City councilors took the first step to wrap up projects included in the city's 2012 General Obligation Bond issue.
The City Council meet at noon Thursday at City Hall, and unanimously approved the sale of $3.3 million in bonds for the purchase of a Tel-A-Squirt fire truck with equipment and 6-foot deck mowers, three park improvement projects and five street rehabilitation projects.
A notice about the bond sale will be made, and a preliminary official statement that will be provided to interested parties. Bids will be opened at 11 a.m. May 15 in the city council chambers at City Hall, 401 S. Johnstone Ave. The bonds will be sold to the bidder who submits the lowest true interest cost. The bonds will have a 10-year term.
Municipal Finance Services, Inc. serves as the city's financial adviser. Investment Adviser Jon Wolff told councilors the $3.3 million were bank qualified, which means banks across the U.S. will be able to submit bids
"Bank qualified provides a better tax benefit for banks," Wollf said. "You will have more of the local area banks in Oklahoma typically interested in this transaction."
Here are the projects that will be funded through this bond issue.
Proposition 2 (Public Safety Projects) -- $610,000
--Acquisition of a Tel-a-Squirt Fire Truck with equipment -- $610,000
Proposition 3 (Parks, Recreational and Cultural Projects) -- $660,000
--Renovate and expand the Pathfinder Parkway Trail -- $250,000
--Replace the playgrounds and construct ADA accessible surfacing at Johnstone Park, Robinwood Park and Douglas Park -- $282,500
--Construct pavilions at Sooner and Civitan Parks -- $80,000
--Acquire 6-foot Deck Mowers --$47,500
Proposition 4 (Streets, Roads and Bridges) -- $1,940,000
--Rehabilitate Johnstone Avenue between 14th Street and 17th Street -- $575,000
--Rehabilitate Sooner Park Road between Adams Boulevard and Baylor Drive -- $250,000
--Rehabilitate Mountain Road between 2100 Road and Mountain Drive -- $225,000
--Rehabilitate Willow Circle and Arbor Drive between Adams Boulevard and Hazel Road -- $540,000
--Rehabilitate Fleetwood Drive between Frank Phillips Boulevard and Spruce Avenue -- $350,000
After the City Council approved the bond sale, City Manager Ed Gordon commented about the cost of federal regulations and overreach to the city and its taxpayers.
The city has entered into legal services agreements with Public Finance Law Group, PLLC, as the city bond counsel, Municipal Finance Services Inc., as the city's bond counsel, and a national law firm Hawkins, Delafield & Wood, LLP, as the city's disclosure counsel.
"One of the agreements that you have in your packet is with Hawkins, Delafield & Wood. Because of federal government regulations, we are having to spend additional taxpayer dollars to hire a legal firm to do filings for us to be in compliance with SEC regulations. I wouldn't say anything about this except that it's not $300 to hire a firm to do this. It's more on the order of $10,000 to hire a firm to do this," Gordon said.
Public Finance Law Group and Municipal Finance Services Inc. are splitting that cost with the city, Gordon said.
Regulations also require city staff to complete a questionnaire concerning the bond issue and its financial impacts, Gordon said.
"It's an interrogation. We are required to go through these documents page-by-page and say
'Are you OK with this?; Do you understand this?; Do you have any questions about this?.' And then fill out the interrogation form that goes with it," he said.
It creates hours of additional work for the two firms that represent the city as well as city staff, Gordon said. The city trusts its financial advisers, Gordon said. Now, the federal government wants a third law firm to question everything.
"I reach a place, council, where words fail me. Government overreach and overregulation in the banking industry has gone absolutely stark-raving mad," he said.
