- April 26, 2024
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Palm Coast’s asset interest earnings will fall due to the COVID-19 crisis, the city’s asset management firm told City Council members during an April 14 workshop.
“We would just encourage you to please stay home until otherwise noted, so we can all get through this together.”
—MILISSA HOLLAND, Palm Coast mayor
“You will consider to earn a respectable income for the time being, but as time passes I do expect that interest earnings number to fall, ever so slightly,” said Scott Stitcher, of PFM Asset Management.
The city currently has $47 million in operating money and a yield-at-cost of 2.41%, he said.
Mayor Milissa Holland asked about shifting to a strategy that would bring a higher yield.
“The discussion we had was more about a shift to more safety and liquidity,” Stitcher said, “and unfortunately what comes with that is not higher yield. ... Right now, it’s hard to go anywhere in the market to find high yield.”
With the economy shifting in response the virus, jobless claims “seem to be the only thing that is really accurate and telling at this point,” he said.
The U.S. was in a 50-year unemployment low in 2019, and is now seeing an unprecedented high, he said. Initial claims during the great recession peaked at 665,000, and before that, the high was 695,000.
“So, we’ve blown through those historical peaks,” he said. “These 10 million new jobless claims imply an unemployment rate of 10% at the end of March.”
It had taken six to eight months to get to that number during the last recession.
Still, he said, economists find a recession more likely than a depression.
“Some expect a very sharp contraction followed by a quick rebound,” he said. “All that is obviously up for debate, whether this is a V shape, U shape, a prolonged downturn ... and it’s all dependent on ... whether a vaccine is found.”
This is the first time we’ve had a recession caused by the service sector, he said.
“Once the economy does open back up and people go back to work, I believe the recovery happens quickly,” he said.
Palm Coast approved its first longterm contract with the Flagler Humane Society since 2018 during a City Council meeting April 14. The city has been on a month-to-month contract with the shelter in the interim.
The new contract runs through September 2022.
It requires the Flagler Humane Society to “defer to and assist the city” in dangerous dog investigations, whereas the language of the previous contract had required the Flagler Humane Society to “cooperate in any investigation.”
On the subject of feral cats, it deletes previous language which stated, “Catch and kill is no longer status quo,” and replaces it with language stating that the city “will attempt to educate feral cat caretakers and complainants about trap/neuter/return as a means at diminishing feral cat problems. ... City officers will ask residents (complainants) to allow TNR ... thereafter the City may pick up for regular surrender to Society.”
It also states that when animals are taken to the Flagler Humane Society because their owners are incarcerated or hospitalized, the city will be responsible for costs only for the first 15 days at $15 per day plus an $85 intake cost, after which the Flagler Humane Society will be responsible for the remainder of the 25 days.
