04-11-2012 Council Agenda - Laserfiche WebLink

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0 /Jo Daily e `Canai 515 Little Canada Road, Little Canada, MN 55117-1600 (651) 766 -4029 / PAX: (651) 766 -4048 www. ci.little- Canada. nui.US MEMORANDUM TO: Mayor Blesener and Members of the City Council FROM: Joel Hanson, City Administrator DATE: April 6, 2012 RE: Financial Advisory Services MAYOR 11111 nlosener COUNCIL Riel< Montour John Keis Michael McGraw Shelly Boss ADMINISTRATOR Joel R. 11anson As you know, we have used Ehlers & Associates for financial advisory services for the past number of years. Over that time, they have done a good job for us. When we initially selected Ehlers, Rusty Fifield was our account contact. He worked extensively on the Rice & Little Canada Road Redevelopment project in the early years. He was a good sounding board for exploring options from a Tax Increment Financing standpoint. Rusty left Ehlers and went to work for a planning consulting firm. We then utilized Mark Ruff for the Rice Street project. Mark is an excellent TIF resource. Overtime, Todd Ilagen was assigned to our account as Mark was spread very thin due to his expertise. Mr. Fifield has been back in the financial advisory business for the past few years. He now works for Northland Securities, the successor firm to Juran & Moody (they were the City's financial advisors when I started here). I believe it would he in the City's best interests to utilize Fifield once again for the NE Residential Redevelopment project. If he performs as I expect, I would then be prepared to recommend we make a complete change from Ehlers to Northland Securities for financial advisory services. From a cost standpoint, I would say there is not a great advantage either way. This recommendation is purely from the standpoint of bringing more expertise to the analysis of this project. If the Council concurs, a motion approving the use of Northland Securities and Rusty Fifield for the NE Residential Redevelopment project is needed.