UPDATE II: At the meeting tonight they approved the designation of banks without listing those banks. There were ZERO exhibits. It seems those names won’t be revealed until August and most likely will be the same as last year. If they follow what they did last year, First National would be on that list. Like the City, it seems the school district uses multiple banks in town. But it is also important to note that Great Western Bank is their main bank that handles most of the districts accounts. It will be interesting to see WHAT bank is chosen to originate the bonds with;
RESOLUTION RESOLVING, that the following institutions be designated as depositories for the funds of the Sioux Falls School District 49-5 of Minnehaha County, South Dakota, effective July 1, 2017; First National Bank, First Premier Bank, Wells Fargo Bank, US Bank, Sioux Falls Federal Credit Union, Minnwest, Dakota State Bank, First Bank & Trust, Great Western Bank, MetaBank, Sioux Empire Federal Credit Union, and the South Dakota Public Funds Investment Trust;
UPDATE III: While the school district is maintaining that they must have the special election in September so they can set the budget for 2019 by September 30, it seems that may only be a ploy for something else. At the meeting tonight the finance director talked about setting the tax levies with Lincoln and Minnehaha County, I believe those levies must be set by September 30 and cannot be amended after that (please correct me if I am wrong). In other words, if the bond doesn’t pass before that deadline, the School Board would have to wait a full year before setting those levies again. I’m going to do a little more digging around on this, but it seems they may have NO choice but to have a special election.
At the school board meeting tonight they will take this action (DOC: 6-OrganizationofSchoolBoard;
D. A motion was made by __________ and seconded by ____________, _____ ( ) votes “yes†on roll call, acknowledging the designation of banks as depositories for the funds of the District; it being understood that this designation will continue until the next annual meeting, unless amended by the School Board at a subsequent meeting (see MRF # and Action ____________, adopted ________).
They also will be hiring Dougherty & Company, LLC to be their ‘financial advisor’ and bond representation if the bond passes (Doc: 13C-RFP-FinancialAdvisor)
It will be interesting to see if they choose First National as one of the banks, if so the bonds will have to pass through them, and if it does, this means the co-chair of the School Task force, Nan Baker has an ‘Enormous’ conflict of interest by sitting on the task force since her family owns First National Bank.
However, the School Board/District could have seen this conflict and chose another bank(s). Of course they could use the excuse that Nan was ‘just a volunteer’. But I’m not buying it. She is a volunteer who’s family will rake in millions over this bond if they are one of the chosen banks.