Travis County Commissioners Court
September 22, 2009,
Item 42
Now should we call back to order the voting session of the Commissioners court?
let's do so.
thank you, turn your clock off.
>> mr.
bunt is here for item 42.
>> leave it on, mr.
bunt.
42, consider and take appropriate action on request to consent to a tax exempt lease financing transaction to be entered into by the laverne I can't higher education finance corporation, cost most foundation, inc, and regions bank.
>> yes, sir, this is a very common request that is received for financing facilities or projects within Travis County by other issuers.
this particular financing would help finance to harmony science academy which is run by the cosmos foundation as well as the harmony school of excellence.
the only different thing, this is a public hearing rather than being held by the Commissioners court, which is how you customarily do it, was held at vincent and elkins on the 14th, a week ago yesterday, and there is a report, no one from the public showed up to participate in the hearing.
>> okay.
>> is there -- is there a -- what is the -- how is it preferable to have the public hearing at the law firm as opposed to, say, having it here?
>> well, I believe the Commissioners court's preference is to actually hold the public hearing here at the Commissioners court before the approval.
in this circumstance, this happened once or twice this the last few years, the law firm -- I'm actually not working on this transaction, but the law firm working on the transaction had already published the notice to hold the hearing before they figured out that the Commissioners court would actually need to approve it.
the legal requirement is that highest elected representative actually approve the financing after the public hearing, so that can be the county judge or it can be the Commissioners court.
in some counties the county judge just as a matter of course signs these approvals.
in this circumstance, the policy has always been the whole Commissioners court approves it.
there is confusion about how that happened so I i thinks preferable from you all's policy standpoint the public hearing be held here although there have been a few exceptions.
>> is there a way moving forward to minimize the instances where the law firm just has them there?
>> usually we're notified well ahead of time and we can -- we can instruct them that they need to hold the public hearing here.
but in this case they had already published the notice of the public hearing and so they asked if we wouldn't mind if they went ahead and asked for your approval and held the public hearing.
>> and mr.
davis and I have made it clear to the folks at vinson and elkins it's preferable to hold the hearing at the Commissioners court.
i believe they understand that.
>> I will add that on these types of transactions, we do require a $3,000 fee payable to the Travis County cultural education corporation, and they have -- they have paid that fee.
>> when it was called to my attention, I did send a letter saying basically our preference is to have a public hearing at Commissioners court.
but since they've had the public hearing in this one if they would give us the minutes and appropriate documentation, I would ask the court to approve it, this time.
normally nobody shows at these public hearings, but you never know until after the fact.
you know, so I don't think we ought to presume in a democratic society that there won't be participation.
i think we ought to do what we can to grant that opportunity.
but as a matter of history, very, very few people have come.
and the ones that come typically are supporters of the application, and so -- but we ought to make sure everybody understands we would rather have that public hearing here.
that way we'll know exactly what the facts are, who shows, if anybody, who was said, if anything, et cetera.
otherwise we're relying on their documentation.
>> yes, sir, and that message has been -- I don't think we'll have that circumstance again.
>> any other discussion?
move approval.
>> second.
>> all in favor?
that passes by unanimous vote.
ms.
gearhart, were you about to -- no?
thank you all.
thank you, mr.
blunt.
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Last Modified:
Tuesday, September 22, 2009 1:30 PM
