Speaker numbers apply only to this recording.
The Board of County Commissioners convened for its open session on October 22, 2026, at the Carroll County Office Building. The meeting included a morning session starting at 9:00 a.m. and an afternoon session at 1:00 p.m. This summary is based on the published agenda and the transcript of the afternoon bond sale item. No minutes or transcript were provided for the morning items.
Based on the agenda, the following items were scheduled for discussion and decision. No record of the actual discussion or votes is available.
Commissioners reconvened for the afternoon session. Comptroller Jennifer Hobbs presented the results of the bond sale held earlier that day. The county received ten bids on $19.15 million of tax-exempt General Obligation bonds. All three major credit rating agencies reaffirmed the county’s AAA (or equivalent) ratings. The winning bid came from Robert W. Baird & Co. with a true interest cost of 4.15%, which was below the pre-sale estimate of 4.36%. Bond counsel Emily Fusting (McKennon Shelton & Henn LLP) and financial advisor Jennifer Diercksen (Davenport & Company LLC) confirmed that the rate was competitive, noting that the second-lowest bid was less than one basis point higher and that another comparably rated county received a higher rate earlier in the week. Commissioners asked clarifying questions about the rating scales and number of bidders. The board then voted unanimously to adopt the Bond Sale Award Resolution, authorizing the sale to Baird and empowering the Board President to execute settlement documents.
No public comments were recorded or transcribed for this meeting based on the available sources.
22nd, 2026, and the Board of Carroll County Commissioners is now back in session for the afternoon or for what would have been the afternoon bond sale. So I will turn it over to Jenny for proceeding. Thank you. Good morning slash early afternoon almost. Um commissioners. We are here joining me is Emily Fustig from McKennan Chilton and Hen, our bond counsel, Jen Derkson from Davenport, our financial advisory, and I'd also like to give a shout out back here to part of my team. Rachel, Stevens and Laura Tuls for our part of the Comptroller team. Um so we are before you to provide you the bid results on the bond sale today that uh we opened the bid at ten AM. When I say open, it was really uh exciting uh open on the computer. Um so we're very pleased to share that we actually got um before we recognize the bid, we actually just wanted to publicly reaffirm we got reaffirmed for all three of our credit rating agencies, triple triple A, is what I like to say. Um so we did receive ten bids in today, and the winning bid is for Robert Baird, and it was four point one five percent. Um last year's was three point four five, but it was expected to be up because the markets are up. And uh with that, I'm gonna turn it over to Jen, Emily. Yeah. I kind of discussed some of the market. Yeah, no, I think the rate that you all got today was a very good one. We had actually been estimating a four point three six, so you came in well under that. Um also just to give you context in terms of the ten bids that you did get. Um, you know, uh RW Baird at the four point one five was the lowest. Um the second lowest was less than a basis point behind, so you definitely got a market rate. And even the highest was only five basis points difference. Um so and just um we did have a bond sale uh with another county earlier this week. Um one notch below triple A, and they got a four point four nine. So you all did better than them as well. So um happy to take any questions if you have any, but if not, I'll can turn it over to Emily. I have a technical question. Oh sure. Um and uh the bond rating, triple A. Two, I think, two of the rating agencies do all three capital A's. One of them does a capital and two small. Two small ones, yes. They just want it to be different. That is correct. Yes, they have their they have their own scale. Uh I guess they just did not want to be like the other two. Wow. Okay. So it's not like we have to get capital A's. No, not for Moody's at least. Yeah. And so the number of bidders that we had, is it 10 about normal? Is it higher or lower? Yeah, and uh, I would say that we've seen sort of eight to ten in the paramount. I mean, you sold um your uh any paramount was about eighteen point eight million. Um you got some premium, so it'll fund twenty million in projects, but we've been seeing between eight and ten bidders for that size par.