Orange County NC Website
Browse       Search
79 <br />Sanford Holshouser LLP <br />bond issue do not legally hind the County to a particular future plan of action in <br />the issuance of the bonds or construction of specified facilities. <br />2. Give informal notice to the County Board of Elections. Because <br />the Board of Elections will need to coordinate its own procedures for the bond <br />referendum, it would help the Board of Elections to receive a phone call to inform <br />the Board of the County's plans, even if the plans are still subject to change. In <br />addition, State law generally requires that absentee ballots be available at least 50 <br />days prior to the election date (in this case, by March 14), and we want to be sure <br />that our schedule is generally acceptable to the Board of Elections. <br />3. Meet with LGC staff. The County should arrange a meeting with <br />LGC staff about the proposed referendum. Although LGC staff would be happy to <br />meet with County staff at any time, it would probably be most efficient to schedule <br />this meeting close to the completion of the process described in Step 1. <br />4. Obtain School Board Resolutions. If any of the bonds will be <br />proposed for school purposes, the statutes contemplate that the affected school <br />boards should provide a formal referendum request to the Commissioners. This <br />request usually proposes a maximum amount of bonds to be considered at the <br />referendum. This schedule assumes that each school board could provide this <br />resolution to the Commissioners by mid - December of 2015. <br />5. Adopt "Findings" Resolution. As part of the application <br />process, the LGC wants to see a statement describing why the proposed projects <br />and bonds are necessary and desirable. This resolution will also state an estimated <br />tax rate impact of the borrowing. This resolution could be adopted at a mid - <br />December or early January County Board meeting. <br />6. Publish Notice of Intent To File Application. The County must <br />publish a notice of its intent to file an application for the LGC's approval of the <br />proposed bonds. The notice must be published at least 10 days before filing the <br />application. The notice needs to be published as soon as possible after the Board <br />adopts the findings resolution described in Step 5. <br />The own words resolution and the Notice of Intent establish the maximum <br />amount of bonds that can he proposed at the referendum for each of the specified <br />purposes. From this point, we can decrease the amount of bonds or eliminate <br />purposes, but we can increase an amount or add a purpose only by re- starting the <br />authorization process. <br />2 <br />