Fayetteville facilities board to ask city council to add "educational facilities" so it can finance Haas Hall Academy project

The Fayetteville Public Facilities Board met for an informational session to discuss an amending ordinance that would add "educational facilities" to the types of projects the board may finance, a change necessary for the board to consider bond financing for a proposed Haas Hall Academy facility in Fayetteville. The board did not vote; members were briefed on next steps and procedural requirements.

Jim, who led the presentation, told the board that the Facilities Board cannot itself change the ordinance and must ask the Fayetteville City Council to consider the amendment before the board may act. "The amending ordinance has a 30 day referendum period after it's published. So we have to wait at least 30 days before we could do anything to close the bond issue," he said. He said the board could pass a bond resolution subject to the referendum period but noted the timing is typically coordinated with council action.

Why it matters: adding "educational facilities" to the board's authorizing language would permit the Facilities Board to participate in financing certain school-related capital projects under the Public Facilities Board Act. Jim said the board had previously been authorized for other categories (residential housing, health care, emergency health care) and that adding educational facilities follows established practice used by other public facilities boards in the state.

On structure and sponsorship, Jim said the borrower in the proposed transaction is expected to be an academy foundation, a 501(c)(3), with Haas Hall as the lessee, a common structure for charter-school financings. He said Regions Bank is expected to purchase the bonds in a private bank transaction and perform permitting and zoning due diligence before closing. "Regions and their due diligence process is gonna make sure that all permitting and zoning is in place before they do it," Jim said.

Kit, the city attorney, told the board he will draft the ordinance language and intends to preserve the city's existing oversight protections, including council approval of bond resolutions. "I'm gonna maintain the protections, which I will suggest to the council," Kit said, and noted that the mayor and council members are the "gatekeepers" who must sponsor or support the ordinance to get it onto the council agenda.

The board discussed proposed fees for administering bond issues. The chairman has suggested charging one-eighth of a point of principal upfront and one-eighth of a point annually; Jim said that is "not uncommon" and estimated it would be roughly $6,000 on the project size being discussed. Members debated whether a higher fee would be appropriate and agreed to address fee levels at a future meeting.

Board members also raised administrative issues the city must address before future formal actions, including filling an apparent vacancy (Leslie Ferguson had not been reachable), ensuring all board members file statutory oaths of office, and correcting staggered five-year terms where clerk records show overlap. Jim noted Fayetteville is approaching a 100,000 population threshold that could change appointment procedures based on the decennial census.

What happens next: the Facilities Board will seek a council sponsor for the amending ordinance; Kit will prepare a final draft for the agenda process once a sponsor indicates support. If the council places the ordinance on its agenda and adopts it, the ordinance will be published and a 30-day referendum period will follow before the Facilities Board can consider financing and a bond resolution. The board agreed to reconvene around the council's consideration and to have Haas Hall representatives make a full presentation after council action.

No formal motions or votes were taken at the meeting. The meeting closed after members set next steps for drafting, sponsorship outreach, and scheduling.