Welcome everybody.

This is the January meeting of the board of the Indianapolis Local Public Improvement Bond Bank.

With notice having been given to the Indian Indiana Open Door Law, I'd like to call the meeting of the Indianapolis Local Public Improvement Bond Bank Board of Directors.

The time is noon, and today's date is February 23rd, 2026.

First agenda item.

The minutes from the meeting held in December 15th has been distributed.

And there are there any corrections to the minutes.

Anyone have any questions about the uh previous minutes meeting?

Chairman, I would move the minutes as presented during the December 15, 2025 meeting.

Okay.

All in favor.

Second.

Second.

We all in favor, please say aye.

As opposed.

Aye.

Aye.

Motion passes.

Denied state vote count.

The December meeting minutes are approved.

The approval of the re-election of the board of members, board of directors, is uh the next agenda item going forward.

Our board of bylaws state that we must have an election at the beginning of every year.

This is our first bond board meeting of the year, and the first one that was scheduled in January was canceled due to a snowstorm.

Last year, Norm Gerwitz served as chairperson.

Michael Carter served as vice chairperson.

Do I have any nominations for chairperson?

Mr.

Chairman, I nominate the CNG people for re-election of the officers of the uh Indian Republic on Day.

Do I have a second?

Second.

All in favor, please say aye.

Aye.

Any opposed.

The motion passes.

State vote count.

Do I have any nominations for vice chairperson?

We did them both together.

Oh we're gonna do them both together.

So Michael will stay as vice chairperson.

Do we have a motion to appoint Michael Carter as vice chairperson for 2026?

So moved.

All in favor say aye.

Aye.

Motion pass.

And Joe will bring us up to date.

Thank you, Mr.

Chairman.

Uh so resolution number one uh approves a $15 million short-term debt issuance on behalf of the stormwater management district of Marion County.

Um this will lead to finance capital projects as laid out in the uh four-year uh DPW stormwater capital plan.

Um this issuance has been approved uh by the council.

It was approved unanimously out of uh the public works committee and approved uh also unanimously by the full council.

Um there were two um publicly noticed uh hearings uh regarding uh this um this debt issuance before at the board of public works and um the uh uh the debt issuance was approved um by declaratory and confirmatory resolution by the board of public works unanimously.

So uh the bond bank um issued an RFP uh for short-term financing options.

Uh we received about a dozen responses.

Uh we're in the process of finalizing um a proposal um which should happen this week and um plan to uh to finalize the debt issuance um within the next several weeks.

So um we believe we have our bond council here and uh happy to answer any questions about about this resolution.

Is there any discussion from the board regarding this resolution?

If there are no further comments, I'll obtain uh entertain a motion to approve resolution number one.

Do I have a second?

So moved.

All in favor, please say aye.

The motion passes denied resolution number one is approved.

That's up.

That's uh the day today.

That's our uh the only thing left is to have Joe bring us up to date on current projects uh thank you, Mr.

Chairman.

So uh the main project of conduct at this point is uh finalizing the uh the uh short-term uh debt financing for uh the stormwater management of district, and so we'll be uh working on doing that uh this week, and and there's uh no I don't think matters on the horizon for the board other than that.

So um, yeah, we'll plan on reconvening in in March, but but don't have any other agenda items on the horizon.

Um I believe our uh financial advisor Diana Hamilton just arrived.

With a a market update.

Uh Diana, would would you want to kind of summarize what's going on in the market recently?

Yeah, if that's possible.

Well, it it's it's been 10 minutes since I was looking at screencale, so I have no promises, and I'll refrain from editorial comments on the guy sitting in the chair.

Um, so not your chair.

Uh sorry.

Anyway, so uh there's been as they would say a lot of volatility.

We've had some both major um economic news uh were released last week, which was I think not what the market was expecting.

So the jobs number for January was very strong, it was 130,000 versus the 65,000 jobs that everybody had been projecting.

So um Frank, what you're looking at is on one side is the treasury market, and on other the other side's the Muni market, and we're just trying to show you how rates have moved over time and such.

And so what we've seen since the beginning of year is basically a decline um in rates uh in the shorter end, where while the long-term rates, just because uncertainty is so high, longer term rates are staying higher.

So um, but every time I hate to say it we have a threat like the Greenland threat or um Venezuela, this weekend it's been Iran.

Um all of those events cause you know, people to get nervous.

So you tend to see sales in stocks, and then um as a consequence, uh gold has been anywhere from 5500 to 4500 in the last 30 days.

I mean, it's just today this morning it was 5200, so not at the high, but and gold tends to be again because people are uncertain about the dollar and whether or not it's gonna remain the reserve currency.

Um there's a lot of buying in of gold.

Uh, and then there's a lot of concern about AI and what that will mean for the job market.

Um so uh then the second thing is so the jobs report for January came in strong, but they revised downward 2025, and net net it uh it almost looks like there were no jobs created in in 2025.

Now it was thrown off, obviously by immigrant uh status, and it was also thrown off by the government shutdown.

But people can't make heads or tails of it, to be perfectly honest.

Um, but they were just weaker numbers than I think people were expecting, and then the GDP number was supposed to be like 2.8, someplace in the two per high two percent range, and it came in high ones.

So again, a weaker GDP.

So those would all lend in favor of um lower interest rates, but as I said, there's a lot of uncertainty with the Supreme Court throwing out the tariffs case.

Uh the president is that where the feds are the on where they're going.

Um this morning, Christopher Waller, who was one of the finalists for the Fed chair, um, he said his goal, his view on interest on what they would do in March would depend on the labor report.

So the concern has been about weakness in the labor market.

Um obviously uh I actually went back and looked.

Um 335,000 federal jobs were lost, cut or eliminated in 2025.

So that's a really big number.

Um, and then um service sector uh housing obviously remains very weak.

Um, and then the concerns in the service sector are basically is AI gonna eliminate every entry-level job.

So the Fed is watching trying to make sense of all of this, and the question is I think most people feel that the tariff impact will probably be temporary as opposed to permanent, but uh that change that information changes daily.

And what what I said to Joe and Karen this morning is we've been watching um uh the rate that the uh we got from the RFP.

We did a best in final round, so we got you know 14 firms to respond with oh my god, I mean I bet there were 39 proposals.

Uh everybody had you know, some miss mix, you know, it was like uh you know the poo-poo platter, you know, choose columns A, B, and C.

Um, they all had different offerings, but uh we did best in final round and think we're in a good place right now.

Hi, thank you.

You mentioned the AI uh piece.

Is that considered more of a kind of close end immediate threat?

Or is this kind of more long-term, five years?

Um I would tell you it's it's shorter term.

I mean I heard somebody make mention uh of the fact that they were thankful that their kid was not in the class of graduating from college in 2028.

Um so um and and if interestingly in job losses, one of the highest sectors of job losses is in engine uh engineering software.

And so, I mean, just when you thought your kid was gonna be completely safe because they were going into IT, uh we kind of got hit with a cyber.

So um, I don't think anyone can project uh where AI will end up since pretty soon it could be taking over everything.

Sorry, but um the um uh but the the point is that it it there it is expected to have quotes an impact of substantial uh um interruption on the labor markets, similar to what happened when PCs came in, you know, in the late 90s, early 2000s.

So that's uh I think you answered the question, but see more as a risk threat as opposed to actually leaving productivity aside as relates to jobs that they don't see.

Well, no, they think it'll enhance productivity, but I hate to say it it's gonna enhance productivity for the few at the cost of potentially large numbers of workers.

So it it I think it's fair to say it will be a huge disruptor with both pluses and minuses, and I don't think people know where you know how those scales are gonna weigh out.

Thank you.

Okay, Mr.

Chairman, that's uh all the updates for for staff for uh the February meeting.

Oh, sorry, yeah.

So those are the updates for the staff.

So I think if if there's no other business before the board are probably ready to entertain a motion to adjourn.

Yeah.

So moved.

Is there a second?

Second.

All in favor, say aye.

So moved.

Thanks everybody for coming.