Travis County Commissioners Court
September 14, 2004
Housing Finance Corporation
Let's call to order the Travis County housing finance corporation. The only
item on the agenda today is to consider and take appropriate action on recommended
changes to policy guidelines for receiving and approving applications for
financial participation in residential developments. We do expect director
Daugherty to arrival momentarily.
>> good afternoon, him r I知 harvey Davis, here with angela
coke who is with blunt. We have reviewed the policy for issuing health tee
family bonds and asking the board to approve three changes to the policy.
If it's okay, i'll briefly go over the changes. The first to increase the
application fee from 11,000 to $12,000. If you -- if you recall now we have
an application of $11,000. $2,000 is payable when the applicant goes into
the lottery. Of that 2,000, 1,000 is paid to the attorney general, a thousand
goes to the corporation. Then if the applicant is able and gets an allocation
--
>> I知 sorry, I知 confused. Is there a change in the agenda
language because I知 looking at the backup and I thought that this was going
to be an item on approving an invoice. That's the language that i've got on
my agenda is approving an invoice, judge, there isn't anything -- so this
is something I haven't looked at. When we get approval of invoices I知 know
that they are not coming to us unless they are ready to go. I知 not seeing
anything that talks about policy guidelines. I apologize, I haven't read this.
>> housing finance? It says changes to policy guidelines.
>> I don't have housing finance on mine at all.
>> huh.
>> page 12.
>> page 7. I have northwest Travis County road district.
>> but not Travis County --
>> yep. I go straight from -- i've got the -- this is the
revised sheet and it has the a 1 through a 6, then goes to the road district.
On page 8 I have a health facilities. I don't have this.
>> okay. I don't know what to say, let's continue and not
take action today. Let's lay it out, make sure that we understand the issues.
Take whatever questions that they are. We will give you another week.
>> you bet, I apologize.
>> what we are -- what we are -- our attorney fees have increased
on processing the applications at the Texas bond review board from $1,000
to $1,500. And so what we are recommending is that we -- that the applicant
to get into the lottery pay a $3,000 instead of the $2,000, the $1,500 for
the attorney would be paid directly to the attorney and 1500 would go to the
corporation. And if the applicant is -- is able and receives an allocation,
again, the balance of the application fee would be $9,000. The second change
that we are recommending is -- is that the -- that the annual fee, the first
year of the annual fee be paid in advance at closing and then the -- and then
monthly thereafter beginning on the anniversary date one year after the closing
date. The reason that we are making this recommendation is that you know that
we've had difficulty in collecting the annual fee. There are three -- three
apartments in which we are having that difficulty. Two of those did not pay
the annual fee on the -- on the first anniversary date. So this accelerates
the collection of the annual fee. Then the -- the third change that we are
recommending is that we charge a -- that we charge a compliance fee equal
to $10 per resident -- residential unit for tax credit properties and $25
per residential unit for non-tax credit properties. The current charge we
charge for compliance audit based on time spent for each individual audit,
we keep a time sheet and then bill the -- the developer for that audit time.
This fee, and the reason that we have on this recommended change, the $10
versus the $25, is that on tax credit properties there is -- there is additional
oversight by the Texas department of housing and community affairs, so all
of our compliance oversight does not have to be as great as it does where
there's not tax credits. The -- the charging for compliance audit per unit
is commonly done by other issuers in the state. And it provides more resources
for the corporation. So -- so those are the -- are the three recommended changes
that -- that we wanted the board to -- to consider. And hopefully approved.
>> question. Under number one in terms of the application
fee. We talk about what kinds of things are paid up front. But we've had an
issue come up, at least a couple of times, of folks who -- who got through
a certain part of the process and either didn't get the allocation or decided
to withdraw and say, no, I知 stopping. And I can't quite remember whether
we have codified any kind of an official policy of this corporation related
to how we handle somebody stopping it, so that we get compensated for x amount
of work that indeed gets done by mr. Blunt and mr. Pat till although, but
it doesn't go any further than that, so we only recoup what truly are billable
hours. Is that at all addressed or are we still doing that kind of ad hoc.
>> well, we've had two situations where an applicant paid
the full application fee, the $11,000 and then they requested a refund.
>> uh-huh.
>> and these were both -- brought before the board and in
both situations they were -- they were given a refund of -- because in both
situations there was little or no work done, even though they paid the full
amount of the fee. It's a little hard to qualify that because we could have
people that aren't able to close but there's a substantial amount of work
done.
>> okay.
>> so it's a little hard to say well if you pay the full
application fee and you don't issue the bonds, then how much you are due as
a refund.
>> those two instances were really ones where nothing really
had occurred and they stopped the process before really any billable hours
occurred.
>> yes.
>> okay, I appreciate that clarification, thanks.
>> [indiscernible] for a week and indicate our intention
to take action next week.
>> thanks, I appear imiez.
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Last Modified: Thursday, October 27, 2005 10:25 AM