Travis County Commissioners Court
January 2, 2008
Item 13
Number 13 consider and take appropriate action regarding management highlights for inclusion in bond rating presentation.
what I did was put together a draft list and there are some questions had been raised about whether we should initiate a discussion of number 11, state legislation regarding gasb 45 or let the bond rating agencies initiate the discussion if they want to have one, which is fine with me.
we have discussed this with them the last couple of times and I would think that they would want to discuss that, but maybe they've had so many discussions that they won't want to.
the others are -- well, half of the others really are updates, but they are issues that we have raised previously, so some of them I would think that they would want at least a status report like the integrated justice system, the wellness clinic, we've been expanding that so -- so reentry, what I tried to do was look at issues we have discussed previously, recall whether or not they seem to be enthusiastic about them and to be honest based on my recollection of those two items, our discussion, et cetera, a need for an update, I put together this list of 10.
there may be others.
that I didn't think of.
we sort of have another week or so on this if we want to take it before we put together our list.
the other thing, even if it's not on the list we can still discuss the items. It's just that typically we try to give them some advance notice of what we'll discuss.
plus we'll always try to keep the time, the discussion time limited.
I don't know that we achieved that goal because once we start talking about management highlights, we normally take christian how long an hour or so?
we plan to take 30 or 40 minutes, I think we always take an hour.
but not all of it is our talking, a lot of it is their asking questions and pursuing a line of discussion that we may not have thought that important before we got there.
if it matters to them, we think we can accommodate them.
>> who is it that usually goes -- I mean I know you and Commissioner Sonleitner have gone the last number of years.
who else usually goes?
does christian, does susan?
what's the entourage that really going up there generally, judge?
>> christian goes.
sometimes he's accompanied by leroy or somebody in planning and budget.
since christian is on the way out, this time I think for sure somebody else should go.
we normally try to have two court members there.
Commissioner Gomez had requested to go this time.
we have not landed on a date.
Commissioner Daugherty requested also.
the auditor typically goes, we normally take the financial advisor, lad patillo, the last couple of times we have taken legal counsel from vinson and elkins to discuss the gasb 45 issue and -- and within the last year or so, you know, the Texas perspective on that gasb deal was a little bit different than the rest of the country.
and Travis County's experience was in my view driven by the gasb 34 catastrophe that costs us a whole lot of money to put the information together and to update.
but it's not used for anything.
that's basically what we place a value on county roads, ditches, parts, et cetera.
it took us a whole lot of time to put the information together.
nobody uses it.
unless county staff periodically look at it.
>> marble.
>> really inclusive.
but one of those things from the original listing updated, I guess my question is with this list, we really don't know what's going to happen after we make the presentation.
but since we have excellent credit ratings, with these particular folks, my question is do we feel comfortable that our credit rating will remain as is, which is top notch.
with some of the subject hart that's been included.
I guess that I have to pose that to christian, whoever else was like to approach that.
>> there is absolutely nothing on the horizon that would suggest any change in our credit rating.
>> okay.
>> they are looking at the financials primarily.
>> okay.
>> the financials are strong.
the county auditor makes that presentation, they are looking at the management, they are looking at the forward thinking approach and responsiveness of the management and that's top notch.
this -- this is --
>> pretty straightforward.
>> we have no reason to --
>> we will have slippage as far as
>> [indiscernible] bond rating I suspected that but it's good to hear coming from you financial wizards, christian smith.
of course the auditor will be there is another -- with it of course you have
>> [indiscernible] on this court, also.
>> do you think it would be wise to ask somebody to go with us this time from the health care district?
>> no?
>> no?
>> no.
because when the health care district starts issuing bonds, they will have to go and make their own case.
>> yep.
>> they will have to -- they'll have to get ready the same as we as a separate entity, which they really are.
the health discussion that we have have typically would be health and human services.
when it was created we had those discussions because we were shifting part of our budget to the health care district bylaw.
the amazing thing is that the -- the analyst that is assigned to Travis County, will know a whole lot of -- about irks that we have faced over the last year and are now facing.
those are the ones that we want to discuss.
to be honest as to the health care district, I assume they may want to know whether the Commissioners court is approving its duty in their budget which bylaw they must.
in time of making our appointments to the board, but beyond that I would think that they would -- they would want to talk more about the health care district activities when the health care district is about to issue debt.
>> well, the reason I asked is -- judge, you may feel like you are up to speed if someone starts asking questions about the health care district.
but I don't know that there's anybody on this court that can talk in great detail about their budget.
granted I mean I guess they -- like you said, that they have their own meeting.
but I will defer to your expertise there.
but I would sure be comfortable, if I were one of the people up there, somebody started asking about specifics about the health care district, even though they do come before this court and lay out their budget, but the details of that and I think that the health care district and especially as it relates to what is probably going to happen give very much, you know, what united way has done, there are -- I think there are some things in that arena that we may be faced with that -- and ultimately I think that we're the ones that are on the line for the health care district.
even though they are a political subdivision they still are -- don't they have to get the sign-off from us?
I mean, the budget?
I mean --
>> not the budget, but their tax rate.
>> their tax rate?
>> we don't have approval over their budget.
although we get a report.
>> it's the tax rate that you must approve.
>> to answer your question, just in terms of my memory, over the last five years, I think that the questions about the health care district have only come up once, that's when it was created.
it was on management highlights and the judge said we created it and it is a separate entity and there were no follow-up questions.
I don't ever remember them posing questions.
now, I do believe that the combined wisdom of the judge and myself and the county auditor could probably answer any questions that they come up with because usually those questions are pretty high level.
>> although christian, Commissioner Daugherty raises a point.
should we be prepared to discuss the private giving how it affects hhs in our budget cycle if at all.
the united way and the private giving in general.
>> my instinct is that would be a very difficult question to answer because the court has not yet had a discussion about that matter.
and therefore --
>> if someone asked me what is the court going to do about the current changing landscape, I would say I'm not sure because there's been no -- no thorough policy review of that matter.
all that we know is that it's an issue.
how you will hand is still unclear.
and my guess is that it is still unclear for those deeply embedded in that issue because it's still being sorted out.
>> but -- but in the same vein, though, excuse me, the point being that we have actually been involved in creating a wellness program within our county workforce and retirees and dependents, that -- which we do fund, that is something that I'm quite sure would be a continuing discussion on that particular subject matter or it may or may not be.
but it is a part of what -- what we have done as far as providing those kind of concerns with our wellness clinic that -- that is a part of this particular list that has been drawn out and laid out here by what the judge discussed this morning.
and there may be questions on that health-related stuff as far as funding and management and all of these other kind of things of that particular health.
I can see the tie-in, but then again it is -- it's something that we have a little more control over for what we do.
as far as our wellness clinic is concerned.
how we have direct control on that as far as funding and a whole lot of other things are concerned.
it does have a relationship, but I think that it's independent of -- of the district and itself as far as what they are doing.
>> it's -- a comment that might help on this discussion, I think the vast majority of management highlights are retrospective.
what's been happening the last year, the big issues that the court has addressed, with -- with sometimes -- some forward looking we're going to be talking to you in the next year or two about more of this, a civil courthouse might be a good example.
-- with the health care district, but has wrestled deeply with county employee health cost issues, then that would be a logical thing to be on the management highlights and indeed it is.
instead of county wellness clinic update it should be county wellness clinic and related issues.
>> yes.
>> when I put the health care district as number 7, I really just planned to close the loop on it.
seems to be doing well, court still approves the tax rate, everything is fine because we didn't know whether to expect a big headache or not.
I thought three or four sentences would cover that, then we move on, then try to address questions.
if they ask about the united way we address that as best we could.
I have heard three explanations of how they plan to implement that decision.
anywhere from immediately to over a period anywhere from 12 to 24 months.
that's pretty important.
my guess is that will impact us in some way how -- I'm uncertain at this point.
so -- so -- so you know normally, you know, these are the issues that I think will be -- will be in their mind anyway.
even if we're not prepared to discuss these to some extent, they will come up.
I mean, I often wonder if we say okay we don't have any highlights ourselves, do you have any, I don't know why they wouldn't pull out a list similar to this one.
normally a bond rating firms, typically like to have -- bond rating firms typically have the -- have that there to discuss with them.
-- they frown on -- so it's in their office, we have to refer to their judgment.
-- this year we are going to dallas and new york city, we are treating it like a fairly routine gathering and expect the same triple a bond rating that we've had.
>> this top notch is the best.
>> you can't take it for granted.
>> you can't.
it is something that we worked hard and we have gotten there.
to that level.
everybody can -- everybody can't put on their suspenders and say that.
>> so do we want to -- is this list all right?
christian?
can you think of anything that we should have -- we should have -- why don't we approve this one then, if we need to add some we will just do it.
>> second the motion.
>> that is a motion.
seconded by Commissioner Davis.
discussion?
all in favor?
that passes by unanimous vote.
thank you all very much.
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Last Modified:
Wednesday, January 2, 2008 2:24 PM