WorkShop Meeting

No content available.

[18] Ray Rodriguez: We have one. Ms. Parks, how are you today? Good evening. Trust and timeliness.

[39] Cindy Parks: Trust is so important. Parcel tax, bond. How have you been spending your money recently? Deficit spending. That's the way it's been lately. $3 million transfer from Fund 17 last year in order to get through, in order to balance the second interim. How many teachers? You reduced. 16 teachers from your first interim to your second interim. You're not living within your means. And I don't know that the parcel tax and the GEO bond or a bond, whatever you want to call it, is something that this community is willing to trust you with. And I don't know that this is the time to move forward with it. You haven't balanced your budget. You couldn't continue to deficit spend and use your savings. And I don't know that this is the answer. I think you need to get a grasp on your spending instead of going back to the taxpayers and asking for more money. Again, I would really hope that you would listen to what's being said tonight, but understand that it's not the community's responsibility to continue to bail you out of what you've put yourself in instead of looking inwardly and cutting and living within your means.

[128] Ray Rodriguez: Thank you.

[140] SPEAKER_20: Good evening board members. Tonight I'm going to introduce you to Justin Rich. He's from K&N. He's our financial advisor. So he's going to talk about the possibility of going for a partial tax as well as a general obligation bond.

[154] SPEAKER_37: You can either stay up here or go down there, whatever you guys prefer. It might be comfortable up here. We have a heater up here. Are we OK up here? OK, we'll stay up here then, since we're all on the screen.

[168] Ray Rodriguez: So we are level, right?

[171] SPEAKER_36: Close to level. Yeah, there we go. Yeah. Well, good evening.

[179] Ray Rodriguez: Can I say something first? Oh, sure. I want to express the board's thanks and the administration, I would imagine, for taking the time to come and address us. But Ms. Parks makes a very good point. Our community, based on what I see, is going to be difficult to convince them to support a parcel tax and where you've got to get, what is it, 55?

[213] SPEAKER_36: Well, for parcel tax, and we'll talk more about it at two-thirds vote.

[216] Ray Rodriguez: Right. Right. Parcel tax, two-thirds, and the bond is 55. That's right. So that being said, we wanted you to come and share this with us. But we have three new board members. And I think everybody knows that this is going to be a difficult task for us. And so we're looking forward to your presentation. Thank you.

[238] SPEAKER_36: You bet. Thank you. It's nice to be here with you all. Like you mentioned, we're here to talk about a couple of different funding sources. I think in light of those comments and those concerns, what I'm here tonight to do is just to provide some information. Ultimately, this is a policy decision of this body to really look at what other peer districts are doing and how other districts are dealing with the financial circumstances. And to frankly explain some of the differences between a parcel tax and a GO bond, talk about some of those characteristics, the requirements, and what that funding source can be used for. Just as a little background, I have been your financial advisor for a number of years now, was involved in the issuance of Measure G bonds, and so it's nice to be back in front of you. Some are new faces, some are familiar faces. So because this is a workshop, it's a nice forum to be able to have kind of an interactive discussion. So if there's questions along the way and if you think that's appropriate, please raise them and I can help answer some of those as we go along. So first what I thought I'd do is just talk a little bit about a parcel tax, explain some of the basics and talk about some of the considerations that districts make when they think about a parcel tax. So, with a parcel tax, one of the key things that's important to know is that the revenues really can be used for any purpose. And the limitations that you put on those are self-imposed. That might be for political reasons. It may be for, you know, reasons in the community, concerns. So, making commitments about what you're going to spend the money for is often something that's done when you do pass a parcel tax. The amount of the parcel tax and the duration of time, those are all things in addition to the use of funds that are determined by the district. They're not laid out in statute. That's really up to you and you have discretion. Like I mentioned, it requires a two-thirds vote of the people in favor of it. And the one caveat in terms of how a parcel tax is structured is that it must be uniformly applied to all the parcels within a district. So there's a couple of ways you can look at that, and I'll talk about that just in terms of the considerations. When you're looking at the structure of it, what's most common and what we're most familiar with is a flat amount per parcel. But there are also other ways that you can do it based on square footage or the size of land. Those things, as long as they're applied uniformly, that's the requirement by law. Some districts choose to look at a by square foot because that may shift the tax burden from individual taxpayers to commercial and business owners. So those are all things that can factor into how you might structure a parcel tax. The concern in certain cases that it can be regressive if it's only looking, you know, if it's the same for each and every property owner. So those are all things that are often discussed. There can also be an inflator, whether that's the consumer price index or a flat amount that's escalated annually. That's something else that districts have done as well. Also, duration. There's no requirement that it only lasts for a period of time, but oftentimes districts will put a sunset clause of several years. I've provided some information about other Bay Area districts, and it shows what those districts have chose to do in terms of the length of time. And then finally, just the exemption. So there's no exemption that's expressly granted through the statutes or through law, but instead these are things that districts have chosen to do because they think it's, you know, in the best interest of the community. That could be a senior exemption for seniors that are the homeowners in, you know, within the district. Also for low income folks that are on disability as well. That's right. And again, that's up to the district, but that's most oftentimes the concern being that seniors on fixed income may have a hard time with that. They don't really have an impact on the district in terms of students that are coming out of it. And so there may be an exemption granted for that. In the case of a senior living facility, a little bit different because oftentimes that's a corporation, you know, so those are all things that can be considered and, you know, be part of the ballot language, frankly. Thank you.

[535] Ray Rodriguez: Can I add something on that? Is there an opt-in or an opt-out when you do that where a person qualifies but they opt out so they don't take T? Is that something that would be included in that?

[550] SPEAKER_36: I think they would certainly have the ability just to say, I'm fine paying the tax. I don't know if they're aware of it, why they would do that, but certainly they could decide to opt in or out. Yeah.

[561] Ray Rodriguez: Okay, thank you. Yeah, sure.

[567] SPEAKER_36: I provided some information about Alameda County School District. So here's what your neighbors have done and In gathering this information, what you will see is that since 2013, most Alameda County districts have passed a parcel tax, with three exceptions, Newark being one of those school districts who has not, also Pleasanton and New Haven. But since 2013, many Alameda County school districts have found themselves in a spot where they've decided to go out to voters and to put a parcel tax on the ballot.

[604] Nancy Thomas: So there are actually three districts that have not had partial taxes in Alameda County. We're not the only one.

[611] SPEAKER_36: That's right. So New Haven and Pleasanton being the others. I also have some information. I put it in an appendix about some other Contra Costa County districts, just to show, again, some of the other districts in your area. So based on some preliminary information and making some assumptions about what a parcel tax might look for this district, what I did is I went back and I looked at the amount of parcels and the type of parcels that are within the district. So I looked at a few different scenarios. So looking in the box that's in the upper left hand corner there, this is the total number of parcels that are within the district. Making some assumptions about adjustments, whether that's a senior exemption that you choose to accept and also some exempt properties, whether those are governmental or, you know, religious, institutional, you have just about 11,500 parcels. So if we were to conceptually look at a parcel tax of $50, $100, and $150, In the upper right-hand corner, I put that table there just to demonstrate what kind of annual revenue that would mean from a potential parcel tax. So in the case of a $50 parcel tax, which admittedly is on the lower end of what Bay Area districts are doing, that would mean about $575,000 in annual revenue. On the higher end, $150, that's approximately $1.7 million annually. So this is a snapshot based on some information. I think if the district chose to pursue it, we would obviously look at other scenarios as well to really match what your needs and to evaluate some of the other information, whether through a poll and other things to really find out what's the right fit for this district. Should I pause here? ask if there's any questions about parcel tax in particular.

[742] SPEAKER_37: I would like to clarify and respond to public comment a little bit. First of all, the purpose of why we're putting this in front of the board today is not to recommend a parcel or a bond. And no one on administration is doing that at this time. We're very aware of where we are budgetarily. However, it really is kind of twofold. In part, to make the new board members aware of options that might be available down the road. as well as updating long-standing board members with some of the new nuances that have occurred in the law relative to these type of measures. And we know that these are things that may or may not be down the road, but no action is being taken. I want it to be in the record that we're not recommending either of these at this point in time. And we're probably far away from this still, but I want to just make sure that there's not any misinformation we're recommending we go for a bond or parcel. I think that's really important to note. Although I do think that we have been asked as a staff to put in front of the board and begin having larger conversations about longer term solutions. So this really falls under that category. These are some other longer term solutions we may have to look at at some point in time. And we'll be bringing in other things like that. I know solar is coming soon and we're looking at other, an array of things. As you know, there's no silver bullet. We're going to look at a combination of things, probably other things to do sooner, and then these things might come later. But I just wanted to be clear about the intent of why we've asked you to be here. And we thank you for being here to just kind of share kind of the how does it work now and refresh our memory of what's involved. And I think that's, for me, it's very helpful just to know how those things have changed and where we are. So I just wanted to clarify that.

[858] Nancy Thomas: I assume that 2020 would be the earliest we probably could go for this and does it have to be during a general election?

[866] SPEAKER_36: You know, I have a slide later that will talk more about the specifics, but no, it doesn't have to be at a regularly scheduled election date. So you could choose to do a mailed ballot, really on any Tuesday, as long as it's not within a certain, I think, 30 days from a regularly scheduled election date.

[885] Nancy Thomas: OK. Our bond passed with just a fraction over 55%. A parcel tax at 2 thirds is very difficult. chance do you think there's going to be that the legislature will put on an initiative that changes that threshold to 55% for parcel taxes?

[909] SPEAKER_36: You know, I've heard about that for, you know, a number of years, and I think you've probably heard the same things about how that's been discussed. I haven't heard momentum to be able to drop the parcel tax threshold any time in the near future. Personally, I think there's probably going to be some more You know, financial difficulties until the legislature takes something like that up. But that's my take on it. There's no current proposals in order to drop that threshold that I'm aware of.

[938] Ray Rodriguez: Years ago when Assemblymember Tirico was up there and he came from here, he was trying to push people, you know, get some people together to co-sponsor the bill to bring it down to 55%. You're right. It's been something they've been talking about for a while. And now my question is, I see the ones that failed. I know it's just, it's obvious that if you don't have the, if you're not partnering with your union leaders, that it's going to be, you just can't do it. So did you see that with Pleasanton and New Haven? I have an idea why ours didn't make it, but the, you know, all the districts that actually did pass one, how much of it was having the teachers and the classified, you know, behind it and knocking on doors and stuff like that?

[1000] SPEAKER_36: In my experience, that certainly is really important. And I think having that kind of unified front from the district is really important. I think it's also a certain amount of strategy, too, in really listening to your community and understanding what is important to them. And I understand that you all have that. But being able to have some tangible information about what types of programs and where they would like to see that kind of a funding source put to use, I think that's really helpful information. And to be able to message that out and to clarify some of the, to be able to answer some of the questions or to be able to provide information that shows people what the safeguards are and what this will be used for, I think that educational process is really helpful. And that's what I think, you know, when you're talking about a two-thirds threshold, it really takes a concerted effort to be able to communicate that. Teachers, administrators, board members, other stakeholders, I think everyone needs to be on board with that.

[1063] Ray Rodriguez: Yeah, I realize that, you know, it's going to take, you know, a big effort. And we have to be specific on where the money's going to. Now, in the GEO bond, we had the committee set up. Is that basically the same thing with the parcel tax?

[1081] SPEAKER_36: With a campaign committee?

[1082] Ray Rodriguez: No, no, no. After it's passed, I'm making sure that, you know, the money is spent the way the parcel tax read.

[1090] SPEAKER_36: Right. That's not a requirement. It's a practice that some districts have done. I know there's a parcel tax advisory committee that, you know, will monitor that. So that's an action that you could take in order to provide another level of transparency, but it's not a requirement.

[1106] Ray Rodriguez: Got it. Thank you.

[1107] SPEAKER_36: Certainly.

[1110] SPEAKER_20: Also, by having a parcel tax, we can provide more programs to our district, to our students, such as STEAM, like what Mr. Sanchez has been mentioning in the past, also arts, music and other certain programs.

[1128] SPEAKER_36: Thank you. So I'll I'll move on and talk a little bit about Geobond. And then I'll just, again, the basics and some of the considerations you would want to make, also some of the specifics for your district. And then I'll talk a little bit more about the campaign process, qualifying a tax measure, all of those sorts of things for both the parcel tax and Geobond. Now, to contrast the GEO bond with the parcel tax, tax revenue is used in order to pay debt service on bonds that the school district would issue. The proceeds from the bonds would go to fund facility projects, much like Measure G, to be able to pay for all of the different modernizations and upgrades that you've done in recent time. Like we talked about, the threshold for a Proposition 39 bond is 55%. That's the most common general obligation bond that school districts use. And that lower voter threshold comes with certain accountability requirements. Things like a citizen's bond oversight committee, maximum tax rate, annual audits. and not allowing funds to be able to go towards salaries and operational costs. So those are some of the things that go into the safeguards for a Proposition 39 bond. Now the considerations that districts make when it comes to a Proposition 39 bond Tax rate is one of them. In the district's last bond, the maximum tax rate was $39 per $100,000 of assessed value. The legal maximum is $60. So those are things that you will want to explore. What's the right tax rate given your community? That will obviously affect the total amount of the bond, but those are important things to really think through. Things like the number of issues, how many series of bonds will be sold. With Measure G, it was three series of bonds in installments to be able to fund whatever those projects were that were planned at that particular period of time. So it really matches up to the cash flow for the district's capital program. So as you start to, I know you're underway with a master plan right now. as the district starts to get a clearer picture of what it wants to do with facilities over the coming years. The AGO bond could potentially fund those costs, and you would want that to match up to how you were to implement that. The term of the bonds, generally it's about 25 to 30 years. That's most common for school districts. And that will affect the repayment of bonds. So, you know, the longer term or the shorter term will affect for each dollar that's borrowed, for how much, you know, you will pay back. And ultimately, the bond program will be structured in a way that it keeps within the tax rate commitments that are made, also dependent on the growth of the tax base or the assessed values within the district. So, these are all things that go into a financing program. And we'll talk a little bit more about that on the following slides. I talked a little bit about Measure G, also Measure B going back to 1997. You know, the district has roughly $130 million in GEO bonds that it's passed previously. I've put together just a quick summary of that, you know, as was mentioned. Measure G got about 56% of the vote, whereas prior to that, Measure B had about 82%. So the community obviously changed during that period of time. There were different circumstances. Looking at the district's combined debt service, or principal and interest payments, what you'll see is that the Measure B bonds are going to be maturing over the next several years. So because of that, the tax Property taxes that folks are paying will start to level off as those bonds are paid off in the next few years. So I just provided this. What you'll see is that in blue shaded there are the Measure B bonds and their repayment. And in green is the Measure G bonds from 2011. The red dotted line represents the tax rate that folks pay. And you'll see how that drops down over time. So I took an initial look at a conceptual GEO bond for the district. So at this time, with the information that we have, the district, based on a maximum tax rate, could look at a bond of roughly $160 million or so, again, based on the maximum tax rate. Now, what you will want to consider are those things that I mentioned previously. Is the maximum tax rate appropriate, or is it something lower than that? And if it is, then that will affect the type of authorization the district would seek. I think that once you start to get input and the findings and recommendations from the master plan, that will guide your decision making here. But here's some preliminary information just to chew on. This is what I would describe as a conservative bond program that is not, you know, has conservative features in terms of the annual assessed value growth and other things that would make this, you know, a viable program for you. Now that's a traditional geobond and typically how we would structure a program. Something else that you may want to consider though is because of that, measure B debt that is going to be retiring over the next several years. Some districts have have gone for what's known as a tax rate extension and that's a commitment not to raise taxes based on you know a certain level that they are today and as the old debt is retired you don't exceed that previous tax rate. So this is an option for the district again in the next several years that measure B debt will start to be repaid or will be paid off entirely and you could have a new bond authorization that does not raise taxes on taxpayers. So that's something to consider. There's some things that you also need to consider with that in terms of, you know, you may need to wait a little bit longer in order to get money. You may need to, you know, take some other steps in the meantime in order to fund your facilities. But it is worth considering. And as you get more into, you know, exploring this, then I think those are things that you would want to consider and really see what that might look like for this district. Should I pause for a second? And this is sort of the technical part of the presentation. I can speak to any of those things.

[1558] Ray Rodriguez: I have a couple, but I've spoken too much already. Does any board member have anything? There's a couple of things that I had. You mentioned the $39 that we chose. Could it be a percent of assessed value as opposed to a dollar amount, like let's say 1%?

[1584] SPEAKER_36: In effect, that dollar tax rate does serve as a percentage. So you could say, you know, rather than $39 per 100,000, it could be, you know, 0.004% is roughly what that equates to. Or I should say 0.04%. Yeah, you could structure it that way. And in the ballot language, you will express it that way as well.

[1610] Ray Rodriguez: But that's- It's probably simpler to do the dollar. I'm just wondering if you could do it that way.

[1615] SPEAKER_36: I think that's what, and that's the way the legislature has asked us to approach it with

[1622] Ray Rodriguez: Assembly bill 195 it it asks us to put that in terms of a dollar amount because it's easier for some people to understand and then the extension of the parcel of love of the tax If the tax amount has gone down so like you said with that scale Do you just use the same figure for instance $39 I If you do the extension, you go back to the original amount, would that be in your experience?

[1655] SPEAKER_36: It's one way that you could approach it. What you'll see here, do I have a pointer here? Yeah, I don't think it'll show up. What you'll see here is that with currently the tax rates are just about $100 for 100,000. And as this Measure B, all in blue here, is paid off over the next several years, you'll see that'll drop down to roughly about $30. the $39 maximum tax rate has actually gone down because assessed values have grown by so much and the property tax base has grown more than was anticipated. So you could commit yourself to $39 and not exceeding that. And that's certainly one option. Or you could say the combined with all of the bonds won't exceed $95 where it currently is. So those are all things that I think can be explored, are part of formulating the strategy, and would be, you know, as you get feedback from the community on what their tax sensitivity is, you would adjust accordingly.

[1728] Ray Rodriguez: If I remember correctly, we decided to go with 39. It seemed to be a low enough figure. I mean, we could have easily said 40, but 39 just is easier to, you know, when you're out going door to door. Sure. And it seemed to work, even though We only passed it by 1% over. So it was just easier for people to understand. And it seemed reasonable at the time.

[1755] SPEAKER_36: And from my understanding of it, and I wasn't involved, but my understanding of it is that that provided $63 million, which is what was needed and targeted at that time. And $39 was that amount that would get you there. Thank you. Sure. So to answer some of those questions about when you could go for either a parcel tax or a GEO bond, the 2020 election cycle is a little unique. As you know, the March primary is earlier than what it has been in the past. Rather than only having two regularly scheduled elections, there will be three, March, June, and then November. And it's also significant because it's a presidential election year. So there will be what's anticipated to be high voter turnout at the primary and also for the general election. So for a Proposition 39 GO bond, you have to go on a regularly scheduled election. So that would mean, again, March, June, or November. You know, for a parcel tax, those are all options, but you're not limited to just those particular dates. You could also look at any Tuesday, not within 30 days of a regularly scheduled election. And some districts choose to do that. They may not benefit from voter turnout. You know, it is a mailed ballot instead. And so you may not benefit from the voter turnout that's expected in 2020. So those are all things that are important for you to really to consider and see how that would play out in this district. I think that's all I want to say right here. I'll talk a little bit more. You know about this on the next slide when we talk about the campaign process, the process of it but generally school districts like to give themselves about 12 to 18 months time to be able to work up to one of those elections. It's a little less that's involved with with the parcel tax, in my experience, it's, you know, it's a little bit more straightforward in terms of the programs and the the different things that you would be looking to fund, whereas a general obligation bond, there's a lot of prioritizing projects and trying to figure out what would be on the project list. All of those things tend to take a little bit more time in a GO bond.

[1894] Ray Rodriguez: So going to the election process, it seems like, in my experience talking to other board members from other districts, if it's a parcel tax and it's specific and you get all the teachers involved, Has your experience been that it's better to do it when you have a lower turnout as opposed to because you don't have to educate as much because the turnout is going to be basically school people, let's say, you know. Can you share that with me a little bit?

[1924] SPEAKER_36: Yeah, those are considerations. I would say that it matters based on the demographics and the voter profile in your district. So in certain districts, that might be the case. The rationale being that with The smaller group of voters that you can spend more of your resources and your time targeting those voters to educate them. However, when you do have a smaller voter turnout, it may not be the case that those people are generally supportive of school and education measures. So that's what you have to consider and what you would want to really think hard about is whether or not that's going to give you the best chance for success.

[1965] Ray Rodriguez: putting the election on the ballot?

[1969] SPEAKER_36: Yeah, so if you're at a regularly scheduled election, you're splitting the cost amongst all of the other agencies and even the state that are on the ballot at the same time. Whereas if you do it on your own, then you're footing the cost all by yourself. Yeah, that's a good question. Just so I don't leave this out. In order to qualify an election for the ballot, you need to submit to the registrar voters at least 88 days prior the board resolution authorizing that measure. So generally about three months, three and a half months ahead of time, you would need to pass a resolution so that you can make that deadline. So typically what school districts will do when they're getting ready for for a bond election is they'll hire somebody like myself, also some other consultants to help with that. That was the case last time with Measure G. For myself, for a financial advisor, we help with the funding analysis in order to do the research, in order to run the numbers and provide the quantitative expertise. to show what a parcel tax, what a geobond measure means in terms of funding and the repayment of those. Now, you also want to contract with somebody who can help guide you through that process. What are the different things that you want to focus on? Some of those questions about which election date do we choose? What's the right dollar amount? All of those strategic questions. You want somebody who has been involved in this and has that track record and really that's their specialty and their expertise. And they rely on a voter survey from a survey consultant, going and polling the universe of likely voters to get a really statistically significant sample of who is likely to vote, what are they likely to support, what are the issues that are most important to them, and what you can do with that information in order to be successful. So, those three consultants together, you know, can provide a feasibility analysis. This tells the board and this tells the district, yes, you have a reasonable chance of success or you know what, there's, this is not the climate for that, this is not the time for that. Those are, you know, that's the type of decision making information you would want. The estimated cost for something like this, if you were looking at a single measure, I would guess that it would be somewhere between $40,000 to $45,000 for this analysis. If you're looking at both of them together, it's a little more expensive, because I think you're going to spend a little bit more money on the poll to really test both of those things. And that'll bump up the cost a little bit, probably more like $55,000 to $60,000 or so. That's your team that helps you make these decisions to really think about that, and then ultimately as a board to decide how you want to proceed. So I can pause here. We can talk a little bit about sort of those strategic things, or if not, we can just proceed to really what's next for you. So I think the next steps on this is to, if the district wants to pursue this further and just exploring these options, I think you would bring forward the contracts from the other consultants that would be involved in this. That's something that I will help the district with in terms of interviewing and bringing on a campaign advisor and a survey consultant. And so the district would consider a process in order to bring those folks on. That's probably in the next couple of months that you would do that. Probably towards the end of spring, you might look to actually get a poll. And this is assuming that you're pursuing a March 2020 election for one of these measures. If not, it gives you some more time to be able to prepare and to think through this. So May or June time frame for a public opinion survey. Shortly after that, you know, I would say, you know, for the strategy consultant to be able to take all of that information and what they found and come back to you sometime during the summer to say, here's what we found, here's what we think, here's what we would recommend for you going forward. Now, I know you also, based on the timelines currently set out, the facilities plan, master plan is going to be, starting to wrap up towards the end of summer. So that'll give you an opportunity to really digest all of that information, see where your funding needs are from a facility's perspective. And then if you chose to move forward, you would start to get out to your community and talk to them about what your facility needs are, try to find out where their priorities are, and, you know, really understand before you make the decision to put one of these measures on the ballot. You would need to do that by early December. Again, like I said, to make the March 2020 election day. I'll stop there. I've covered a lot and so just make sure that that all makes sense and pause for comments.

[2320] Ray Rodriguez: So right at the present time, you're our financial advisor.

[2324] SPEAKER_36: That's right.

[2325] Ray Rodriguez: So when the superintendent or our CFO asked that we do the workshop, I wanted to make sure that we refer to other financial advisors and maybe have a board meeting where we can invite, let's say, three people. Since you're a financial advisor right now, would you help us on identifying other financial advisors or That we could so that and then you would I'm sure you would probably be one of the ones that If we had that on the board meeting Would you help us with that process or how would that go?

[2365] SPEAKER_20: Mr. Rodriguez, we did do a Interview to vendors which was California Financial Services as well as K&N both Sarah, Kim, and I met with these two vendors, and based on Mr. Judson Rich's presentation, as well as California Financial Services, we decided to go with K&N because they know more about the Bay Area data than versus California Financial Services. So you meaning who designed it? All three of us, Sarah, Kim, and myself.

[2403] Ray Rodriguez: In my opinion, That's something that the board decides? Sure. OK. And I would not be in favor of that. I would want to interview other. Now, if this gentleman here is our financial advisor right now, he's really into it because he's in the middle of all that. Would you be able to help us identify other if we decided, if the board decided to bring him in so we could talk to?

[2428] SPEAKER_37: If I may interject here, I think the next step would really be waiting for the board to give us direction if this is even something that we want to even look at. I have not got any indication that's where the board is. So I think before that occurs, I think we would, I definitely agree we could definitely do a regular RFP and say we're really seriously considering it. I just don't know if we're seriously considering it. So I think the purpose of this workshop was not to say that this is the advisor, this is what we want to do. It really is to orient the board to here's how it works. So I think I would kind of hold off on on waiting until the boards kind of come into a place where, is this something we want to do or not? But I know member Martinez might want to say something. I didn't mean to cut her off.

[2476] Ray Rodriguez: Did you want to speak? And then member Gutierrez.

[2481] Elisa Martinez: Yes, I think, I mean, when the topic came up a month or so ago, I actually thought even this presentation was a little too soon, frankly, just given the other issues we need to work through. So I think it is a little too early to start thinking about. I think we as a board need to have more conversation before any next steps, which is my humble opinion.

[2509] SPEAKER_17: Not to move forward, but just to, on an educational purpose, what is the process? If we did want to move forward with this, is it something that What is the process?

[2521] SPEAKER_37: It would be the prior slide that shows kind of the timeline. Correct. It would require the board to kind of decide, OK, we do want to do this. I mean, regardless of who the presenter is today, I think that it would be, we'd have to approve some contracts to get those three consultants involved. We'd have to conduct an opinion survey in June. We'd have to get some recommendations and findings. So, that whole timeline would be what it would entail. But I think that, you know, we're still, the challenge is we're kind of in this right sizing of the district time frame. And it may not be clear enough to know what we want to do yet. But I didn't want to wait until we got further into that and not have these tools in your mind. should you decide that's something you want to do? Because I think the other part of it is, as he mentioned, it doesn't have to be this time frame. It can be within three months of any election or even any Tuesday, it sounds like. So if the board gets to a place maybe in a year or six months or eight months where, OK, now I think we're ready. We've made the adjustments. We think the community will sell it. We'll buy it now. All of you know the community better than anyone on staff, and I think that it's good to know that I really just wanted you to have the structure with you, and then when the board gets to the place to do that, then we can execute it.

[2614] Ray Rodriguez: I think you misunderstood what I was saying. We have a financial advisor right now. We, since he is our financial advisor, he can help us if the board deems that that's where they're going to go. The reason that I said yes to having this workshop was just for the board to get information. And so that, because if we look at November of 2020, then we still have plenty of time. So, and I think it's a good discussion for the board to have. And since we have a gentleman that's already here, because, You know, it'd be nice to have a study on the measures that passed on who their financial advisors were. There's probably, I don't know how many you were involved in, but there could be other people that were involved in, let's say, 10, say 8 out of 10 that they were involved in, they passed it. That's what I'm looking for. OK? OK. Member Thomas?

[2671] Nancy Thomas: Well, I'm just wondering, what does it mean that you are our financial advisor? Are you on contract to us, and you've been helping us all along with the bond, or what?

[2682] SPEAKER_36: Yeah, we, our firm has been working with you for a long time. I personally have been working with you since 2014 and helping you with your Measure G bonds that have been sold on an annual basis. There are things that we do for you like preparing continuing disclosure information that's submitted annually. So those are things that I help you with, yes.

[2706] Ray Rodriguez: Okay. Okay, anyone else? So we'll have to, don't go away. I want to thank you. So we'll have to put it on the agenda for the board to have a discussion on, you know, if we want to proceed with this. And how would the time frame, for instance, change if we do November of 2020? You could probably answer that one now, if you don't mind. If we decided November of 2020, how would the whole things change as far as, would it be six months from now?

[2745] SPEAKER_36: I think that's probably reasonable and it would be important to know also if we're talking about a parcel tax only or a parcel tax and a GEO bond. Right. And what's, which one is the priority, which one is most important right now and I don't have a perfect sense of that from you all.

[2763] Ray Rodriguez: And then does, if we decide to go to extend the bond we already have, how does that change?

[2770] SPEAKER_36: I don't think it changes, I think it changes the strategy and how that's communicated to the public. Right.

[2775] Ray Rodriguez: Okay, great. Again, thank you for your presentation. You bet, yeah. Thanks for having me. I mean, Member Thomas and I have been here a long time, and I'm thinking, you know, apparently you, the organization that helped us pass the Geobond stayed on, and that's who you represent, right?

[2796] SPEAKER_36: Yeah, and to clarify, I'm your financial advisor, and so there's also campaign consultants that help with the other aspects of passing your bond. I'm the quantitative expert that makes sure that we structure the bond in a way to honor those commitments that are made, to show you how much money you can reasonably borrow and pay back. how to, you know, all of the financial considerations. Those people that work with actually passing the bond and making, I mean, what I do is important for that so that the community can trust, you know, what you're going to do is going to honor, you know, what you say. But ultimately, there's campaign consultants that are, you know, going to help you with the strategy and messaging that and all that stuff.

[2844] Ray Rodriguez: Thank you. Thank you again for, you know, taking the time to, you know, bring us up to date on all this. Appreciate it. You bet. Yeah, thank you. Thank you. Thank you. OK, does the board want to take a break before to go to closed session, or do they want to go? You guys want to go closed session now?

[2861] Elisa Martinez: I'm fine. I am going to take a break.

[2863] Ray Rodriguez: OK, so let's take five minutes, and then we'll go. OK, we'll be back here. OK, so let's see. So how do I do this? You want to take five minutes and then come back, and then Why don't we do that? Is that OK? OK. So let's take five minutes, and then we'll come back. And then I'll ask for public comment on closed session, and we'll go to closed session. Thank you.

[2929] SPEAKER_31: Okay. . . Thank you. Thank you. Okay. Thank you.

[3287] Ray Rodriguez: And we're going to go into closed session. Before we do that, oh, in closed session, we're going to be discussing public employee appointment or employment discipline 3.1, 3.2, conference with labor negotiator, employee organizations, NTA and CSCA. 3.3, conference with legal counsel regarding anticipated litigation. 3.4, conference with legal counsel regarding assisting litigation. And 3.5, public employee performance evaluation for the superintendent. Does anyone want to address the board on any one of these items before we go to closed session? OK, seeing none, we'll go to closed session. And hopefully, we'll be back by 7 o'clock.

No minutes available.