Travis County Commissioners Court
August 12, 2008
Housing Finance Corporation
Now let's call to order the Travis County housing finance corporation. Item number 1 is to consider and take appropriate action on request to reimburse lenders participating in the 2006 single-family bond program that did not use all their mortgage loan allocations.
>> good. I'm harvey Davis, manager of the corporation. I'm asking you to approve five checks that total 17,583.85. They're to five lenders and they're listed on attachment a. The reason for these checks is that at the beginning of a single-family bond program lenders pay an allocation. They pay one half of one percent or 50 basis points for the amount of the mortgage money that they purchase. They purchased the amounts in allotments of a million dollars. So for a million dollars, a lender would pay $5,000. That money is used to help pay the cost of issuance of the bonds and the fee is set by state law.
>> it's a million versus -- (indiscernible). Move approval.
>> second.
>> be bold enough to correct the county judge, mr. Davis.
>> [ laughter ]
>> I think I am, but I didn't follow you.
>> [ laughter ]
>> don't take that seriously, harvey.
>> we don't get to have much fun down here, mr. Davis.
>> [ laughter ] all right. You want us to go to item number 2? Consider and take appropriate action on request to review and approve marketing plan for 2008-2009 home buyer assistance program.
>> we're about to start a new payment assistance program courtesy of a 300,000-dollar grant from Texas department of housing and community affairs. And I'm asking you to approve the marketing plan. This is similar to marketing plans that we've done on prior programs. The real key to the marketing plan is aproving the press release and the flyer and posting of these and other information on the Travis County website. The press release from the flyer we would -- our practice has been that we have a large e-mail list of entities, newspapers, other organizations, so we send the information to those to notify the community that we have these funds available, that this is a new program. We also, when we applied for the grant we had to do a customer survey, so a lot of people were kind enough to give us feedback on that they want to buy -- they're interested in buying a home and they give us their income information, and this is required when we submit the. So we make a special effort to go back to those people and tell them thanks again for the survey, and we do have these funds available and we would to make sure that you know that you can use this program now.
>> questions.
>> move approval.
>> second.
>> I have one question regarding the making of psa's to air on channel 17. I was hoping that perhaps the corporation could work with channel 17 to engender maybe some more -- some -- tcso did a great job getting some psa's from a high school program for dating violence. It will be great to have more interface with the educational system to create some really interesting psa's around affordable housing and this. Program.
>> like some interviews with some happy home buyers from our prior program, things like that.
>> yeah. We could perhaps utilize high school rtf programs or college rtf programs to produce some really interesting work that might get picked up by some free media somehow to increase our outreach.
>> I will work with them and see what we can come up with.
>> thanks.
>> good idea.
>> all in favor? That passes by unanimous vote. Now let's call to order the Travis County housing finance corporation. Item number 1 is to consider and take appropriate action on request to reimburse lenders participating in the 2006 single-family bond program that did not use all their mortgage loan allocations.
>> good. I'm harvey Davis, manager of the corporation. I'm asking you to approve five checks that total 17,583.85. They're to five lenders and they're listed on attachment a. The reason for these checks is that at the beginning of a single-family bond program lenders pay an allocation. They pay one half of one percent or 50 basis points for the amount of the mortgage money that they purchase. They purchased the amounts in allotments of a million dollars. So for a million dollars, a lender would pay $5,000. That money is used to help pay the cost of issuance of the bonds and the fee is set by state law.
>> it's a million versus -- (indiscernible). Move approval.
>> second.
>> be bold enough to correct the county judge, mr. Davis.
>> [ laughter ]
>> I think I am, but I didn't follow you.
>> [ laughter ]
>> don't take that seriously, harvey.
>> we don't get to have much fun down here, mr. Davis.
>> [ laughter ] all right. You want us to go to item number 2? Consider and take appropriate action on request to review and approve marketing plan for 2008-2009 home buyer assistance program.
>> we're about to start a new payment assistance program courtesy of a 300,000-dollar grant from Texas department of housing and community affairs. And I'm asking you to approve the marketing plan. This is similar to marketing plans that we've done on prior programs. The real key to the marketing plan is aproving the press release and the flyer and posting of these and other information on the Travis County website. The press release from the flyer we would -- our practice has been that we have a large e-mail list of entities, newspapers, other organizations, so we send the information to those to notify the community that we have these funds available, that this is a new program. We also, when we applied for the grant we had to do a customer survey, so a lot of people were kind enough to give us feedback on that they want to buy -- they're interested in buying a home and they give us their income information, and this is required when we submit the. So we make a special effort to go back to those people and tell them thanks again for the survey, and we do have these funds available and we would to make sure that you know that you can use this program now.
>> questions.
>> move approval.
>> second.
>> I have one question regarding the making of psa's to air on channel 17. I was hoping that perhaps the corporation could work with channel 17 to engender maybe some more -- some -- tcso did a great job getting some psa's from a high school program for dating violence. It will be great to have more interface with the educational system to create some really interesting psa's around affordable housing and this. Program.
>> like some interviews with some happy home buyers from our prior program, things like that.
>> yeah. We could perhaps utilize high school rtf programs or college rtf programs to produce some really interesting work that might get picked up by some free media somehow to increase our outreach.
>> I will work with them and see what we can come up with.
>> thanks.
>> good idea.
>> all in favor? That passes by unanimous vote. 3 number 3 is to consider and take appropriate action on request to approve payment of an invoice from consumer credit counseling service.
>> the invoice is for $3,000. This is for the education services for the program that I've explained when we -- when you approve the plan for this down payment grant, this is -- the grant is for 40 home buyers and consumer credit counseling will do the required education, home buyer education for all of the 40 home buyers, assuming we fully originate, and those that get in the program, but are not able to complete it, they will do that education. So this is an efficiency that we're just going to pay them right up front and then not have to deal with individual checks.
>> move approval.
>> second.
>> how much is that?
>> it's based on $75 per household, which is a fee that consumer credit counseling is charged, or about three grants back.
>> okay.
>> so if we generate less than 40 families, do we get reimbursed?
>> no.
>> we're on for 40 whether we use it or not?
>> right. They understand that if we fully originate, then they're going to do classes for more than 40 families because they're always going to be people that get in the program that are not able to close, but -- and if we don't fully originate, they may do classes for less than 40. But I'm pretty confident that this is going to be a good program.
>> we've always abused the slot that we have created in the course of a year's time, haven't we?
>> not always. But the last program, which was 25, that one is complete. The one before, which was I believe 30, I think we did all but one.
>> you did all those?
>> yeah.
>> you will continue your outstanding practice of giving us a summary report at the end of the program.
>> I will continue that practice, yes.
>> move approval.
>> second.
>> discussion? All in favor? That passes by unanimous vote. 4 number 4, consider and take appropriate action on requests to approve contract with cj jopling as consultant for the Texas department of housing and community affairs for home buyer assistance and to pay an invoice for set fee for consultant's contract.
>> the amount of the setup fee is a thousand dollars. Again, this is referring to our 300,000-dollar down payment assistance grant. Cj has been our consultant for -- this will be her third program. She's done an excellent job. The contract is very to contracts that -- the prior two contracts that we executed with her. Her fee will be $500 per closing. She's paid at the time of the closing. And that's -- her main job is to tell us that she's gotten the documentation that this home buyer is in fact qualified incomewise to receive the funds. Her fee also includes the required inspection that we have to do on each of the homes to make sure that it's a satisfactory home.
>> move approval.
>> second.
>> I have a procedural question just out of curiosity. Was this -- I know it was put out for rfq. Was it required to be put out for r.f.p. Considering it's a professional -- class of professional services?
>> I'm sorry, I didn't go over that. Yes. We did -- in fact, came to the board and you approved the r.f.p. It is required because it's professional services paid out of h.u.d. Funds. So h.u.d. Requires you do an r.f.p., and she was the only respondent. We sent it to three -- we advertised it and sent it to three parties that do this service.
>> thanks.
>> any more discussion? All in favor? That passes by unanimous vote.
>> move adjourn.
>> second.
>> all in favor? That carries unanimously.
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Last Modified:
Tuesday, August 12, 2008 1:37 PM