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HomeMy WebLinkAbout02-09-2000 Meeting 1- RICHMOND COUNTY PUBLIC FACILITIES, INC. COMMITTEE ROOM - February 9, 2000 4:05 P. M. PRESENT: Ben Kay, Raymond Anderson, Tom Fuller, Avery Willis, John R. Maben, James Krk, members; Jim Wall, Attorney; Lon Morrey, Comptroller; David Collins, Finance Department and Lena Bonner, Clerk of Commission. Mr. Wall: I have presided until such point as we elect an officer. I'd be glad for anyone of you who might wish to serve in that capacity to do so. Otherwise, I'll point out that Tracy Williams, who was the Chairman, had resigned and we talked about it earlier. The Commission adopted a rule that you are prohibited from serving on two boards at the same time. Tracy was on the Board of Tax Assessors and chose to resign from Public Facilities. Duane Grice is the secretary and could not be here so those are the only two positions we had elected officers for although the by-laws do call for a vice- president as well as an assistant secretary. Closing on these transactions that we'll be talking about is scheduled for February 22 and 23 and these documents will come here toward the end of next week so they can be executed here. Is there anyone who would care to preside and if not, I'll preside for the election of officers until we elect a president. Mr. Kay: Is it possible to put the Election of Officers at the end of the agenda? Mr. Wall: That is possible if you care to do it that way. I Mr. Kay: I'll move that we do that. Mr. Fuller: I'll second that. Motion adopted unanimously. A request to approve Resolution and other documents regarding the refinancing of the Board of Education's construction of Davidson Fine Arts School and new Certificates of Participation, was read. I Mr. Wall: In April of 1994 Richmond County Public Facilities issued Certificates of Participation totaling $13,470,000 and the Board of Education has been leasing from Richmond County Public Facilities property at the Davidson Fine Arts School building. Those lease payments have been paid to the trustee because the lease was assigned to the trustee and that has gone toward making the principal and interest payments that came due on those Certificates of Participation. Last fall I was contacted by Pete Fletcher who represents the Board of Education and they had looked at the interest costs they were paying on those Certificates of Participation and had consulted with Robinson Humphrey and determined that it would be in their best interest and they could save in excess of $1 million dollars and refinance the Certificates of Participation. With that in mind they have gone through the process of developing a preliminary official statement, have priced the Certificates yesterday in order to determine the interest rates on the new Certificates. It would necessitate a new lease agreement between Public Facilities and the Board of Education which would be basically a replacement of the lease, the same financing mechanism would be in place, and, that is, the lease payments made by the Board of I Education to Public Facilities would be assigned to the trustee which in essence would be used to satisfy the principal and interest payments as they came due on the indebtedness, the borrowed money. The resolution would authorize the Chairman and the Secretary to execute the documents which would include the lease agreement and indenture of trust, the trust agreement between the Richmond County Public Facilities and the Bank of New York. Public Facilities would pledge to repay the indebtedness to the Bank of New York and would also authorize the purchase contract whereby Robinson Humphrey would agree to purchase the Certificates of Participation and the escrow deposit agreement where the monies being used to defease the existing Certificates of Participation which would be paid into the escrow agreement, and the escrow agreement would provide for paying off and the satisfaction of those Certificates. The Board of Education will meet on this tomorrow arId hopefully approve a Resolution authorizing them to go forward with this transaction. The official closing will be on February 22 and 23. I would entertain a motion to approve the Resolution which would authorize the execution of the year 2000 lease agreement, the indenture of trust, the security agreement, the preliminary official statement, the purchase contract and the escrow deposit agreement. Mr. Kay: I move for acceptance. Mr. Fuller: Second the motion. After further discussion, the motion was adopted with Mr. Maben abstaining. I Mr. Wall: 1be request was made at the last meeting that an update be given on the status of the projects finance by COPS. Mr. Collins: In 1990 there was a desire to build a OF ACS building with a COPS to fund it. Also, a Public Works building was built on Marvin Griffin Road and a County Computer System was established with the total issue of $11 ,670,000. All these projects were built and completed. In 1993 the 1990 issue was refunded because interest rates had come down. There was also a need to build a new County Jail and $16,400,000 was issued for that. A new PW Equipment Garage/Purchasing Warehouse and Equipment Pool were also considered and we issued $33,650,000 in COPS. All of these projects were not completed. In 1995 we defeased some debt. A new site was chosen for the new jail and the Shop was privatized so we did not have to build the Equipment Pool Warehouse. Currently, we owe to Public Facilities two more payments that total $2,805.00. Everything has been built. The Municipal Golf Course project is 95% done and it generates more revenue due to the improvements. Mr. Wall: We'll go back to the Election of Officers. I think the first office we should consider is the ChairmanlPresident and I'll entertain nominations. Mr. Kay: I nominate Tom Fuller for President/Chairman. I Nomination seconded and closed. 1 Nomination carries unanimously for election of Tom Fuller as President. Mr. Fuller: I'll open the floor to nominations for Secretary. Mr. Kay: I move to nominate Duane Grice who is the existing Secretary. Nomination seconded. Nomination carries unanimously for election of Duane Grice as Secretary. Mr. Wall: Let me recommend that you elect a Vice-President and an Assistant Secretary . Mr. Fuller: I open the floor for nominations for Vice-President. Mr. Kay: I nominate Mr. Avery Willis. Mr. Maben: I'll second. Nomination carries unanimously for election of Avery Willis as Vice-President. I Mr. Kay: I will nominate Mr. Kirk for Assistant Secretary. Mr. Maben: Second. Nomination carries unanimously for election of James Kirk as Assistant Secretary . Mr. Kay: I would ask Mr. Wall to make sure that all the laws relative to open records were complied with prior to this meeting. Mr. Wall: They were. Mr. Kay: And could that be put in the minutes? Mr. Wall: Yes, sir. ADJOURNMENT: There being no further business, the meeting was adjourned. Lena J. Bonner Clerk of Commission I NWM