Transportation Agency staff is seeking to retain the services of an on-call financial advisor to assist the Agency with setting financial goals and policies for the implementation of Measure X, maintaining overall program cash flow, and, if determined necessary, issuing bonds to expedite the delivery of measure projects.
A financial advisor would serve as the Transportation Agency’s agent for optimizing the Measure X financing strategy and are bound by a fiduciary duty to provide advice in the best interests of their clients, whereas other market participants are not. In short, a financial advisor will both help protect the Transportation Agency’s interests and also assist in identifying ways to potentially reduce costs and save money in an overall financing program.
Retaining the services of a financial advisor would provide the following benefits to the Transportation Agency:
- Develop a Strategic Plan and Conform to the Plan’s Goals and Objectives
- Assistance with Meeting Securities Law and IRS Requirements
- Knowledge and Expertise Regarding the Complexities of the Municipal Bond Market
- Manage the Bond Offering Process
- Secure the Highest Credit Rating and Lowest Cost of Funds
For this proposed scope of work, the selected financial advisor would provide on-call services including updating strategic plans, developing cash flow models, evaluating various financing scenarios under differing sales tax revenue assumptions, considering other local, state and federal funding sources, assisting with developing debt policies and practices, debt capacity studies, debt monitoring programs, credit rating strategies, investor outreach programs and managing underwriter relations.
If the Agency were to elect to move forward with a bonding strategy, the role of the advisor would be to coordinate the competitive sale of bonds, including advising the agency on market timing, marketing strategy, and issue structure, secure the best possible credit rating for our bond sales, and coordinate a bond sale team of a bond counsel, trustee, verification agent and financial printer.
Aside from assisting the agency on bond sales, the advisor could also develop for board consideration a Measure X investment policy. Measure funds are invested in the County Treasury and the Agency receives the interest rate that is paid by the treasury. The financial advisor could explore options for Board consideration for maximizing the Agency’s rate of return within the Treasury or investing funds in some other highly secured fashion, as allowed by state law.