Debt Management Commission - Regular Meeting

How are you? I'm good. How are you? Good. Debt management, Clark County Debt Management for Thursday, September 3rd. We'll start with roll call. Chair Kirkpatrick? Here.

Vice Chair Stewart? Here. Commissioner Becker? Here. Councilman Churchill?

Here.

Councilwoman Fielding? Councilwoman Jorgensen? Here. Councilwoman Kelly?

Here.

Yolanda King? Here. Commissioner Naft? Here. Dan Shaw?

Here.

Emily Stephens? Emily Stephens is now joining. Perfect timing.

all right we have a quorum so thank you everybody for coming there are a couple items that needed two-thirds on here on the agenda today but we'll first start with public comment anybody on the phone have public comment anybody in person seeing none we'll go ahead and close the public comment and we'll go to item number one which is approval of the agenda

So moved.

I have a motion by Councilman Stewart to approve the agenda. A second by Mr. Shaw. Any conversation? Seeing none, all those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Any opposed? That motion carries. Item number two is approval of the minutes of the regular meeting that was held on June 4, 2026. I'd entertain a motion. I have a motion by Mr. Shaw.

Second.

Second by Councilman Stewart. All those in favor please say aye. Aye. Opposed? Aye. Opposed? And that motion carries. Item number three on the agenda is to approve, adopt, and authorize the chair to send a resolution concerning the issuance of Las Vegas Valley Water District general obligation bonds. We have Ms. Sisolak here, and we have Paul here. You guys want to go ahead and get started?

Yes, good morning. My name is Kathy Sisolak. I'm municipal advisor for the Water District. And with me is Paul Johnson, the CFO of the district. THERE EXISTS A REFUNDING OPPORTUNITY TO REFUND THE LAS VEGAS VALLEY WATER DISTRICT'S 2017 BONDS, AND TO BE CERTAIN THAT THE REFUNDING BONDS ARE ACCEPTED FROM THE PAYMENT, THE DMC MUST APPROVE OF THE FINDING THAT NO INCREASE IN THE RATE OF ADVALORM IS NECESSARY FOR THE PAYMENT OF THE OBLIGATION. The bonds will be general obligations of the district but additionally pledged with district revenues and so we anticipate that the bonds will have no impact on the property tax. Including your backup information on page 4 are the estimated savings for this particular bond issue. $2.9 million. Since this was prepared several weeks ago, under current marketing conditions, we anticipate savings to be $4.2 million for 4.9% of refunded bonds. Of course, when we go to sale, we will certainly update you as to what the actual savings were. I think you've seen those reports before in the past. So the district will email you a report Page six is just a summary of the outstanding debt of the district, which equals 3.2 billion. And then page eight and nine shows the coverage ratios for the debt. And you can see they're very strong at over nine times coverage. And then you'll see for the projected years, it's over 10 times coverage. And then if you go to page 10, So we anticipate, again, no anticipated need to increase property taxes to pay off the debt. That concludes my presentation. Any questions?

Does anybody have any questions on the phone? No. Okay. Anybody have any questions here? routine for us so if not I would entertain a motion for approval but I would like that whoever makes the motion to put the caveat and outside of the property tax okay so we have a motion by councilman Stewart second by mr. Shaw for approval of this item outside of the property tax cap should they need it ANY FURTHER DISCUSSION? SEEING NONE, ALL THOSE IN FAVOR, PLEASE SAY AYE. AYE. AYE.

AYE.

AYE. OPPOSED? THAT MOTION CARRIES. THANK YOU. THANK YOU. IT'S ALWAYS EASIER BECAUSE WE SAY IT THREE OR FOUR TIMES, YOU KNOW, SO IT GETS SO EASY TO APPROVE. ALL RIGHT, NEXT ITEM ON THE AGENDA IS TO APPROVE, AUTHORIZE THE CHAIR TO SEND A RESOLUTION CONCERNING A PROPOSAL TO ISSUE A CLARK COUNTY general obligation bond, hospital improvement bonds. Good morning.

Again, good morning. Again, Kathy Sisolak, municipal advisors for Clark County. With me here is Jennifer Wakeham, CFO of the University of Mecklenburg. Clark County is issuing hospital improvement bonds for UMC. IN AN AMOUNT NOT TO EXCEED $45,770,000. THE BONDS WILL BE GENERAL OBLIGATIONS OF THE COUNTY, BUT WILL BE REPAID BY A GROSS PLEDGE OF THE HOSPITAL REVENUES. AND THEY'LL, AGAIN, HAVE NO, WE ANTICIPATE THERE WILL BE NO IMPACT ON THE PROPERTY TAX RATES. AS YOU'LL SEE WHEN I GO THROUGH THE BOOK THAT THEY HAVE A LOT OF COVERAGE, SUBSTANTIAL COVERAGE. So certain criteria must be met before new bonds are issued. And that criteria is listed on page 1. Before I go through this presentation, why don't I ask Jennifer to talk about what the bonds are going to be used for.

Thank you. Good morning, everybody. So the bonds are 50% coverage for two big projects for us. One is building a parking garage. anyways had the experience of coming to UMC we struggle with not enough parking we charge some of our employees for dedicated parking spots currently because there isn't enough parking and the list is a mile long employees are willing to pay we just don't have space so this is going to be a five-story parking garage and it will bring 808 new spaces to the campus. Second project is an inpatient rehab. We're a trauma level one hospital. It's very typical to have inpatient rehab services for our patients. Because we don't have that, we transfer our patients out to the post-acutes that are, you know, sprinkled throughout the valley. And so this is about keeping the patients in the UMC network. It's revenue generating, so it's a very exciting project for us to take on.

Just a question of curiosity. Yes. How many parking spaces, 808? Yes. And do you know how much the HOW MUCH GARAGE IS IT?

OH, HOW MUCH THE GARAGE IS. THE TOTAL OF THE TWO PROJECTS IS ROUGHLY $95 MILLION, SO THIS IS ASKING FOR FUNDING FOR HALF OF BOTH PROJECTS. OKAY.

AND DOES THE PARKING GARAGE BELONG TO THE UMC, OR IS IT THE CITY? FOR A LONG TIME, I THOUGHT I HEARD THE CITY WAS BUILDING A PARKING GARAGE.

IT WOULD BE UMC OWNED. Commissioner Kirkpatrick? Yes.

And then so I'm anticipating that some of those revenues for the parking garage will go back to pay off some of this funding?

Yes. It will be 100% used for patients and we'll repurpose the other garage for patients. Just because of its proximity to UMC, it's closer. for our patients. So that's our plan.

And then what is the anticipated, I mean like what's, what have you factored in for the amount to go back? So I mean is it, please tell me it's not going to be ten dollars to park while you have a loved one that's sick. What do, have we talked about what the cost is? Who approves that?

I'm thinking of, we would charge our employees if we didn't have, because right now they are paying, and I want to say it's like $15 a pay period.

So it's just all employee parking?

Yes, it will be all employee parking. And we'll use the other garage, which today some employees do park in. We'll repurpose that 100% for patients. Will you be charging for that parking? No, not to patients. Not to patients. And for the employee, I apologize if I interrupted. No, no, no. So the parking that will be available for employees, will you continue to charge them for that? You know, it will depend on whether we have sufficient parking at that point. We'll have to agree as an executive team. I think there's differing opinions on whether we should or shouldn't. We do today for the dedicated spots, as I said, and we use that money for employee morale things like the Christmas party or yes, employee of the month recognition. It's all dedicated to going back to recognizing employees. So you won't be charging for patients, but it's up in the air whether you'll charge employees? Yes. And that decision is made by the executive committee? Yes. The administrative team will have a discussion about whether there's a need to do it. and whether that's good for our employees. You know, people don't like to be charged for parking, and so, yeah. Especially here. Right. Well, I don't blame them. I don't like to pay myself.

I'm not paying 40 bucks to go to a meeting on the street. Well, yeah, and to go to work. Or even to go to the city, I gotta pay, right? Well, I'm not interested. Well, I mean, I'm just saying it's been a common practice for 30 years to pay for parking downtown if you're downtown because there's been no parking. Right. And I just want to make sure that it doesn't become egregious, right? So it used to be $20 a month or something. I don't want it to be $10 a day because that just, you know, it makes you mad when you walk in, right? Right. I mean... Just to tell Mason I'm interested in knowing what they decide. Okay. I will. How about that? You've never been, but I'm super direct, so don't take it wrong. They all know. We all know. Yes. Super direct. Anybody have any questions on the phone?

No. Just real quick, your death service coverage ratio, is that based on the county revenue or the hospital revenue?

Hospital revenue.

And how do you calculate that? Because you're currently losing money, right?

No, we're not. The county subsidizes. So they're not losing money, but we are losing money.

So as long as the county continues to subsidy, you don't lose money?

Right.

And keep in mind, this is a gross pledge revenue, so it's not a net pledge. So it's all the gross revenues. You do not deduct any expenses. And that's the pledge of these bonds. So it's quite significant. If you turn to... page, let's skip to page 10, you'll see that the hospital has no debt right now. And so when we added in the debt in 2027, we have a 312 times coverage.

Is that just a function of which balance sheet you carry it on?

Yeah.

It's got to be.

Yeah.

Because clearly the hospital has debt, but it's on the county balance sheet.

No, the hospital has no debt. The hospital has no bond outstanding.

I don't think that they have any bonds out today. They have no bond outstanding.

So what do you call this?

This is new. This is brand new. This is brand new. And it's a half GoPay and a half bond. Correct. And so, I don't want to overspeak my space, but... So in our budget, every time at the county, I think we put about $35 million towards their capital improvements.

Right.

And we have an annual meeting, and I'm the loudest, right, to make sure where that money's going. So they typically save it, and there was a plan put in place about five years ago for them to redo the facade and redo some upgrades. So they've been saving, and this is why they're at that. But they do have... revenue that comes in from the indigent care which is the 10 cents I think that's on the property tax so they do have some of their revenues but for from the county perspective the debts that we pay to keep a county facility is half of what it used to be in 2015 it was well over a couple hundred million so now they're they've redone their payer mix. They've redone some of those other things to help offset it. They have some liver transplant stuff that they do that brings in volumes. They have some other things that they do. So the county's responsibility I like to remind everybody is we step up to ensure that no matter what you have that we can have a hospital and by having the county be there that does help with like the self-funded trust funds to keep a cheaper option out there than the way it works today. So if I understood you correctly... Actually, saying we do our fair share.

Yes, you do. 2015, so did I understand it correctly, basically in 2015 the hospital was... The county had to subsidize a couple hundred million.

I think it was before 2015. 2014 was the biggest loss.

It's about 35 to 40 million now. Okay.

But I mean, so you have to, when we say 135 million, that is the, it helped me latest if I get it wrong, but that is like all of the dish payments, all the supplemental payments, all those other things, the Medicaid. match those are all those things which I like to remind people because we are the match for the entire state so if we ever some days I'd like to back out everybody pays the price right so it's like a COC where we match those grants so that it goes farther so that is why that's where that About that $135 million comes as all those other pieces of it, so that we can provide an option for people that doesn't break the bank. Did I overstep my... Dang, I've been here too long.

UMC gets a higher Medicaid reimbursement than anybody else to help offset that, too. I said UMC gets a higher Medicaid reimbursement.

The trauma center, so does Sunrise. So that helps.

that helps today we get it but in January I think some of that changes which is the concern okay full disclosure before we vote yeah I serve on the board of an amount of health care so I'm going to disclose that that's that but it doesn't affect an amount of health care one way or the other

Sorry, I'm crying because you guys made me sad.

Oh, yeah, I'd love to see that day.

And that does not happen. I think my husband's seen me cry twice in 35 years. Okay, does anybody have any questions? Does that complete your presentation?

Yeah, sorry. These are 20-year bonds.

All right, if not, I'd entertain a motion. And his disclosure is fine and he can still vote, correct? Because it doesn't impact him any different.

I'll make the motion to approve. Second.

Okay, I have a motion to approve item number four. Do we have to put it outside the property tax because it's geo bonds? Yes. in case okay okay all right and see no further discussion all those in favor please say aye aye aye opposed and that motion carries okay next item is to receive the annual reports of the current and contemplated geo bonds for debt management that may come before us this year

FOR CLARK COUNTY. FIRST OF ALL, I'D LIKE TO PUT ON THE RECORD THAT ALL THE SUBMISSIONS WERE RECEIVED BY ALL THE ENTITIES BY THE DUE DATE OF AUGUST 1st. I'M INCLUDED IN THIS ITEM ARE TWO SCHEDULES. SO IF WE TURN TO SCHEDULE A, THIS IS THE CONTEMPLATED DEBT FOR FISCAL YEAR 27 FROM ALL THE ENTITIES. THERE'S A LOT MORE ACTIVITY ON IT THIS YEAR THAN YOU'VE SEEN FOR THE PAST FEW YEARS, SO I THOUGHT IF YOU WANT, I CAN WALK YOU THROUGH THE DIFFERENT LINE-OUT OF THEM BRIEFLY. Okay. The third column, that column is the total contemplated debt that each entity has included in their debt management policy. The second column is of that contemplated debt, the dollar amount that is general obligation. And then the third column is the general obligation debt pending DMC approval. So if we move down to the first numbers, which is the city of Las Vegas, there's a $21 million and a $40 million medium term bonds. Since they are medium term, they do not have to come to DMC, so you will not be seeing those. If we move farther down to Clark County, the first item, the $175 million, these are the stadium improvement bonds. Under statute, they're exempt from DMC approval, so again, these will not come before DMC. However, if you want, we could notify you when those bonds are sold. The next two items for Clark County, the 101 million bonds, those are the transportation improvement bonds and those were approved by DMC in June. And then the next one is the hospital bonds that you just approved. And then the next two bonds are the park improvement and facility bonds that the county expects to bring to the November DMC meeting. MOVING BELOW TO THE SCHOOL DISTRICT, THE TWO LARGE ONES, YOU APPROVE THOSE AT YOUR JUNE MEETING. AND THEN THE $50 MILLION A MEDIUM TERM, SO YOU WON'T BE SEEING THAT IN DMC AS WELL. AND THEN MOVING DOWN, THERE'S THE WATER DISTRICT AND THE SOUTHERN NEVADA WATER AUTHORITY CAPITAL IMPROVEMENT BONDS. THOSE WERE APPROVED BY DMC AT MAY MEETING. AS WE LOOK AHEAD TO FISCAL 28, WE ASK THE ENTITIES IF THEY ANTICIPATE ISSUING ANY DEBT. AND THE SCHOOL DISTRICT, LOS ANGELES WATER DISTRICT, AND SOUTHERN NEVADA WATER AUTHORITY MAY BE ISSUING DEBT IN 28. SO YOU MIGHT SEE, DEPENDING ON THE TIMING OF THAT, THEM COMING IN THE FIRST HALF OF CALENDAR 27. AND THEN ONE ITEM NOT ON HERE, REFUNDING BONDS AREN'T INCLUDED ON HERE, BUT THE COUNTY IS PLANNING TO REFUND SOME BOND BANK BONDS THAT WE EXPECT TO BRING TO YOU IN NOVEMBER AS WELL.

CAN I ASK, DOES ANYBODY ELSE HAVE ANY QUESTIONS? CAN I ASK YOU A QUESTION? WHY DO THOSE MEDIUM BONDS NOT COME BEFORE SOMEONE WHO'S ON THE HOOK IF THEY DEFAULT?

Well, these ones are all general obligations, so they'll be backed by the full faith and credit of the issuing entity. As far as, you know, Kendra might be able to speak to this, our bond counsel, but it's in statute that they don't have to come to the DMC.

Hi, Kendra Follett from Taft, formerly Shimmering Power. So medium-term bonds, the cost... Hit 8.9, okay. The process is that they have to, an entity has to submit that to the Department of Taxation, and the Department of Taxation reviews and approves that financing. Those financings have to be 10 years or less, and they are payable, but not secured by any particular revenues, but they're payable from all legally available revenues of an entity. But nothing, there are no pledged revenues to them.

SO I'M GOING TO ASK THIS. I'M NOT PICKING ON THE CITY, BUT I WANT TO... YES, YOU ARE. THAT'S OKAY. I UNDERSTAND. SO THEY DID... JUST GET USED TO IT. SHE AND I HAVE A GREAT RELATIONSHIP. WE DO. So they issued the $76 million GO bonds, right? And it just went before them for their civic center. And then now they anticipate doing more. How do we make sure that it's upon the Department of Tax to make sure that all these bonds can be paid at some point?

Yeah, so medium term bonds, like I said, they get approved from the Department of Taxation. Each entity has to fill out a particular medium term payment form that gets submitted to the Department of Taxation, and yes, the Department of Taxation supervises medium terms and approves them, or doesn't approve them.

Just to follow up on your question, if we don't see it, and they're calculating debt service coverage ratio, do they include those medium term bonds in that?

So usually general obligation backed by revenues that come before here are payable from a specific revenue strand, whereas medium terms have, like I said, have no pledged revenues to them. They're just payable from legally available funds, but nothing secure. So no, they wouldn't, like this is a geo-rev, and the revenues are a specific revenue source pledged to these bonds. the median terms are not they don't have the same legal pledge on the rev they don't have any pledge does that mean that the city or the county can't touch those designated revenue funds in other words no it's just payable from all legally available so it affects the service coverage ratio ultimately

Because if they can tap the water fund, for example.

Well, no, no. So these are not legally available funds. So if you have a particular pledged revenue stream that's pledged to a bond issue, those come first. And so those would not be legally available. They would be legally available to the extent that service has been paid. But like in this instance or the water district, all of those revenues are pledged to bonds. are pledged to bonds first, so they're not available to pay other things. I mean, they might eventually be payable after debt service, but every year, every dollar is first pledged to the bondholder. And so they're not considered legally available funds. Or like other restricted funds are not legally available funds.

It just seems to me that I get the ones that come before us because we're responsible at the end of the day, right? That's why we say we have to raise the property tax. But as other entities, which the stadium authority, for example, that they have all that extra coverage in that waterfall, which is somewhat to protect anything that they go out to that they gotta pay out of there. I just was asking for the cities. in general, because what does that look like, right? I mean, who pays it? So it sounds like they must have to cut off the top to pay them first.

My concern is this. We sell a bond, and we have a death service code, a judicial covenant. It says you gotta always have two or three times whatever it is. So even though the bond gets paid, if the city or county can take those other funds for other bond obligations, does that violate that covenant?

No. It's because it's first used and legally secured by those revenues first to pay the bonds that

This has to do with the covenant as opposed to the payment of the loan. So the document is going to say you must maintain a 2.0 debt service coverage, whatever that number is, okay? But if we've obligated the city and the county that they can have anything after the payment's made. Does that violate that covenant? Because it's not available?

No, because it's within a fiscal year, typically, within a fiscal, I mean, sometimes there's very, it's very technical, but sometimes, you know, sometimes transactions are what we call closed, whereas like every revenue is captured and cannot be used for anything else. It's not typical for local governments in Nevada. But usually, within a fiscal year, all of those revenues are dedicated to payment of debt service first and can only be released after the fiscal year. So, and then it just rolls to the next fiscal year. It's just caught, caught and legally pledged. I just want to make sure we're not violating our code.

all right anna you got any other good news for us the schedule c which is the operating tax rates for the next five fiscal years so all fiscal 27 tax rates have improved by the local boards and then the projections for 28 through fiscal year 31 were provided by the other entities there's really no projected changes except if you look at the city of henderson in 28 one of their tax rates, which was previously referred to as a debt rate, was rolled into the operating rate. But again, the entities, they could always reserve the right to make changes to this in the future.

So remind me again how close we are to the 364 cap. AND THE REASON WHY I ASKED THAT IS BECAUSE I RECENTLY MET WITH SOME LEGISLATORS THAT WERE INTERESTED IN CHANGING IT TO 380, AND I WAS NOT INTERESTED IN THAT. THAT'S A LOT MORE DEBT TO HAVE WITH A LOT LESS ASSURANCE.

SO IT'S IN THE NEXT AGENDA ITEM. WE HAVE A SCHEDULE, BUT THE TAX RATE, THE DISTRICT WITH THE LARGEST TAX RATE IS TOWN FRIAR, AND THEY'RE AT 43.

OKAY.

WE LIKE TO BE CONSERVATIVE IN SOUTHERN NEVADA. All right, no other questions? I do not see a motion to approve, or well, do you need a vote on this, or are we just receiving every vote? He's just receiving. Just receiving it, okay. So now we'll go to the one I'm most curious about. Item number six, establish a percentage applicable for purposes of subsection one. Can we take six and seven together, because they somewhat go together?

Yeah, they really do go together.

So we'll take, and item number seven is establishment of the essential and non-essential facilities and services for the purposes of subsection two. And the reason why I think they've got to go together is because you've got to prioritize what you want, and then we've got to make sure that we're within our rate, correct? Yes. Okay, do your spiel.

Okay. THE CURRENT POLICY IS 80%, BUT I'M GOING TO TURN TO SCHEDULE D BECAUSE THIS IS EASIER TO VISUALIZE AND SEE WHAT THIS MEANS. SO ON SCHEDULE D, WHAT WE HAVE IS EACH TAX DISTRICT AND ALONG WITH THEIR FISCAL YEAR 27 TAX RATE. THE SECOND COLUMN IS THE FISCAL 27, THE EXCESS RATE THAT'S AVAILABLE. THEN THE THIRD COLUMN IS THE PERCENTAGE OF THE TAX RATE THAT EACH TAX DISTRICT IS USING. SO IF YOU GO DOWN TO THE BOTTOM LINE, THERE'S A LINE LIKE AT THE 80.4 MARK NEAR ENTERPRISE, FIRE, ATTISIAN, NAMCAR. SO WHAT THIS MEANS IS ALL OF THE TAX DISTRICTS ABOVE THIS LINE BASED ON YOUR CURRENT POLICY, IF THERE'S ANY PROPOSAL IN THAT DISTRICT THAT COMES UP FOR YOU THAT WOULD RESULT IN AN INCREASE OF THE PROPERTY TAX RATE IN THE DISTRICT, IT WOULD REQUIRE YOU TO MAKE A FINDING THAT IT MEETS THE PUBLIC NEEDS WITHIN THE PRIORITIES THAT HAVE BEEN SET BY THE COMMISSION. AND CURRENTLY, requires them to set a minimum of 75% so if you did drop it down to 75% you would just be bringing in the tax districts from Mesquite.

So your recommendation?

It's been 80 for years I think staff recommended to continue with 80 at this point.

Yeah I think since the inception early on it's been 80 so to give us some coverage to not, because if you start going below that, then you get a C grade as opposed to a B grade. I like to be in the B range. And then the priorities have always been, as far as I know, education, public safety, and health care, right? So those are the things that we fund first, and other things come after the fact. Anybody have any questions on the phone?

No.

Okay. Seeing none, I'd entertain a motion to approve items 6 and 7. So I want to be clear. The motion is to keep the percentage rate above the 80% line and to keep our priorities as we've listed before. Okay. Seeing no other questions, all those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. opposed and that motion carries okay item number eight so the county does have skipping ahead okay so item number eight is to schedule the meetings I think that it's worked for the first Thursday it used to be all over the board so as long as everybody's fine with that we'll keep them to the first Thursday of the month and cancel when we don't need them So I take that in the form of a motion. So we have a motion to keep the dates as we have them now. All those in favor, please say aye.

Aye.

Opposed? And that motion carries. Okay, the last item is item number nine. So we do have some items in November. I am trying not to have a December meeting because December is hard. People are traveling, going places, doing things. But November is equally hard because There's a week within there that we're doubling and tripling up on committees, so I looked at the calendar, and November 12th, we do have three items, I think, that are coming. Seems to be about the easiest day for everybody to keep. I looked at my 30 committees, and if I could make November 12th, most other people could.

That is a good standard.

So it's the day after a holiday. I recognize that, but it just gets messier the following week with all the holidays. So is November 12th work? We will need a quorum. Yes. And we will need a two-thirds. We're not opposed to you being on the phone. I can't do that. You can't do the 12th? I can't. You can't?

In person, I can't.

Can everybody else do the talk? I'm sorry, Dad, we might miss you.

Yeah, that works for me. Okay.

Mr. Stewart yes yes okay all right sorry Dan we will miss you okay so our next meeting will be held November 12th at 9 a.m. we will not have a December meeting so I'm trying to make it work for everybody Okay, so this is the second time on the agenda set aside for public comment. Anybody on the phone have anything?

Anybody in?

Yes. Anybody in person? Seeing none, we are adjourned and I'll see you November 12th. Thank you.