Pierce County Board, Special Session, Oct. 21, 2008

SPECIAL SESSION

October 21, 2008 – 7:00 p.m.

The Pierce County Board met in the Conference Room of the Pierce County Highway Dept. building, Ellsworth, WI. Chairman Paul Barkla called the meeting to order at 7:02 p.m. A quorum was established with roll call by County Clerk J. Feuerhelm showing 14 supervisors present and 3 absent (C. Simones, J. Camery, N. Shonoiki). Also attending were B. Lawrence, Corporation Counsel, Bob Moore from Institutional Capital Management, members of the public and numerous department supervisors. Motion to adopt agenda made by D. Rohl / R. Lockwood; motion carried by voice vote with all in favor. Pledge of Allegiance to the Flag led by supervisor M. Pittman.

Public Comment - none

Investments and Financial Strategies: Chairman P. Barkla introduced Mr. Bob Moore from Institutional Capital Management. Mr. Moore introduced his goals for the meeting:

* Basic economic concepts behind the global credit crisis.

* Potential for sharp economic slump.

* Discuss responses seen and heard in the media from the Federal Reserve and U.S. Treasury and their counterparts from around the world.

* Introduce concept of cash flow analysis.

* Philosophy behind efficient financial resource management.

* Comparison to how and what peers are doing.

* Discuss how it relates to Pierce County and local economy.

- Explained role of the Federal Reserve and history of a few events. Currently have a combined set of obligations to include a number of ‘bail-out’ packages in the amount of $3 trillion. The absolute size of the U.S. economy is $12 trillion, gross domestic product. Consolidation in banking will be forthcoming. The leverage of failed institutions and failed investments has been moved from the private sector to the public sector, meaning tax payers are now guaranteeing the debt for those failures and private corporations.

- As of today $560 billion was committed by the Federal Reserve and U.S. Treasury to bail out the commercial paper market; to buy paper from money market funds.

- Fanny Mae and Freddie Mack agencies of the U.S. government created to help add liquidity to the banking system to continue to make home ownership a reality for many. Discovered was that a business model where the government guarantees the debt for a private corporation is doomed to failure and did fail with approximately a trillion dollar bail-out. Fanny Mae and Freddie Mack are no longer government agencies but sovereigns, this means they are owned by the U.S. government and enjoy the same balance sheet protection as U.S. Treasuries do, which means that taxpayers stand behind that debt.

- Banks currently are not doing much lending to people or even to one another. Important note about consolidation in the banking industry is that it will remove competition. It also means that it will be much more difficult for small business owners, including farmers, to get loans.

- Mr. Moore also went into detail on how the current economic climate may affect Pierce County. He indicated the County is currently in good form.

Future Agenda Items - none

Meeting adjourned at 8:40 p.m. by motion of R. Lockwood / D. Rohl. Motion carried by voice vote with all in favor. Submitted by: Jamie R. Feuerhelm, Pierce County Clerk Published December 10, 2008 50 1C

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