At their May 26, 2009 meeting, the School Board had item F3 on the agenda, a resolution giving the Treasurer the authority to issue and sell $10 million worth of Bond Anticipation Notes. The resolution was spelled out in its entirety, occupying more than four pages of the agenda.
I attended that Board meeting, and made comments to the Board expressing my concern about the apparently high interest rates we taxpayers were being obligated to pay. I also brought up a recurring theme – that the Board needed to talk about this stuff in public. Public discussion is required under the Sunshine Laws, and as voters we demand to hear how they process such decisions.
I learned after the meeting that the language in the resolution was just boilerplate that did not reflect what the actual borrowing rates would likely be, which Treasurer Brian Wilson expected to be less than 1%. I can understand granting the Treasurer a little negotiating latitude when he actually sits down to the do the bond underwriting deal, but this boilerplate language gave him a great deal more latitude than that.
The Board, the Superintendent and the Treasurer were clearly annoyed at my questioning of the language of the resolution. I suspect that some members of the Board did not understand it themselves. Of course the resolution passed 5-0 with little discussion.
For the Monday, October 26, 2009 School Board meeting, there are once again resolutions on the agenda to approve the sale of debt instruments – in this case, long term bonds. It seems as though the Board's new strategy is to ward off tough questions by just not publishing the details in the agenda any more.
I can appreciate that the number of pages it would take to include the full text of five separate resolutions is significant. However, there are two easy things the Board could do, either of which would be acceptable:
- Provide the actual resolution language as an addendum. After all, it's not like they're actually printing paper copies and distributing them to everyone in the community. The cost to put a second PDF on the website with the agenda is about zero. Community members could decide for themselves if it is worth the paper to print it out (I certainly wouldn't).
- Describe the key parameters of each bond issue: a) issue size (which they did state); b) maximum underwriting costs; c) maximum coupon rate; d) anticipated repayment schedule; and, e) what, if any, change to property taxes should be expected by the residents of our school district. After all, since this is a refinancing, there is a chance that property tax collections could actually go down if the long-term bonds are sold at a lower interest rate than the short-term notes they replace.
Not everyone understands the mechanics of bonds, but there are plenty of people in our community who do. I have no doubt that should copies of the full resolutions and eventual underwriting contracts be requested by a member of the public, they would be provided.
But we shouldn't have to keep individually asking for disclosure of stuff of this magnitude. It's trivial for the Board to provide this information. Their behavior suggests that they don't want to be questioned by the public. That was certainly the case in regard to the easement deal they signed with Homewood Homes as Bradley High School was being constructed.
Justin Gardner, Don Roberts, and I have committed that if we are elected to the School Board on Nov 3, we will see to it that this kind of documentation will be included in the agenda and minutes, and that meetings will be streamed and recorded for viewing by the public.
Please vote for GARDNER, ROBERTS, LAMBERT for Hilliard School Board.