Bond rating superior in Parker County

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September 3, 2010

Elizabeth Sehon CNHI The Weatherford Democrat Fri Sep 03, 2010, 08:21 AM CDT

Hudson Oaks —

Last week, the City of Hudson Oaks received a double A bond rating. This rating, which competes with any city in Parker County, is a good sign of financial stability, mayor Pat Deen said.

The city handles its debt with the financial firm Southwest Securities, and the feedback the council and mayor received recently was outstanding, he said.

“They gave us such a good bond rating because how well the city is managed,” the mayor said. “It is rare to have this rating in a city this size.”

A bond rating gages how well a city can pay back debt and helps determine an interest rate for future purchases.

City administrator Sheri Campbell-Husband said the bond rating is a tremendous deal considering it is the first time the city has been rated and because it’s solely dependant on sales tax.

“That’s virtually unheard of,” she said. “Everyone’s experiencing the downturn, but we’re doing well.”

A city’s rating depends on the circumstances of the market at the time they are issued and can fluctuate every time debt is issued.

“Right now, that makes us one of the highest rated agencies in the county, maybe the highest,” Campbell-Husband said.

The bond rating also represents the financial health of the city and in combination with a well run staff that operates efficiently on a day-to-day basis.

“The city is very fiscally conservative, and with the saving policies the city had implemented and the financial management structure, and not to mention we have two MPA (master’s of public administration) working in a city this size, contributes significantly to getting the high rating,” she said.

Also last week, the city secured funding to finalize a purchase agreement with the City of Willow Park to purchase a Dyegard water works system at an agreed price of $2.8 million, the mayor said.

The council and mayor are debting out $3 million for any additional contingency’s with the system. The city is not “debt-ridden” and can pay back the debt through the rate structure of the water work’s system, Deen said.

“[The waterworks system] is not impacted by the city’s overall enterprise fund, but will be a separate enterprise fund and will be managed as a separate business,” the mayor said. “It’s a good measuring stick of how a city is run because they’re not going to loan out money with a lot of risks involved. We’re a benchmark of how cities should be run.”

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Bond rating superior in Parker County

The Komen Foundation recently cut ties (before announcing they would reinstate them) with Planned Parenthood and stopped funding breast cancer screenings — was that a good thing?

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