Kingfisher County commissioners last Monday learned more information about a new investment practice that will take affect later this year.

David Floyd of Floyd & Driver PLLC spoke to commissioners last Tuesday about House Bill 2538, which was passed last legislative session.

“It authorizes counties to invest any excess funds they have into local governmental investment pools,” Floyd said.

Floyd’s firm consists primarily of public finance attorneys that work with counties, municipalities and school districts.

Commission Chairman Heath Dobrovolny heard Floyd speak about HB 2538 at a recent meeting of the Association of County Commissioners of Oklahoma (ACCO) and asked him to appear at the regular weekly meeting to educate his fellow commissioners and other county officials.

Among those at the meeting were County Clerk Jeannie Boevers, County Assessor Carrie Turner and County Deputy Treasurer Kelly Majetic.

Floyd let those in attendance know that he’s an attorney and helped write the legislation, but is not a registered municipal adviser.

“I cannot give you all financial advice,” he said. “I can talk about what we did and how it’s set up to operate.

I’m here to tell you about how this works and not suggest whether you should participate or not.”

He said the legislation is set up only to governmental bodies like counties, cities and school districts.

“It’s not open to the public,” he said. “You can’t have a business putting money into this.”

In fact, school districts have already been allowed to participate in a similar investment practice since 1996 when Oklahoma Liquid Asset Pool (OLAP) was formed.

Floyd said the new legislation now brings in cities and counties, which is a practice already allowed by 45 other states.

Like OLAP, investment pools will be set up as interlocal agreements, which Floyd said they’re getting those “squared away” as they first have to be sent to the attorney general’s office for approval.

If the attorney general gives the blessing in time, they’ll be ready to go by the Nov. 1 effective date of the legislation “and we’re hoping to start taking on participation and working at that time.”

He said there’s no limit or minimum - to the amount of participants in a pool…or amount of money.

“There’s no minimum or maximum deposit a county can make, so if you want to test the waters, fantastic,” he added. “If you feel like scaling back then that’s fine, too.”

However, the legislation is more advantageous for larger pools.

“The benefit of it is derived from economies of scale, so the larger the pool or more participants you have, the greater your potential for growth and also the lesser your risk because it’s being dispersed among more participants,” Floyd said.

The investments are not high-risk, he added.

“It is designed to be a very stable and safe investment so the only things that are invested in here are United States Treasuries, certificates of deposit, T-bills, things like that,” he said.

Each pool will hire an investment manager, will be governed by a board of trustees comprised of elected financial officials from those governments and the funds are accessible at any time, Floyd said.

In action items Tuesday, the board approved a resolution to dispose of a 1984 Chevrolet brush pumper truck currently owned by the Omega Fire Department.

The truck was originally donated to the department and hasn’t been put to use for multiple years. The Omega Fire Department is donating it to the Cedar Lake Fire Department in Hinton.

Also approved were the following road rights of way: • Two 12-inch water lines for Devon Energy four miles south of Omega in District 3;

• One 12-inch water line for Marathon Oil Company three miles and three south of Omega in District 3;

• One six-inch line seven miles east of Kingfisher;

• Four lines of varying size for K&J Construction in District 2. One was one south and five east of Dover; one was eight west of Dover; one was five east of Dover; and one was two south and four east of Hennessey;

• Two 12-inch lines for HTR-Louisiana LLC in District 3. Both are eight west of Okarche.