Minutes 10/24/2017 - Laserfiche WebLink

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October 24, 2017 The term "eligible local education agency" means any local education agency as defined in section 8101 of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965, and legal counsel has advised that the Portsmouth School Board (the "School Board") is the eligible local education agency for the City; and WHEREAS, the private business contribution requirement is met with respect to any issue of QZABs if the eligible local education agency that established the qualified zone academy has written commitments from private entities to make qualified contributions having present value (as of the date of issuance of the issue) of not less than 10 percent of the proceeds of the issue; and WHEREAS, the General Assembly of Virginia has appointed the Virginia Secretary of Education (the "Secretary") to make allocations of Virginia's QZAB issuing capacity and has directed the Secretary to give priority to allocations requests from certain Virginia public schools; and WHEREAS, based on correspondence from the Secretary to the Superintendent of Portsmouth Public Schools, up to $4,117,195 of Virginia's QZAB issuing capacity is available for QZABs to be issued by or for the benefit of the City and the School Board by no later than December 31, 2017, to finance qualified purposes at some or all of the school facilities housing the Portsmouth QZA (as defined below); and WHEREAS, by a resolution adopted on October 18, 2001 (the "2001 School Board Resolution"), the School Board established as the "Portsmouth QZA" the K-12 program conducted in the schools listed on an attachment to the 2001 School Board Resolution and the City issued QZABs later in 2001 to finance qualified purposes in certain schools in the Portsmouth QZA as it existed at that time; and WHEREAS, by a resolution adopted on August 6, 2016 (the "2016 School Board Resolution"), the School Board designated and established the K-12 academic programs conducted in the schools listed on an attachment to the 2016 School Board Resolution as a qualified zone academy (the "Portsmouth QZA") and specified the type and quality of contributions acceptable to be counted as qualified contributions for purposes of the private business contribution requirement; and WHEREAS, on October 26, 2016, the City issued its $6,143,000 General Obligation Qualified Zone Academy Bond, Series 2016, as a QZAB to finance qualified purposes in certain schools in the Portsmouth QZA; and WHEREAS, by a resolution adopted on October 12, 2017 (the "2017 School Board Resolution"), the School Board determined that the QZAB program continues to present a unique opportunity to secure low-cost financing for certain public schools in Portsmouth and that it is advisable (i) to request the Council of the City of Portsmouth, Virginia (the "Council") to incur debt and to issue general obligation QZABs in an amount not in excess of $4,117,195, and (ii) to take such actions as may be necessary or desirable to or for the issuance of valid QZABs under Sections 54A and 54E of the Tax Code and Virginia law; and WHEREAS, in the 2017 School Board Resolution the School Board also (i) continued the designation of the Portsmouth QZA as a qualified zone academy and (ii) specified the type and quality of contributions acceptable to be counted as qualified contributions for purposes of the private business contribution requirement; NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED by the City Council of the City of Portsmouth, Virginia: