Services

Julie Needham performs all services personally, tailoring her approach to her clients' needs.

Irvington Municipal Building

Municipal Bonds and Notes

Ms. Needham helps municipalities in New Jersey borrow money by issuing bonds and notes. She works with the issuer and its bond counsel to develop a financing plan, bring the issue to market and settle the transaction. Her longstanding relationships within the New Jersey bond community include investors, bond counsels, rating agency analysts, verification agents, escrow agents and portfolio providers.

Service details

Depending on the client’s needs, services may include:

  • Managing the financing process
  • Preparing the timetable and distribution list
  • Preparing the structuring and sizing analysis
  • Preparing an analysis of required paydowns
  • Coordinating submissions to rating agency or bond insurer
  • Selecting the escrow agent, verification agent or other working group members
  • Reviewing legal documents, including the preliminary official statement, the official statement, the bond ordinance, and the form and sale resolution
  • Reviewing the notice of sale
  • Reviewing the continuing disclosure status and coordinating with the dissemination agent
  • Preparing and presenting a Local Finance Board application
  • Submitting CUSIP requests
  • Submitting Parity requests
  • Preparing good faith instructions
  • Analyzing competitive sale bid submissions
  • Resizing the bond issue after sale
  • Coordinating with the underwriter
  • Creating or reviewing final numbers
  • Preparing the closing memorandum
  • Coordinating the closing process
  • Attending meetings
Joint Meeting’s Effluent Pumping Station under construction

Financing Through the New Jersey Infrastructure Bank (I-Bank)

The I-Bank provides low interest rate loans to qualified borrowers. Ms. Needham is intimately familiar with the processes, challenges and resources needed to close on I-Bank loans and manage their ongoing requirements.

Service details

Depending on the client’s needs, services may include:

  • Managing the financing process
  • Developing all necessary quantitative analysis, including the ordinance sizing and the draft loan exhibit amounts
  • Developing the timetable and distribution list
  • Preparing required loan documents, including the Short-Term Financial Addendum Form, the Federal Funding Accountability and Transparency Act form, and the Russia-Belarus Certification
  • Reviewing the bond ordinance
  • Reviewing the authorizing resolution
  • Verifying that the I-Bank has put the transaction on the Project Priority List
  • Calculating the Municipal Qualified Bond Act coverage analysis
  • Preparing and presenting the Local Finance Board application
  • Securing credit approval from the I-Bank
  • Securing approval from the Division of Local Government Services
  • Reviewing draft documents from engineers, including LP6A calculations and CWSRF Benefits Reporting forms
  • Reviewing draft communications to the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), if applicable
  • Ensuring that FEMA’s Scope of Work approval has been received, if applicable
  • Monitoring I-Bank early maturity triggers
  • Reviewing reimbursement submissions
  • Monitoring construction progress to plan for transition from short-term financing to permanent financing