Feb 17, 2022 Public Utilities Board on 2022-02-17 9:00 AM

Okay it is nine o'clock on February 17th we have a quorum so I'll call to order the Public Utilities Board for the City of Denton to order. The first item is addressing anyone wanting to address the Public Utilities Board I see no one is here. Is anybody on the phone? No ma'am there are no callers this morning. Okay thank you. Then we'll go into the regular meeting. First item is the consent agenda. Does any board member wish to pull items an item from A through C? Okay I see none. Do we have a motion to approve items A through C? So moved. Thank you Devin. In a second Mr. Beck all in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed? That carries. Move into items for individual consideration. Do we have a motion to approve the December 13th 2021 minutes? Okay Mr. Cheek moved and Barbara Russell seconded. All in favor say aye. Aye. Okay then we'll move into receive nominations and hold the election for chair vice chair and secretary and Mr. Nolte gave me the rules here so I'll make a motion to open nominations and I need a second. All in favor for opening up nominations? Say aye. Aye. All right. Slate about of officers. Unless there are any other nominations I move that we keep the current slate going forward for Susan as chair. I would stay as vice chair and Barbara Russell will be secretary. Are there any other nominations? See we need to approve that one don't we? Yes. So that was your motion. I'll second it. Okay then second it. All in favor say aye. Aye. This is just a comment on this I had a discussion on the agenda with staff last week and apparently we're supposed to do this every year we haven't been. Right. I think we did it two years ago. I think so. That might have been it. Karen went off. Yeah. All right the next item is to receive a report hold a discussion and give staff direction regarding the 2022 schedule. Terry you have a couple of comments. Good morning. So under the charter for the PUB each year the PUB should identify a schedule for meetings for the year and you'll need a motion Madam Chairman for the the for the meetings for this year. Thank you. Okay I'd like to make a motion. I move that the regularly scheduled meetings at the Public Utility Board for the remainder of 2022 occur on the second and fourth Monday at 9 a.m. of every month except for November and December in which case the regular meeting will be only on the second Monday. Second. We have a second. Ben seconded. All in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed? This was also a little housekeeping that we needed to do. All right the final item is consider adoption of an ordinance considering all matters incident related to the issuance sale and delivery of 300 million in principal bonds for the utility that utility system. Go ahead. Good morning Randy Klingle Treasury Manager. I have a short presentation today regarding utility paper utility commercial paper programs annual bond refunding ordinance. I'm sorry to interrupt our screens are currently off we can't see the presentation. Practice does not make perfect I'll tell you that right now. Can you see my screen? Yes. Okay great there we go. Okay so for a quick overview the City Council adopted a master ordinance in January of last year establishing. Randy can you go ahead and maximize your your presentation please? It is on my screen. Down on the right bottom right the next to the sizing bar if you just click on that icon. Yes all right Terry mine is worth school. Can you see this slide deck now? Yeah we can see the slide deck it's just not maximized. Okay go ahead. Okay well can you see it enough for me to continue? Yes ma'am. Okay sorry about that I checked it out we had it earlier. So the City Council adopted the ordinance in January 2021 establishing the utility extension for commercial paper program in the amount of a hundred million dollars and then shortly thereafter in February 23 or February 23 in 2021 the council amended it to increase it to 300 million dollars to meet the immediate cash needs of Storm Urie and both in January and in February at those times we also have the utilities ordinance for refunding approved at the same time they go hand-in-hand so this is an annual process and it's important so that the program it offers us the ability to delegate the authority. Yes I'm sorry there's a question for mr. Beck. Yes thank you. On the screen shouldn't we have that overview? You need to advance your slide Randy if you would please. I'm sorry I'm seeing the overview. Let me stop sharing how about that and we'll just try to start that over again. I just couldn't read the fine print Randy I'm sorry. That is okay it's interesting because... There you go. You can see that okay. Yes thanks. Do you see it in large or do you see it in the... It's good enough. It's good enough okay so we don't mess with it right? Okay I will continue then. So we covered we established it in January we increased it in February and that the annual refunding ordinance that you have before you today will be an annual process so that you provide us the authority to refund the bonds within certain parameters in the event that the commercial paper is issued and cannot otherwise be retired within the 270 days. So due to Storm Uri we did have to issue notes for this commercial program for a hundred and forty million dollars and then that hundred and forty million dollars was refunded using the 2021 utility system revenue refunding bond proceeds from last year. So the benefits just as a quick reminder for the CP program in general our main intent at the time before Storm Uri was to use it for appropriation authority giving us the opportunity to go into contract with the commercial paper program as part of the backing for funding the contracts and to be provided and executed by council. It provides immediate access to funds within a couple of days and notes would only be issued within with interim needs arise as it was with Storm Uri. It offers the lowest short-term interest rates and the debt issuance can more easily closely align with projected timelines. Benefits of the actual annual refunding ordinances which we are considering today it provides staff the flexibility to sell refunding bonds to pay off the commercial paper outside of the city's normal financing routine. The city can potentially avoid additional cost of step-up rates by not having the extended by not having to extend the commercial paper terms. Rating agencies also view the refunding ordinance as a positive measure to ensure that the city has a quick and viable means of paying off the maturity of commercial paper and potential investors also view the refunding ordinance as a positive measure. So in all that's really all I have other than my apologies that my slideshow did not go over that well but this is an annual process that we will see every March. You have any questions? Questions? So it's my understanding that this is just to make sure that you don't have to go through the entire presentation process for the issuance of each bond? Well if we have if we end up going through the bond issuing any commercial paper like we do like we did last year we'll still go through the entire process to for a bond sale but this just allows us the authority if something comes up and we need to issue the notes and get cash staff has the direction the authority to do that and then roll it over into a future bond sale. Yeah I think that's basically what I was saying. Did you have a question? Then I agree yes. Go ahead Devin. So this 300 million is it a different instrument than the previous 100 million or is it just a larger amount of the same type of financing instrument? It's a larger amount of the same program. Okay and you said there's a 270 day period on the commercial paper after which it either so this now rolls or after by 270 days it needs to be refunded from a different source? With the example of the Storm Uri we received 140 million dollars which came in several different buckets and recusips and we rolled that over a couple of times to get to the point where it could be added to the bond sale. So we can roll it over until we need that bond sale and we can produce those proceeds to refund the total amount. Okay and I'm curious if there's a if we don't have any notes outstanding is there a carrying fee that's higher on the 300 million than on the 100 million dollar kind of line? I believe this is our first year in the program full so I can come back with you and provide that information. I know most of the processes are the same but when you issue the notes it depends on how much you issue out of the 300 million as to like we only issued 140 last time so to produce that bond sale obviously is going to be cheaper than if we issued more notes. Yeah I was thinking if we if we have no need for any bond sale is there an annual annual fee or something like that that we pay to to allow access to it? I believe so and I will get that to you yes sir. Other questions? Okay do we have a motion to approve the commercial paper program? Devin motioned in a second. Lee seconded all in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed? That carries thank you. Management reports we have several here we business needed to continue to be conducted while we couldn't meet several of them well most of them we did have a phone call with Tony Puente Billy and I so that we knew what was going on before they went to council but and I know in a couple of cases he reached out to individual board members because he knew they would have an interest in them. Does anybody wish to have any of these pulled and have a further discussion on any of them? All right there's no action on that oh yes go ahead Lee. I'm sorry Madam Chair I came in a few minutes late so I'm modestly confused about the piece of paper in front of me and our current schedule. Is that something else? I'm gonna stop looking at that thank you. All right then we're on to concluding items does any board member wish to have an item added to agenda or have anything they'd like to say to the public? All right seeing none. 913 do we have a motion to adjourn Mr. Cheek? We are adjourned.