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ORANGE COUNTY
BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS
ACTION AGENDA ITEM ABSTRACT
Meeting Date: February 11, 2013
Action Agenda
Item No. 1
SUBJECT: Potential Bond Issuance Schedule and Timeline for a November 2014 or
November 2015 Bond Referendum
DEPARTMENT: Finance and Administrative PUBLIC HEARING: (Y/N) No
Services
ATTACHMENT(S): INFORMATION CONTACT:
A) Memorandum - Required
Procedures and Possible Schedule Clarence Grier, 919-245-2453
for General Obligation Bond Bob Jessup, 919-933-9891
Referendum in November 2014
B) Chronological Summary for the
2001 Orange County Capital Needs
Advisory Task Force and 2001
Bond Education Committee
C) November 2001 Ballot Questions
and Final Bond Package Amounts
PURPOSE: To receive information on a potential November 2014 or a November 2015 bond
referendum schedule.
BACKGROUND: In recent meetings over the past few months, the Board of County
Commissioners has discussed the need for a future bond referendum to fund County and
School long-range capital needs. This item was also discussed at the September 3, 2013
County/School Collaboration Meeting, and the Board of County Commissioners Board Retreat
on January 31, 2014. There has been two potential dates for the voters to consider a bond
referendum — November 2014 and November 2015. Bob Jessup, Orange County Bond
Counsel, and Orange County staff have provided schedules for both dates including a brief
timeline comparison related to both dates.
Currently, although some projects were discussed preliminarily in previous meetings, such as
Middle School #5 for the Chapel Hill — Carrboro City School District, the Board of County
Commissioners has not finalized the components of any potential bond referendum.
Additionally, in previous bond referendums, the Board of County Commissioners appointed a
Capital Needs Task Force to discuss and recommend the components of the bond
referendums, and the use of an educational campaign to educate the public about the needs
and purpose of the bond referendum.
FINANCIAL IMPACT: There is no direct financial impact associated with discussion of the
attached bond schedules.
RECOMMENDATION(S): The Manager recommends that the Board receive and discuss the
potential bond schedules. The Board may choose to discuss the potential bond referendum at a
future meeting.
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Sanford H olshouser LLP Attachment A
Mem orandum
To: Orange County Officials
Date: February 5, 2014
Regarding Required Procedures and Possible Schedule for
General Obligation Bond Referendum in November, 2014
From: Sanford Holshouser LLP
-- Robert M. Jessup Jr.
This memorandum describes the steps required for Orange County to
conduct a general obligation bond referendum on November 4, 2014, and sets out a
proposed schedule. Here are the required steps and suggested dates for action:
1. Determine tentative plan for bond purposes and amounts.
Although Step 5 provides for the first formal Board action to determine what will
be presented to the voters, the bond program needs to be substantially worked out
before we begin the formal process. In addition, the plan for what projects are to be
included in the bond package is something that LGC representatives will want to
discuss in detail with County representatives as part of the meeting described in the
next step.
Each separate general purpose for bonds has to he the subject of a separate
ballot question. The statutes assume that each question put to voters will propose a
dollar amount for a separate generic purpose, such as paying "capital costs of
school facilities. " Although the statutes allow the purpose to he stated with more
specificity, it is highly recommended that the purpose in the ballot question he left
as general as possible. The more specific plans underlying the planning for the
bond issue do not legally hind the County to a particular future plan of action in
the issuance of the bonds or construction of specified facilities.
2. Meet with LGC staff. The County should arrange a meeting with
LGC staff about the proposed referendum as soon as possible. In fact, we can
arrange and conduct this meeting even as the County Board is working through the
bond program.
3. Give informal notice to the County Board of Elections. Because
the Board of Elections will need to coordinate its own procedures for the bond
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referendum, it would help the Board of Elections to receive a phone call to inform
the Board of the County's plans, even if the plans are still subject to change. In
addition, State law generally requires that absentee ballots be available at least 50
days prior to the election date (in this case, by September 15), and we want to be
sure that our schedule is generally acceptable to the Board of Elections.
4. Obtain School Board Resolutions. If any of the bonds will be
proposed for school purposes, the statutes contemplate that the affected school
boards should provide a formal referendum request to the Commissioners. This
request usually proposes a maximum amount of bonds to be considered at the
referendum. This schedule assumes that each school board could provide this
resolution to the Commissioners by mid-May.
5. Adopt "Findings" Resolution. As part of the application
process, the LGC wants to see a statement describing why the proposed projects
and bonds are necessary and desirable. This resolution will also state an estimated
tax rate impact of the borrowing. This resolution could be adopted at a County
Board meeting at any time through the June 3 scheduled meeting. This resolution
will also authorize the publication of the "Notice of Intent" described in Step 6.
6. Publish Notice of Intent To File Application. The County must
publish a notice of its intent to file an application for the LGC's approval of the
proposed bonds. The notice must be published at least 10 days before filing the
application. The notice needs to be published as soon as possible after the Board
adopts the findings resolution described in Step 5.
The own words resolution and the Notice of Intent establish the maximum
amount of bonds that can he proposed at the referendum for each of the specified
purposes. From this point, we can decrease the amount of bonds or eliminate
purposes, but we can increase an amount or add a purpose only by re-starting the
authorization process.
7. Make Legislative Committee 45-day filing. The guidelines call for
this filing to go in 45 days before the LGC considers your application. Because the
LGC only needs to "accept" your application in advance of the referendum — it
doesn't technically have to "approve" the application prior to the referendum -- I'd
suggest we send in the legislative filing when we're ready to file the LGC
application, and just ask the LCG to defer formal action until our 45-day period has
expired. So that would mean making the filing some time after the June 3 County
Board meeting.
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8. File LGC Application. As stated above, this cannot happen until
at least 10 days have elapsed since the publication of the notice of intent. The
application needs to be filed and formally accepted by the LGC before we have the
County Board take its next steps as described in Step 9.
Although we have to submit the LGC application as part of the referendum
process, it is not necessary to receive LGC approval until we are ready to proceed
with the actual sale of bonds, which of course will he after the referendum. The
LGC may or may not act on the application prior to the referendum, although the
current LGC practice is in fact to consider applications as they are received
(instead of waiting for the time of a bond issuance).
9. Introduce Bond Orders; Set public hearing. After the County
files its application, the Board needs to introduce the "Bond Orders" and set a date
for the required public hearing. We can take these actions at any time after the
LGC accepts the application (even the same day). Our schedule shows these steps
occurring at a County Board meeting prior to summer break (the last scheduled
meeting is June 17). At the time the Bond Orders are introduced, the Finance
Officer must also file a statement as to the estimated amount of interest to be
payable on the Bonds over their term.
The "Bond Order" is the basic authorization for bonds approved by the
County Board. The statutes provide for the format and most of the text of a bond
order; the bond order is a short, general statement of the Board's determination to
proceed. Each of the separate generic purposes for which bonds are to he
proposed will he the subject of a separate bond order: The details of an actual bond
issue are further approved by the Board at the time of a bond issue.
10. File sworn statement of debt. This is a statement, required by
statute, that details outstanding County debt. This document will be similar, but not
quite identical, to a debt statement that appears in the LGC application. This
statement needs to be filed after the bond orders are introduced but before the
publication of the notice of public hearing (as described in the next step).
11. Publish Notice of Public Hearing. We need to publish notice of
the required public hearing at least six days prior to the hearing. The notice must
also include a calculation of the estimated interest to be paid on the bonds over
their term.
12. Hold Public Hearing; Adopt Bond Order; Set Ballot Question and
Referendum Date. After holding a public hearing, the Board needs to adopt the
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Bond Orders and adopt a resolution that formally sets the ballot questions and the
date for the referendum. Our schedule shows these steps occurring at the first
County Board meeting after break, which is scheduled for September 4. The Board
Clerk must then send a copy of the resolution setting the date and the ballot
question to the County Board of Elections within three days after the Board
meeting.
We can arrange the schedule to have the public hearing at a meeting hefore
the Board takes final action on the Bond Orders and ballot questions. For
absentee ballots to he available by Septemher 15, the Septemher 4 Board meeting
is just about as late as we can go for the final Board action.
The adoption of the bond order establishes the final amount of bonds that
will go hefore the voters. There is never any obligation in fact to issue any or all of
the bonds approved at a referendum.
13. Publish Bond Order as Adopted. This should be done as soon as
possible after the Bond Order is adopted. There is no particular deadline for
publishing this notice, but the notice starts a 30-day period for court challenges to
the authorization process that must lapse before any bonds can be issued.
14. Publish Notice of Bond Referendum. This notice must be
published twice, once not less than 14 days and once not less than 7 days before
the close of voter registration. State law permits registration until the 25th day prior
to the election date. That puts the date registration closes at October 10 for a
referendum on November 4. The first publication, then, needs to be at least 14 days
earlier, or on or before September 26, and the second publication no more than one
week later (by October 3). I would certainly encourage you, however, to plan to
publish at least a week before the final legal date, in order to leave time to re-
publish in case of any problems with publication.
I have attached a schedule in table form that summarizes the steps.
Once the voters have approved the bonds, you are looking at a minimum of
90 to 120 days to get through the process to actually issue bonds. The County
Board must adopt a resolution to formally approve the election results, and the
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County must publish a notice of the results that triggers a 30-day period during
which people can bring legal challenges to the bond election process. Then, to
approve the issuance of bonds takes only one more Board resolution, with no other
required public hearings or published notices.
The real timing issue in proceeding with a bond issue centers around the
progress of the projects that are going to be financed. In general, the LGC wants
you to have firm construction numbers for most of the projects to be financed
before you close on the financing — the LGC wants to be sure you don't borrow too
much money, or too little money, or borrow it earlier than you need it. This is only
LGC policy — not the law — so the LGC has flexibility in how it administers this
policy. In general, the LGC will give you some more leeway in the timing of
issuing voter-approved bonds than for other types of financing, but it still wants to
see that you are close to construction — usually with construction bids in hand for
projects representing the majority of the amount to be borrowed.
Approval at a bond referendum gives the County seven years from the
referendum date to issue the bonds. The law allows the LGC to extend that time for
an additional three years, and in my experience the LGC routinely grants these
extensions. The bonds can be issued in as many different installments as the
County chooses.
Please let me know if you have any questions about this information, or if I
can be of any other assistance.
-- RMJ
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Orange County -- Proposed Timetable for November '14 Bond Referendum
Event Date
1. Determine tentative referendum plan As soon as possible
2. Meet with LGC staff As soon as possible after informal
decision to proceed with November
referendum
3. Give informal notice to County Board As soon as possible after informal
of Elections decision to proceed with November
referendum
4. Obtain school board resolutions Prior to Event 5 — school boards to act by
mid-May
5. Board adopts preliminary resolution Not later than June 3 County Board
explaining purpose for referendum meeting
and authorizing publication of notice
of intent to file LGC application
6. Publish notice of intent to file As soon as possible after Event 5
application
7. Legislative committee 45-day filing As soon as possible after Event 5
8. File LGC application Must be at least 10 days after Event 6 and
prior to Event 9
9. Board introduces bond orders and At a County Board meeting prior to
schedules public hearing summer break —last scheduled meeting is
June 17
10. Clerk files sworn statement of debt Any time between Event 9 and Event 11
11. Publish notice of public hearing After Event 10 and at least six days prior
to Event 12
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12. Hold public hearing; adopt bond At September 4 County Board meeting
orders; formally set ballot questions
and referendum date
13. Absentee ballots to be available By September 15
14. Publish bond order as adopted As soon as possible after Event 13
15. Publish notice of referendum (twice) By 9/26; then by 10/3
16. Referendum occurs 11/4
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Orange County -- Proposed Timetable for November '15 Bond Referendum
Event Date
1. Determine tentative referendum plan As soon as possible
2. Meet with LGC staff As soon as possible after informal
decision to proceed with November
referendum
3. Give informal notice to County Board As soon as possible after informal
of Elections decision to proceed with November
referendum
4. Obtain school board resolutions Prior to Event 5 — school boards to act by
mid-May
5. Board adopts preliminary resolution Not later than early June County Board
explaining purpose for referendum meeting
and authorizing publication of notice
of intent to file LGC application
6. Publish notice of intent to file As soon as possible after Event 5
application
7. Legislative committee 45-day filing As soon as possible after Event 5
8. File LGC application Must be at least 10 days after Event 6 and
prior to Event 9
9. Board introduces bond orders and At a County Board meeting prior to
schedules public hearing summer break
10. Clerk files sworn statement of debt Any time between Event 9 and Event 11
11. Publish notice of public hearing After Event 10 and at least six days prior
to Event 12
12. Hold public hearing; adopt bond At first County Board meeting after
orders; formally set ballot questions
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and referendum date summer break
13. Absentee ballots to be available By September 15
14. Publish bond order as adopted As soon as possible after Event 13
15. Publish notice of referendum (twice) By 9/26; then by 10/3
16. Referendum occurs 11/4
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Attachment B
Chronological Summary for the
2001 Orange County Capital Needs Advisory Task Force
and 2001 Bond Education Committee
The 2001 Orange County Capital Needs Advisory Task Force was established in late
2000 and the early months of 2001. Members of the Task Force were appointed by the
Board of Commissioners over three meetings in January and February 2001.
The Task Force consisted of 24 members and 4 alternates, and the Task Force
meetings generally included assistance from ten (10) County staff members as well as
the Superintendents and other staff from both school systems.
The Task Force's work was also aided by the work of two facilitators to help the group
discussion and ensure the group met the goals established by the Board of
Commissioners.
The Task Force first met on March 14, 2001 in the Media Center at A.L Stanback
Middle School. This was followed by meetings on March 28 and April 4 at the Southern
Human Services Center. The group met again on April 18 at the Homestead
Community Center. This was followed by additional meetings on April 25, May 2, May
9, May 16, and May 30 at the Southern Human Services Center.
The Task Force met a total of nine (9) times.
Staff developed a final report, which was initially reviewed by the Task Force Co-Chairs
(Leo Allison and Lisa Stuckey), and then provided to all members for comments.
The Task Force's recommendations were subsequently provided to the Board of
Commissioners, and on June 25, 2001, the Board approved a Notice of Intent to Pursue
a Bond Referendum on November 6, 2001.
At the same June 25th meeting, the Board approved a resolution of intent to create a
Bond Education Steering Committee and a proposed charge and structure for the
Committee.
At its August 14, 2001 work session, the Board introduced the bond orders and
scheduled a public hearing on the proposed bond referendum for August 27, 2001.
At its August 21, 2001 meeting, the Board approved appointments to the Bond
Education Steering Committee.
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On August 27, 2001, the Board conducted a public hearing on the proposed Bond
Orders. No action was taken other than to open the hearing, receive comments from
approximately 40 speakers and close the public hearing.
This was followed up by the Board discussing and approving the specific elements of
the proposed bond package at an August 30, 2001 work session.
At the September 4, 2001 meeting, the Board approved the bond orders, the November
6, 2001 referendum date and the language to appear on the ballot. The Board also
approved the agenda for the first Bond Education Steering Committee meeting
scheduled for September 5, 2001.
The first Bond Education Steering Committee met on September 5, 2001, with all five
members of the Board of Commissioners present.
In a joint meeting on September 24, 2001, the Board of Commissioners discussed the
Bond Education Campaign with the two Boards of Education.
The Bond Education Steering Committee met on September 26, 2001 to review draft
educational materials.
The Bond Education Steering Committee had 5 sub-committees, one responsible for
Information & Outreach and the other four focused on each of the subject areas of the
referendum.
At its October 2, 2001 meeting, the Board of Commissioners approved a resolution
expressing appreciation to the Capital Needs Advisory Task Force members for their
service and work.
As part of the October 16, 2001 Board meeting, staff presented educational materials,
including a Powerpoint presentation, that had been developed by the Bond Education
Steering Committee. The education materials included an overall bond referendum
brochure, an individual brochure for each of the four bond issues on the ballot, flyers
sharing information about the referendum items, public service announcements, and a
speakers group.
The bond referendum occurred on November 6, 2001, with all four ballot questions
receiving majority approval from Orange County voters.
Attachment C 13
NOVEMBER 2001 BALLOT QUESTIONS
Approved by Orange County Board of Commissioners
September 4, 2001
ORANGE COUNTY SCHOOL BONDS
Shall the order authorizing up to $47,000,000 of Orange County general
obligation bonds to pay capital costs of providing school- facilities and paying
related costs, as adopted by the County's Board of Commissioners on September
4, 2001, be approved?
ORANGE COUNTY BONDS FOR PARKS,
RECREATION AND OPEN SPACE
Shall the order authorizing up to $20,000,000 of Orange County general
obligation bonds to pay capital costs of providing parks,' open space and
recreational facilities and paying related costs, as adopted by the County's Board
of Commissioners on September 4, 2001, be approved?
ORANGE COUNTY BONDS FOR SENIOR CENTERS
Shall the order authorizing up to $4,000,000 of Orange County general
obligation bonds to pay capital costs of providing senior centers and paying
related costs, as adopted by the County's Board of Commissioners on September
4, 2001, be approved?
ORANGE COUNTY BONDS FOR
LOW AND MODERATE INCOME HOUSING
Shall the order authorizing up to $4,000,000 of Orange County general
obligation bonds to pay capital costs of providing housing for the benefit of
persons of low and moderate income and paying related costs, as adopted by the
County's Board of Commissioners on September 4, 2001, be approved?
Y
Compiled by Orange County Budget Office
a"31ro114
Final November 2001 Bond Package
As Approved By Board of County Commissioners on August 30,2001
Component Approved Amounts
Low and Moderate Income Housing 4,000,000
Senior Centers 4,000,000
CHCCS-Renovations to Older Schools and 2,OOD,000
Facilities to address health/safety issues
CHCCS-New Elementary School#9 12,800,000
o CHCCS-New Elementary School#10 12,800,000
0
s
U
U)
OCS-New Middle School 18,500,D00
OCS-Renovations to address health/safety 900,000
issues
Total Schools 47,000,000
Joint County/Canboro/Chapel Hill Greenway 1,750,000
Development
U
� Smith Middle School Park 250,000
. a
u) Homestead Park Aquatics Center 3,500,000
C
fD
° Southern Community Park 2,000,000
O
c
Cedar Grove District Paris 1,200,000
m
o Efland-Cheeks Park(Phase II) 250,000
m
m Fairview Park 850,000
0
CD
a: Soccer Super Fund 2,000,000
C
Eubanks Road/Old 86 Park Development 1,200,000
EL
Lands Legacy 7,000,000
Total Parkland and Open Space 20,000,000
Total $75,000,000