Good morning, everyone, and welcome to this joint committee of the Government Operation Fiscal Policy Committee and the Economic Development Committee.

For our joint committee today, we have one item to discuss.

That is expedited bill 31-26 bond authorization for Viva White Oak Development District.

We are joined by Councilmember Mink as a guest for our joint committee session today, as this is in her district.

And I just want to say we're glad to be here today to give a recommendation, excuse me, for uh moving that uh forward.

And just as uh background um that you can find in the packet back in February after this joint committee uh spent a good deal of time um going through the resolution, the uh full council uh created the Viva White Oak Development District.

Um so that was back in February, and today is an exciting day because this bill would authorize the executive to issue and sell bonds in one or more series in an aggregate principal amount not to exceed 420 million dollars to fund all or a portion of the cost of the improvements.

And I believe this will cover the first phase of the um project.

And so we're excited to be here today.

Um I'm gonna turn it over to a moment um to our staff to kind of walk us through the packet.

I know we have one amendment, but that is uh pretty much of a technical amendment that we can walk through.

But before I do that, I'll turn it over to my co-chair of the economic development committee to see if she has anything to add.

No, um thank you for that introduction, and I appreciate everybody coming back today, and I look forward to continue having updates on this particular um project just based on the fact that it's our first TIFF, and uh we want to make sure that we get it right.

So I look forward to future sessions.

Thank you.

Great.

Thank you very much.

Um I will turn it over to staff um uh to walk us through the packet and then turn it over to the uh council member whose district this is in if she has anything to add.

Thank you very much, Chair Stewart.

As noted by the chair, uh this bill is sort of the the continuation, uh uh a culmination of sorts of a lot of the work that this joint committee and the council have done during the development district phase of the white Viva White Oak Development Project.

Um it is in sum just an authorization, a bond authorization in the amount of 420 million dollars to perform the work that will be performed as part of the white oak development project.

Um the fiscal impact statement is included in the project or is included in the packet, and it largely relies upon the broader fiscal impact analysis that was also sent over by the county executive.

Um I won't really get into that.

The big numbers are a little bit less useful.

And so if there are any questions from the committee, um I would defer we have uh folks from the finance department as well as obviously um the developer and uh council staff who can speak to those matters a little bit more.

Um with a public uh hearing was held uh last week on July 20 or July 14th.

Uh testimony was largely in support discussing the um the function of the TIFF, uh, that it would not be the full faith and obligation of the entire county base, and it was just for the development district.

Um there was some testimony, I wouldn't say um in opposition, but commenting about the transportation infrastructure needs and just a request that those be developed along with the broader development because of some of the strains already in place in that general part of the county and also leading into neighboring jurisdictions.

Um I believe I'll note it's not in the packet.

The climate assessment was um delivered yesterday.

It was an indeterminate, largely because so much of the broader development is so far down the road and and and not fully um concrete yet.

Um that's generally um where we are, if the chair would like me to go through the amendment now, or would you like me to wait until after the district?

I will just see if anyone has any questions or anything before not seeing anything.

And I just want to say thank you to everyone who's here.

And Mr.

Bramble, I don't know if you wanted to say any words or anything before we got into the amendment.

No, I'm sorry for getting stuck in a little traffic and being behind.

I apologize.

Um but thank you all so much for having us and for uh uh letting us sit in front of you again.

Uh we are very excited um to be at this point and um and we look forward to your questions and hopefully uh getting to a successful resolution here today.

Great.

Well, thank you, Mr.

Rammerl.

I think as I started the meeting, we said we are very excited also to be here today to move this process forward.

So thank you for all your work and uh the work of your team on this.

Um seeing no other questions, um let's continue with the uh technical amendment we have before us.

Yeah, so there's one amendment in the packet um that is it it's sort of clarifying.

I think some some miss in or mis uh understanding that we're from really among a lot of the parties throughout this entire process.

If you go back to look at some of the staff reports as well as ongoing conversations, and I think even some of the public testimony.

Um a lot of individuals were sort of under the impression that at each discrete bond issuance, there would be a council check.

When the bill came over, the actual bill drafted was just an authorization for 420 million dollars with no further council action.

Of course, there could be annual reports or things like that, but there would be no actual legislative prerogative or exercise of authority just for the council to weigh in on any subsequent stages.

And so what this amendment would do, which is set forth on page three of the staff report would require that for any bond issuances that would bring the cumulative total of principal bond above 220 million dollars and 320 million dollars before that issuance.

The county executive would need to come to the council and get approval by resolution, so we wouldn't have to do a full bill or anything like that.

Um so just to declare it that there would not be a requirement for uh the developer or the county executive to come to council for each discrete bond issuance, which frankly might be a little bit clunky or just unnecessary, uh especially for these early stages uh that are pretty well mapped out at this juncture.

Um, but it would retain some of that exercise of legislative prerogative when we're five, ten years down the road and the project the later stages of the project are getting a little bit more uh clearly developed.

Um I'll note that the this authorization that the the bill that the good joint committee will vote on today and then council um if it's recommended would vote vote on Tuesday would authorize that first 220 million dollar tranche uh which is should get through all of phase one development.

So that should be completely covered, and then once you get into the subsequent phases is when they would come back uh for a resolution.

Um I'll note I did confirm this morning with the Office of the County Attorney, they're in agreement.

This would have this amendment would create two further uh resolutions from council.