.
Mr. Fennell stated I think you made
the comment earlier that right now it is an inverted yield curve which usually
means recession and it also usually means you are smarter to keep your money in
short-term money markets.
Mr. Trescott stated we can get 3.40%
right now.
Mr. Fennell stated that is not bad
in this type of market.
Mr. Trescott stated 30-year loans
are 4.27%. If you look at the sheet I
developed and if you go out two years you only get around 2.90% to 3% but that
is a guarantee for that length of time where as what is a money market going to
do. I think long-term wise they will go
down probably to 2.5%.
Mr. Fennell stated where are we
getting $300,000 a month in interest off the bonds.
Mr. Goscicki stated the interest is
anticipated in the capital improvement program; it is not found money.
Ms. Woodward stated we sized the
bond issue at $36.5 million but if you look to the schedule in the document the
expectation is the interest is also going to be used to pay for this
project.
Mr. Fennell stated we are reporting
it with our revenues.
Ms. Woodward stated one of the
things you will notice under the water sewer fund this month is I have split
out the interest because with interest income we have a situation where on
December 1 the first interest payment is going to be made and so you do not
think we did not budget for this and have to pay $400,000 we did not anticipate
you will notice it for the next calendar year.
Any difference will go to capitalized interest and it is a money in
money out type situation.
Mr. Fennell asked what is the
question to us?
Mr. Goscicki responded the question is
twofold – one is your operating budget when we want to move forward against
your current state. There are two
accounts at Wachovia, a checking and a savings account even though they are
both really checking accounts. One is
offering a higher yield than the other allowing us to move from one to the
other to maximize the return on those investments. The second portion is looking at the $40
million bond proceeds and what we are asking for there is to have us go forward
to look at can we achieve a better return on funds we do not need for this
upcoming fiscal year by looking at a more aggressive investment program with
SunTrust rather leaving in US Bank.
Ms. Rower stated it does stay with
US Bank it is just that will be our broker that will be purchasing these
investments for us, it will be Robinson Humphrey, which is part of
SunTrust. They will purchase but the
money stays in US Bank.
Mr. Fennell stated it was also
suggested about keeping those in one bank or two banks.
Ms. Rower stated we really think we
should keep Wachovia as it would be beneficial from an operating standpoint to
the District with the billing process; leaving the operating fund at Wachovia
allowing it to be in a different type of account. Keep all of our trust funds at US Bank;
however, we purchase some agency instruments through Robinson Humphrey even
though the money will stay with US Bank.
Ms. Zich stated I am concerned about
the SBA because all of the money we put over to Wachovia is just going to be
sitting there.
Ms. Rower stated it is going to be
earning interest.
Ms. Woodward stated everything in
the operating account at Wachovia will now earn interest.
Ms. Rower stated when we used the
SBA the accountant would pull out money as needed to fund operations for that
month.
Mr. Fennell stated we are not there
yet but I think we are getting to a good cash flow forecast. Obviously cash flow means more than monthly
budgets. Give me something specific to
say aye or nay on.
Mr. Goscicki stated on the first
issue I am not sure there is a course of action for the Board; it is part of
our responsibility to manage the money.
We are looking at the current direction from the Board such as to stay
with Wachovia, split the funds between the funds to be able to maximize returns. Obviously they will be managed closely
between Ms. Woodward and Ms. Rower in terms of the overall fiscal oversight and
day to day accounting.
Mr. Fennell stated that is the day
to day money. What you are looking for is the money market account and six
month T-Bills.
Ms. Rower stated it is all in going
to be in the Trust Department of US Bank trust but we are looking to purchase
different instruments.
Mr. Goscicki asked are you talking
about the $40 million bonds?
Ms. Zich responded I am talking
about the Wachovia part because it is bothering me more than the other. I am used to working with the construction
company and if we had excess funds we would put them in a Money Market.
Ms. Rower stated we used the SBA to
do that for years and now because of the situation with the SBA we have pulled
our money out and now we are going to put it in Wachovia.
Ms. Zich asked have we gone to see
if Wachovia is the best one?
Ms. Rower responded we need to keep
it with Wachovia because of our operating funds because with the SBA it allowed
us the ease of moving money in and out.
We want to make sure we do not have investments tied up because
obviously with construction you can project out we know we are going to do so
much with this capital project for these three months. When it comes to operating we do not have as
much of a luxury. We want to make sure we
do not take that money and invest it; we want to keep it in an operating
account which earns interest. You are
not investing in a T-Bill but it pays you the same as a 30-day T-Bill.
Mr. Goscicki stated we are not
locked into this long term. It is a
current investment strategy based on the SBA situation. It is an approved way to optimize the
investments we have; as the situation shapes up and we get more confident of
the fund we will be updating you.
Mr. Daly asked what is the
suggestion to do with the $40 million?
Mr. Goscicki responded I would like
to get through the one issue because they are totally separate. One deals with the operating funds which has
a certain set of criteria and the other deals with the bond funds.
Ms. Rower stated what we are looking
for from the Board is for the movement of the bond money.
Mr. Goscicki stated I do not want to
talk about the bond money; I want to resolve the one issue before we confuse it
with the bond issue. What we are looking
for from the Board is did what we just described make sense and move
forward.
Mr. Fennell stated you could take
our excess funds from Wachovia and invest them with US Bank.
Ms. Rower stated we are not,
everything for the operating the water and sewer fund and operating the billing
will still be with Wachovia. Then
depending on needs and cash flow we will get a rate based on where the money is.
Mr. Fennell stated all of the
operating funds are going to stay at Wachovia in the two different accounts –
one being sort of a money market with checking privileges and the second being
a higher yield account.
Ms. Rower stated with six
transactions allowed.
Ms. Zich stated you do not want to
move it anyway.
Mr. Fennell asked what is the
difference in the interest rates?
Mr. Bloom responded the regular one will yield
FED minus 10 basis points and the money market deposit account FED minus 25
basis points but 100% earns interest. As
far as Wachovia we did look at several other banks. SunTrust and Wachovia have very close rates.
Ms. Zich stated that was my question
of whether we had checked out other banks.
Ms. Rower stated we have a
spreadsheet. For the few basis points
that you are going to make it is not worth investing for three years.
Ms. Woodward stated I thought we
asked Wachovia to match the offer of the other bank.
Ms. Rower stated we talked with them
and they came back with the only difference being the minimum requirement.
Mr. Goscicki stated the second issue
is the US Bank bond proceeds and what we are recommending to the Board is we
take on a more active investment role through SunTrust, again the monies all
stay within US Bank but we will be directing investment terms based upon the
draw down schedule to try to optimize the return to the Board instead of just
leaving it there and saying it is what it is.
Mr. Hanks asked have you looked at
what the brokerage fees are going to be?
Has it been part of the consideration?
Ms. Rower responded they are
calculated in the returns as net returns.
Mr. Fennell stated on the $40
million we already have a planned rate of return built into this.
Mr. Goscicki stated there is a rate
of return that went into the bond issue.
Mr. Fennell stated we felt we are
getting these bonds and they are going to sit here for awhile but we are going
to make $300,000 for a couple of years and it is going to fund additional
services.
Ms. Woodward stated it is going to
fund the balance of the capital projects.
Mr. Fennell stated there is actually
a goal there we better meet. What is the
return we have to have?
Ms. Woodward responded I do not
recall.
Mr. Goscicki stated I do not
remember off the top of my head either.
Mr. Skehan stated over the three
years it is supposed to go from $36.5 million up to $39.6.
Mr. Fennell stated I see a schedule
from engineering which is sort of germane to this because you have finance
trying to do a cash flow analysis and engineering spending money, somewhere
there has to be a connection.
Mr. Goscicki stated absolutely.
Mr. Fennell asked how do we get all
of it together?
Ms. Woodward responded Mr. Skehan
and I have already started to pull together the dollar amounts and what you are
looking at now is a timeline. We are
going back to the original engineers report and projecting out the projects and
the timeframes anticipated. We will
re-address and analyze to see if the timelines are accurate. This page includes only the items, which are
the responsibility of CH2MHill.
Mr. Skehan stated there is a gross
table similar to this with a little less detail included in the bond report on
which the distribution of the funds was based from the beginning.
Ms. Woodward stated I am going to be
taking that information and producing a similar schedule which will encompass
all of the costs associated.
Mr. Fennell stated that is what I
want to see every month.
Mr. Goscicki stated it is matching
the engineer’s progress with where they are, where they stand with regard to
the work authorization.
Mr. Hanks stated it needs to be layered
on top of the contractors schedule as well.
Mr. Goscicki stated this is a piece
of the overall schedule.
Mr. Fennell stated I want to see a
monthly schedule on it. There is nothing
more important to us and this supersedes our budget if you think about it. Spending this money wisely is important to
us. Obviously you do freeze your
original amounts and ideas and this is an ongoing thing. We need this because six months from now
somebody is going to come from the bank and say okay you have not spent as much
as you thought or you spent more than you thought.
Ms. Woodward stated the expectation
is the operating and projection cash flows for capital funding will be updated
monthly so you will be able to track progress.
Mr. Fennell stated after the bank
loans you the money they kind of step back but now it is our money and we are going
to take care of it well. The only issue
is with the $40 million and you are thinking can I get it to do a little better
than that but obviously they have to be safe investments.
Ms. Rower stated US Bank will have the funds
and we will purchase through our broker dealer, Robinson Humphrey, will have to
go to the open market to purchase instruments. Because
of the fact we are looking at the years after this fiscal year we are not going
to invest any of the monies coming due in the next three to six months.
Mr. Hanks asked what about the
pumps? Have you some kind of contingency
because some of these capital improvements are related to the pump
improvements?
Mr. Goscicki responded bond funds
are dedicated to certain capital improvements as supported in the bond
documents. If a pump breaks it comes to
the R&R fund and there are monies there at Wachovia earning interest. It is not intended to deal with those types
of issues.
Ms. Woodward stated the R&R
funds are in fact at US Bank. They are
not at Wachovia.
Mr. Goscicki stated not the R&R
reserves; what I am talking about is within the operating account we have funds
called renewal and replacement funds we have in reserve we can use in
emergencies.
Mr. Fennell asked what more do we
have to talk about with the $40 million?
Mr. Goscicki responded I think it
requires a motion of the Board.
On MOTION by Ms. Zich seconded by Mr.
Hanks with all in favor authorizing execution of investment contracts as
outlined during the course of the discussion to execute the appropriate
instruments was approved.
Mr. Fennell asked how much are the
R&R reserves at US Bank?
Ms. Woodward responded I think we
are funding $307,000.