The agenda for the Culver Community School Board meeting was slightly amended yesterday evening. Rather than having the bond refinancing opportunity presentation after the consent items, the representative from Bose McKinney & Evans LLP spoke first.
Dennis H. Otten, a public finance attorney, spoke on behalf of the company and was interviewing to be considered as the school corporation’s bond council. As bond council he would work in conjunction with the financial adviser and underwriter to finalize documents and the bond sale itself. This particular firm will charge $20,000 flat fee for their services.
This coming January, a bond that the school was originally issued for school improvements in the late 90s and they refunded in 2006, will once again be up for a renewal opportunity. The school corporation can take advantage of lower interest rates and either reduce annual payments over the course of the coming years or receive savings directly for construction and renovations.
After all other agenda items received unanimous approval the board received a presentation from Curt Pletcher with Umbaugh, one of the largest and most active independent financial advisers in the Midwest. Pletcher told the board that Umbaugh would solely represent the school and work to provide the overall lowest cost.
He said they do not work with any other interests, such as investment banks, “We operate as a certified public accounting firm but not in the traditional sense. We don’t do taxes, we don’t do audits we mainly work with school corporations across the state of Indiana and what it means to be independent, we exclusively represent the school corporation.”
Pletcher provided a packet of illustrated information to each member of the board that included graphs and charts displaying various useful information such as the school’s current outstanding debt obligations, a repayment schedule, a refinancing budget, current interest costs and estimated uses for re-purposed funds.
The board took no official action in hiring Bose McKinney & Evans or Umbaugh Associates during their regular session. Further consideration for the positions of bond council, underwriter and financial adviser will take place during upcoming meetings.
