County supervisors OK IOUs for CVUSD projects

After a procedural snafu caused their first vote to be invalidated, Riverside County supervisors today re-approved the Coachella Valley Unified School District’s planned sale of $55 million in general obligation bonds to fund new projects.

In a 4-0 vote — with Supervisor John Benoit absent — the Board of Supervisors signed off on the district’s bond issuance, which will be its fourth and largest sale of IOUs since 2005.

The board cast a unanimous vote last Tuesday authorizing the sale, but the action was deemed null and void by the Office of County Counsel because the matter had to be considered separately from the board’s policy agenda, per state law.

Last week, the supervisors, while contending with a malfunctioning sound system in the board chamber, included the agenda item in a block motion, which entails voting for a series of items at the same time, without comment, to expedite proceedings.

The sound system was back in working order today.

In 2005, voters in Riverside and Imperial counties, both of which the Coachella Valley Unified School District covers, approved a measure permitting the sale of $250 million in debt. Bond issuances followed in August 2005, January 2007 and June 2009, totaling around $95 million in sales.

According to a county Treasurer-Tax Collector statement, the school district needs more funds to pay for “the permanent improvement or renovation of existing school facilities.”

The bonds will be repaid from property taxes assessed on residents within the district.

Kansas City-based investment banking firm George K. Baum & Company has been hired to handle the sale, collecting a 1.1 percent fee for serving as underwriter, according to documents.

The bonds will go to market in the next few months and be sold in $5,000 increments. Interest rates on the IOUs will be determined at auction.