http://blounttn.org/forum/ Wed, 08 Sep 2010 10:48:37 -0400 MyBB http://blounttn.org/forum/showthread.php?tid=5 Fri, 23 Apr 2010 21:36:11 -0400 http://blounttn.org/forum/showthread.php?tid=5
Please find enclosed the response to two questions raised from our last commission meeting.

The first question came from Ms. Linda King. On Friday following the commission meeting I requested information from Don Stallions of our Risk Management Department. You may read his response to the question of liability with respect to school field trips:

Steve,

This is a follow up to our conversation on 4/16/10 concerning the liability of school sponsored field trips.
Risk Management works closely with School Department personnel to insure the safety of our students and to limit the County’s and the School Board’s exposure to liability, including field trips.
The school board has purchased a separate liability insurance policy that protects the County, the School Board and the bus owners when transporting students for school sanctioned events. Any other loss to the County or School Board where the County or School Board was found to be liable, would be covered from our general liability fund, as with any school incident.
When students are taken from the school campus, risk does increase. To ensure the safety of the students and to limit the liability to the County and School Board, the School Board has developed and implemented safety procedures for field trips.
As with all risk we measure risk verses gain, and it is the opinion of Risk Management that the educational gains from the trips outweigh the slight increase in liability risk.
Please let me know if I can be of any further assistance.
Don Stallions
Risk Manager
Blount County Government


The second question was raised by Commissioner Graham regarding the proposed Debt Management Plan. I regret any confusion regarding the action from the Agenda Committee meeting. As I recall, the initial motion by Mr. Graham was that “a non-binding vote of confidence, for information only, not for discussion” in support of option 4 (the 75/25 option) be sent to the commission. A motion I completely agreed with. My understanding was the vote was a “non-binding vote of confidence” in option 4. I believe it was also the consensus that the commission should take time to study all the options and take the opportunity to ask any questions. It was also pointed out by our Finance Director, Steve Jennings, there was no urgency and we should take whatever time needed to ask questions. When the item came up at the commission meeting there was no objection to placing this item on the agenda for the May meeting. It was my understanding that the commission had indicated support for the fourth option of the presentation during our discussion at the previous meeting. I certainly had no reason to delay any further or prevent additional consideration. As I waited for comment from the commission it appeared most commissioners were in agreement as no one objected to the item being on the May agenda or indicated they wished to discuss the matter. Commissioner Reeves did ask a question of Mr. Jennings later in the meeting regarding monies being paid to Morgan Keegan. My personal position is now, and has been since the presentation, that we should act to move the county to a fixed rate position as soon as we possibly can. Please accept my apology for any misunderstanding the confusion may have caused.

Steve]]>
Please find enclosed the response to two questions raised from our last commission meeting.

The first question came from Ms. Linda King. On Friday following the commission meeting I requested information from Don Stallions of our Risk Management Department. You may read his response to the question of liability with respect to school field trips:

Steve,

This is a follow up to our conversation on 4/16/10 concerning the liability of school sponsored field trips.
Risk Management works closely with School Department personnel to insure the safety of our students and to limit the County’s and the School Board’s exposure to liability, including field trips.
The school board has purchased a separate liability insurance policy that protects the County, the School Board and the bus owners when transporting students for school sanctioned events. Any other loss to the County or School Board where the County or School Board was found to be liable, would be covered from our general liability fund, as with any school incident.
When students are taken from the school campus, risk does increase. To ensure the safety of the students and to limit the liability to the County and School Board, the School Board has developed and implemented safety procedures for field trips.
As with all risk we measure risk verses gain, and it is the opinion of Risk Management that the educational gains from the trips outweigh the slight increase in liability risk.
Please let me know if I can be of any further assistance.
Don Stallions
Risk Manager
Blount County Government


The second question was raised by Commissioner Graham regarding the proposed Debt Management Plan. I regret any confusion regarding the action from the Agenda Committee meeting. As I recall, the initial motion by Mr. Graham was that “a non-binding vote of confidence, for information only, not for discussion” in support of option 4 (the 75/25 option) be sent to the commission. A motion I completely agreed with. My understanding was the vote was a “non-binding vote of confidence” in option 4. I believe it was also the consensus that the commission should take time to study all the options and take the opportunity to ask any questions. It was also pointed out by our Finance Director, Steve Jennings, there was no urgency and we should take whatever time needed to ask questions. When the item came up at the commission meeting there was no objection to placing this item on the agenda for the May meeting. It was my understanding that the commission had indicated support for the fourth option of the presentation during our discussion at the previous meeting. I certainly had no reason to delay any further or prevent additional consideration. As I waited for comment from the commission it appeared most commissioners were in agreement as no one objected to the item being on the May agenda or indicated they wished to discuss the matter. Commissioner Reeves did ask a question of Mr. Jennings later in the meeting regarding monies being paid to Morgan Keegan. My personal position is now, and has been since the presentation, that we should act to move the county to a fixed rate position as soon as we possibly can. Please accept my apology for any misunderstanding the confusion may have caused.

Steve]]> http://blounttn.org/forum/showthread.php?tid=4 Fri, 02 Apr 2010 12:59:58 -0400 http://blounttn.org/forum/showthread.php?tid=4
Thanks!]]>
Thanks!]]> http://blounttn.org/forum/showthread.php?tid=3 Fri, 05 Mar 2010 15:38:33 -0500 http://blounttn.org/forum/showthread.php?tid=3
Currently on the County Commission we are not supposed to propose a expenditure without a revenue source. I would propose something similar for a change that is proposed that would increase the need for expansion of services. There should be a funding method/source proposed for service expansions needed during the planning phases.

Many times increases in maintenance of service expansions add to the following years budgets, which may be cover by increases realized from the growth in tax revenues. But this increase can not cover the initial cost of the implementation of the expanded service(s).

Current practice is to issue bonds after the result is realized. This is putting us behind the curve.

How and what ideas can we come up with to put the County Commission a proactive mode instead of a reactive mode as it relates to growth in Blount County?

Thanks!]]>
Currently on the County Commission we are not supposed to propose a expenditure without a revenue source. I would propose something similar for a change that is proposed that would increase the need for expansion of services. There should be a funding method/source proposed for service expansions needed during the planning phases.

Many times increases in maintenance of service expansions add to the following years budgets, which may be cover by increases realized from the growth in tax revenues. But this increase can not cover the initial cost of the implementation of the expanded service(s).

Current practice is to issue bonds after the result is realized. This is putting us behind the curve.

How and what ideas can we come up with to put the County Commission a proactive mode instead of a reactive mode as it relates to growth in Blount County?

Thanks!]]> http://blounttn.org/forum/showthread.php?tid=2 Mon, 08 Feb 2010 01:53:52 -0500 http://blounttn.org/forum/showthread.php?tid=2
If I understand the purpose of this Forum, it's to give us a chance to explore ideas in more depth, and to have more of a conversation that we might not always have time for within a commission meeting. To that end, I hope you won't mind if I share some thoughts and information related to county debt management.

We seem to be coming up to a crossroads of sorts in terms of how we're handling county finances. Our recent decision to hire an independent financial consultant for help, along with the change in the finance directors, provides all of us with an appropriate opportunity to take a fresh look at how we're doing business.

There are many important questions we should be asking right now, such as:

*Is our current debt structure the most cost-effective way to finance our capital projects and current obligations?

*How are we doing in terms of managing costs, both in terms of issuing costs and ongoing fees?

*How can we best prepare for and navigate the turbulent financial waters we're facing over the next three years?

I'm really encouraged by the Budget Committee's interest in seeking out an independent consultant. While we're waiting to hear what they've found, I thought it might help if all of us did a little research on our own to learn more about the impact of swaps, derivatives and variable rate debt on local governments. If you're interested in learning more about any of this, some of the following information may be of interest to you.

1. The Comptroller's Office spent much of last year soliciting public input and developing a new policy on the use of swaps and derivatives by local governments. You can read the new policy, titled "Guidelines for Interest Rate and Forward Purchase Agreements" here.

2. Currently, the Comptroller is in the middle of developing a Model Debt Management Policy for local governments. The window of opportunity for public input ended on January 8, and he hasn't yet posted those comments. (If he follows what he did last year, I think all public comments will be posted on his website at some point). However, you may still find it interesting to read his two press releases on the subject- if only to get an idea of where he's heading. Click here for a list of press releases, and look at the one on June 16, and Dec. 16 to read about the proposed debt policy.

3. One good way I've found to learn the details about our bond standing is to go to the EMMA website, something that's offered by the MSRB (Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board). To get to the details on any one bond we've got, do this.

A. Go to http://www.emma.msrb.org.
B. Once you're there, type "BLOUNT COUNTY TENN" into the little search window called "muni search" at the top right (you may be asked to accept terms & conditions of using the site first).
C. You should find a complete list of our bonds, past and present.
D. Pick one of these you'd like to know more about. For example, to read up on the bond we refinanced last February, look in the middle column for:
LOC GOVT PUB IMPT-SER B-18-A
E. Click on that particular phrase to read up on that particular 'series' of bonds.
F. Now you'll see a whole list of CUSIP numbers in a stack. You can click on those individually, or you can look to your right to see a big box with a tab called "Official Statement". Click on the PDF link inside that box to download the actual statement. That statement offers a wealth of detailed information about the bond itself, and other factors, that can be very interesting.

4. And finally, I just read a good book on the crash that happened in our world financial markets in 2008. Although there were times when I still had to re-read a paragraph to totally get it, I thought it was written in such a way as to take a complicated subject and really make it pretty understandable. The book is called "And Then The Roof Caved In" by David Faber of CNBC. You might find this an interesting read, too. (You can find it for $14.82 on http://www.amazon.com.)

This may all be old news to you guys, but each of these are things that have been helpful to me over the past year and I wanted to share them with you. If you have other books, websites or other resources that might help all of us with this stuff, I hope you'll share them here, too.

And thanks!
Wendy

Wendy Pitts Reeves, L.C.S.W.
Blount County Commissioner
District 4, Seat C]]>
If I understand the purpose of this Forum, it's to give us a chance to explore ideas in more depth, and to have more of a conversation that we might not always have time for within a commission meeting. To that end, I hope you won't mind if I share some thoughts and information related to county debt management.

We seem to be coming up to a crossroads of sorts in terms of how we're handling county finances. Our recent decision to hire an independent financial consultant for help, along with the change in the finance directors, provides all of us with an appropriate opportunity to take a fresh look at how we're doing business.

There are many important questions we should be asking right now, such as:

*Is our current debt structure the most cost-effective way to finance our capital projects and current obligations?

*How are we doing in terms of managing costs, both in terms of issuing costs and ongoing fees?

*How can we best prepare for and navigate the turbulent financial waters we're facing over the next three years?

I'm really encouraged by the Budget Committee's interest in seeking out an independent consultant. While we're waiting to hear what they've found, I thought it might help if all of us did a little research on our own to learn more about the impact of swaps, derivatives and variable rate debt on local governments. If you're interested in learning more about any of this, some of the following information may be of interest to you.

1. The Comptroller's Office spent much of last year soliciting public input and developing a new policy on the use of swaps and derivatives by local governments. You can read the new policy, titled "Guidelines for Interest Rate and Forward Purchase Agreements" here.

2. Currently, the Comptroller is in the middle of developing a Model Debt Management Policy for local governments. The window of opportunity for public input ended on January 8, and he hasn't yet posted those comments. (If he follows what he did last year, I think all public comments will be posted on his website at some point). However, you may still find it interesting to read his two press releases on the subject- if only to get an idea of where he's heading. Click here for a list of press releases, and look at the one on June 16, and Dec. 16 to read about the proposed debt policy.

3. One good way I've found to learn the details about our bond standing is to go to the EMMA website, something that's offered by the MSRB (Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board). To get to the details on any one bond we've got, do this.

A. Go to http://www.emma.msrb.org.
B. Once you're there, type "BLOUNT COUNTY TENN" into the little search window called "muni search" at the top right (you may be asked to accept terms & conditions of using the site first).
C. You should find a complete list of our bonds, past and present.
D. Pick one of these you'd like to know more about. For example, to read up on the bond we refinanced last February, look in the middle column for:
LOC GOVT PUB IMPT-SER B-18-A
E. Click on that particular phrase to read up on that particular 'series' of bonds.
F. Now you'll see a whole list of CUSIP numbers in a stack. You can click on those individually, or you can look to your right to see a big box with a tab called "Official Statement". Click on the PDF link inside that box to download the actual statement. That statement offers a wealth of detailed information about the bond itself, and other factors, that can be very interesting.

4. And finally, I just read a good book on the crash that happened in our world financial markets in 2008. Although there were times when I still had to re-read a paragraph to totally get it, I thought it was written in such a way as to take a complicated subject and really make it pretty understandable. The book is called "And Then The Roof Caved In" by David Faber of CNBC. You might find this an interesting read, too. (You can find it for $14.82 on http://www.amazon.com.)

This may all be old news to you guys, but each of these are things that have been helpful to me over the past year and I wanted to share them with you. If you have other books, websites or other resources that might help all of us with this stuff, I hope you'll share them here, too.

And thanks!
Wendy

Wendy Pitts Reeves, L.C.S.W.
Blount County Commissioner
District 4, Seat C]]>