Travis County Commissioners Court
May 3, 2005
Item 25
To consider and take appropriate action on the following requests: a is to accept and open applications and good faith checks from local banks interested in being Travis County's depository bank; and b authorize the bank depository review committee to review the applications and recommend a depository bank to the court. Good morning.
>> good morning. I’m mary mays, the investment manager for Travis County. Here with me is the rest of the team. This is really a large team effort. Harvey tka eufs, the assistant manager. Lee anne sledge, the financial analyst. And I doment to say just briefly that already -- this is a long process, and already many, many members of the various departments in the county have assisted us in this. Obviously the contract is for all of them with their bank accounts and they've been most gray sus. As you know, -- gracious. As you know, we also have a committee which is made up of some of the largest -- the departments of the largest bank accounts and the largest need for bank services. Plus a representative from i.t.s. And p.b.o. And cash investment management. And the applications that we receive today will be handed over to that committee. We will have a couple of weeks to look at them and we will meet and we anticipate that on may 17th we will come back to you with a recommendation for a depository bank. And then we will have a period of time when we talk over a contract and then we will bring that back to you as well. We do -- we are very pleased today to have two applications from excellent banks. One of them is from j. P. Morgan chase, our current depository bank. The other is from bank of america. They are both, as you know, very large national banks, two of the largest in the nation. They both have a local presence as well, a large local presence and local representatives. We do have representatives from the banks today. I'd like to introduce them. Here on the second row, larnell camus, that's our current depository bank and she is our representative. Gary hamilton is her boss and he is here as well. Thank you all.
>> who are they with?
>> j. P. Pharg began chase. It was bank one and they merged. They are now j. P. Morgan bank one. On the next row we have kathleen ford smith, she is a local representative from bank of america. I happen to have known kathleen for a long time because I used to work there. So we have and he good people here. We're very pleased about that. And I guess if you are ready, we will open the boxes. They were asked to provide an original and then copies for -- for the committee as well so that we can get to work this afternoon. Oh, I forgot to say how much we appreciate barbara wilson. She has just been a jewel through all of this and her work is not finished either because when we get to the contract part, she will be -- [inaudible].
>> better known as ms. Barbara.
>> here we go. J.p. Morgan chase. We have the application and all the copies. And this says -- it has checks in it.
>> need closer to the mic. That one at the end will snap off. Here's an envelope that says -- it has their good faith checks. These are required by law. And the purpose is that if we should go through this whole process and at the last minute the bank is somehow unable to post the collateral that's required by law, then at that point this would be Travis County's money. Until then it belongs to them. And we will put tonight a safe and take very good care of it. Let's see.
>> is that a one dollar good faith check or --
>> pardon? [laughter]
>> one dollar good faith check?
>> well, it might be a little larger than that actually. There are two. And they are based on Travis County's registry funds and our revenue. And so they have gotten to be quite large. Everything is in order.
>> the law says we shouldn't say what the amount of the checks --
>> oh, i'll be happy to say.
>> I was kind of curious myself.
>> the one based on county revenue is $2,124,022.86. The one base on registry funds is $227,238.48. These banks are so big that won't make much of a dent. [laughter]
>> that's county humor, by the way.
>> depository humor.
>> we did, as you know, send invitations to nine banks. And we've had some very nice responses from some of them who are not so big. And we just represent, you know, too big a thing for them to swallow at this time. Perhaps some of them will be back in four years. Here we have the bank of america one, and this looks like -- okay. That is the proper amount. The same amount. So --
>> same amount as the other --
>> exact amount.
>> this is like earnest money.
>> that's right. It is very similar to the earnest money you have to put down in a real estate transaction. So I think that's all we needed to do. We appreciate your time. These will go into the minutes and we will take the checks to the treasurer's office. Thank you all for being here.
>> so we had two and the committee will work on these over the next two weeks.
>> we have to have it back by the end of may. It may be as much as four weeks.
>> for the matter of record, I’m going to have to abstain on this either way, 25-a and b, because of the fact that I have a business relation with j.p. More began chase bank. -- morgan. I just want to know that is a matter of record so whenever it comes backs and even now.
>> thank you. And I assume that you authorized the committee to go ahead and work with this and come back to you with a recommendation.
>> abstain from that.
>> authorization given and appreciate shown.
>> thank you very much.
>> the committee did good work.
>> i'll go and move my $157 out of bank of america so I won't be in conflict?
>> no, sir. As long as you have an account, I have an account at one of the banks also. But as long as you are getting what is offered freely to the public at the public rate, then that's not considered a possible conflict of interest. And so that's -- that would be the reason for that, of course.
>> and I have both because i've had a bank account forever at bank one, although it went through a whole lot of name changes. Checking account only. And on bank of america, you all bought my mortgage after about the 14th time. So it's like I’m equally represented by both and very happy with both.
>> these are my favorite two banks too. [laughter] we appreciate your interest in doing business with Travis County.
>> thank y'all.
>> thank y'all very much. And we will see y'all soon.
>> do we have a motion? I move 25-a and b. Because we have to officially --
>> discussion? All in favor? Show Commissioners Sonleitner, Gomez, droughtry, yours truly voting in favor.
>> show me abstaining for the reason I stated earlier.
>> Commissioner Davis abstaining.
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Last Modified:
Wednesday, May 4, 2005 10:33 AM