Reduce prices to attract more buyers: Raghuram Rajan tells realtors

MUMBAI: Having cut the interest rates, RBI Governor Raghuram Rajan today put the onus on real estate developers, asking them to reduce prices to encourage more people to buy properties.

Rajan's remarks also come against the backdrop of low demand for housing projects leaving developers with unsold inventories.

"I am hopeful that as interest rates come down, there will be more credit and buying. And I am also hopeful that prices adjust in a way that encourage people to buy," Rajan said while delivering the Y B Chavan Memorial Lecture here.

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has lowered rates by 1.5 per cent cumulatively since January last year and earlier this month the policy rate was cut by 0.25 per cent to 6.5 per cent -- its lowest level in more than five years.

More than half of the rate cuts have been passed on by the banks to consumers.

"My sense is that there is a little bit of everything that needs to happen" for the revival in the real estate sector, Rajan said.

"There is an issue of certainly how they see the housing market and how they see prices. There has to be an adjustment so that more people want to go and buy," he noted.

According to Rajan, apart from interest rates, measures such as including affordable housing loans under the priority sector lending requirements makes him confident to say that worries on the financing side are taken care of.

When it comes to finance to developers, Rajan pitched for more transparency on the borrower's side.

"We need action on real side (as) also on transparency on land acquisition, on transparency on construction and on sales," he emphasised.

Further, Rajan said more transparency in such matters would enable financiers to better track flow of funds, which project was being funded by who and who all were the other financiers.

Construction of every kind, including houses and roads, is a big source of growth especially for a developing economy like ours, he added.

Resource: http://economictimes.indiatimes.com

Realtors say no scope for further cut in housing prices

NEW DELHI: Realtors' apex body CREDAI today said there is no scope for further reduction in housing prices as this would lead to rise in NPAs and non-delivery of real estate projects.

RBI Governor Raghuram Rajan yesterday asked real estate developers to reduce prices to encourage more people to buy properties.

"About 90 per cent of the real estate stock in the country has already seen a correction of about 20-30 per cent. There is no scope for further rate cut. Any further cut will lead to NPAs and non-delivery of projects," CREDAI (National) President Getamber Anand told PTI.

"His (RBI Governor) statement should not be taken out of context as he has recommended an adjustment and not necessarily a price cut. The adjustment could be through other ways like easy payment scheme to attract home buyers," he said.

The real estate sector is facing slowdown in demand leading to mounting unsold stocks and huge delays in project completions.

"I am hopeful that as interest rates come down, there will be more credit and buying. And I am also hopeful that prices adjust in a way that encourage people to buy," Rajan had said while delivering the Y B Chavan Memorial Lecture here.

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has lowered rates by 1.5 per cent cumulatively since January last year and earlier this month the policy rate was cut by 0.25 per cent to 6.5 per cent -- its lowest level in more than five years.

More than half of the rate cuts have been passed on by the banks to consumers.

"My sense is that there is a little bit of everything that needs to happen" for the revival in the real estate sector, Rajan said.

"There is an issue of certainly how they see the housing market and how they see prices. There has to be an adjustment so that more people want to go and buy," he had said.

Resource: http://economictimes.indiatimes.com

Group tolls bell for ailing courthouse in Salem

For more than a century, the Washington County Courthouse has presided over the city's downtown square in Salem.

But preservationists worry that a stiff wind could topple the structure's distinctive and badly deteriorated clock tower. The condition of the tower and structure that supports it led Indiana Landmarks, a statewide organization, to place the Romanesque Revival style building on its 10 Most Endangered, an annual list of significant Hoosier places badly in need of repair.

In a statement released Thursday, Landmarks president Marsh Davis said that the courthouse and other buildings on the list "face a combination of problems rather than a single threat. A bid for demolition is a loud signal, of course, but many of these sites suffer abandonment, neglect, dilapidation, obsolete use, unreasonable above-market sale price, sympathetic owners who simply lack money for repairs, an out-of-the-way location—or its opposite,  encroaching sprawl that makes the land more valuable without the landmark.”

This year's list includes another southern Indiana site, the Speakman House, a vacant 1840s-era home overlooking the Ohio River in Rising Sun. A Monon railroad bridge near Delphi, a Ford factory used for storage by the Indianapolis Public Schools, and a church near Carthage also are on the list.

“These landmarks preserve connections to community heritage. Time and again, we find that restoring one important place spurs broader revitalization in a community,” Davis adds. The point of the list is to raise awareness and urge solutions for preservation.

The organization said that its annual 10 Most Endangered, first published in 1991, has spurred action. Of 112 historic places on the list, 13 were lost to demolition.

Lightening struck the tower in 1934, sparking a fire. Landmarks said that poorly conceived repairs then trapped water in the limestone and caused deterioration, rendering the tower unstable. The structure may be in danger of collapse. "Chronic roof and masonry leaks also require urgent attention," Landmarks officials said.

The county has few resources for a major repair, but local leaders have agreed for years that the building is a treasure, if a bit tarnished. "It is the cherished centerpeice of the county," said Jeremy Elliott, the county's historian. "Next to the Salem Speedway, it's what we're known for. It's our beautiful limestone castle."

Perhaps now that it's made the Landmarks list, the courthouse will become the focus of a fundraising campaign, Elliott said, adding that leaving county leaders to oversee the effort hasn't worked. "The whole thing should never have been placed in the care of politicians."

Resource: http://www.courier-journal.com

Lawmakers want state to sell 15 acres of property for expansion of Ft. Logan National Cemetery

DENVER - Denver’s scenic Fort Logan National Cemetery, situated on 214 acres near South Sheridan Boulevard and West Kenyon Avenue, is nearing its capacity.

"We expect to run out of spots for initial burials around 2025 to 2027," said cemetery director Joe Tumbach, adding that estimate could fluctuate if more families opt for cremation versus a casket, as cremated remains don't take up as much space.

The cemetery had its humble beginnings as a burial ground associated with a military post in the late 1880s and was designated a national cemetery on March 10, 1950. More than 4,000 people are buried there every year.

"We have 95,000 gravesites," said Turnbach. "More than 115,000 people have been buried here."

Turnbach said national cemetery officials have been proactive in trying to plan for expansion for several years.

“We’ve had discussions with the state about purchasing some (nearby) land,” he said. “The discussions have been cordial, but slow-going.”

Now there is action.

On Monday, the House State, Veterans and Military Affairs Committee will hear a proposal that would allow the Department of Human Services to execute a land sale, at fair market value, for up to 15 acres of vacant land around the Colorado Mental Health Institute at Fort Logan to the United States Department of Veterans Affairs, for the purpose of expanding Fort Logan National Cemetery.

“We want to make sure they can take care of veterans who want Fort Logan to be their final resting place,” said the bill’s sponsor, Rep. Susan Lontine, D-Denver. Lontine added the land must be appraised.

She said under the bill, as currently written, proceeds from the sale would go to Veterans Community Living Services for transitional living and nursing home facilities at the new VA Medical Center under construction in Aurora.

“We have a significant issue with homeless veterans and this money will be used to help with the development of the project out at Fitzsimons (on the Anchutz Medical Campus in Aurora.)

“That’s great news,” Turnbach said. “Each acre that we purchase, will expand our life expectancy for initial interments for about a year.

The cemetery director said they average about 16 or 17 burials a day.

“Here’s an interment service pulling up to the shelter right now,” he said, as a long line of cars with headlights on drove up toward one of the three shelters in the cemetery.

“Interments start at 9 a.m. and go through about 3 p.m.,” he said. “It’s just wonderful to be able to pay back the veterans for their service to our country.”

Lontine said HB 16-1456 will be heard Monday at the state capitol. Even before its initial hearing, the bill has bipartisan support.

The Senate co-sponsor is Sen. Larry Crowder, R-Alamosa.

resource: http://www.thedenverchannel.com/

Schostak’s Michigan property adds more tenants

Diverse and high profile is how Schostak Brothers & Company describes the tenant mix at their southeastern Michigan shopping center and several recent additions ensure the venue lives up to that billing.

Trader Joe’s, DentalWorks, One Society and Brain Balance Achievement Centers have joined the Northville Park Place shopping center located on the southwest corner of 7 Mile and Haggerty Road in the Detroit suburb of Northville.

Trader Joe’s is relocating from an existing location at 8 Mile and Haggerty Road. Construction is set to begin in May 2016 with opening planned for first quarter 2017. Dental Works and the upscale One Society salon are opening this year along with the Brain Balance Achievement Center. The Center also has locations in Birmingham and Oxford, Mich., that are focused on providing treatment options for families of children dealing with ADHD, Dyslexia, Asperger’s and other struggles with behavior, socialization skills and academics.

“Our focus is on continuing to attract a diverse and high profile mix of tenants to Northville Park Place, further solidifying this one-of-a-kind development’s reputation as the preeminent regional shopping destination in southeast Michigan,” said Schostak Brothers & Company executive VP and COO Warren Strietzel. “The Haggerty corridor offers optimal visibility and access for our tenants to thrive.”

Other Northville Park Place tenants include MOD Pizza, Tom + Chee, Chipotle, Red Olive, SVS Vision Optical Centers, Jimmy John’s, Sherwin Williams, Gazelle Sports, Orangetheory Fitness, BurgerFi, Rusty Bucket, Sports Clips and Granite City Food & Brewery.

The development opened in the summer of 2015 and consists of approximately 500,000 sq. ft. of property dispersed over 80 acres.

Resource: http://www.chainstoreage.com/

Property managers link landlords with tenants who want to grow pot

Dave Brown had no idea that the tenant who rented his renovated farmhouse would sublet it to someone who turned it into a marijuana grow house, causing thousands of dollars in damage.

There were chunks of plaster missing from the ceiling where lights had been hung, soil clogging drains beneath the house and duct work that needed repair, Brown said.

And behind a washer-dryer unit, a 220-volt outlet had been removed, exposing live wires.

Brown discovered it when he pulled the unit away from the wall. “If I would have grabbed that, I would have been dead. It scared me to death.”

Renting to those who are growing marijuana — legally or not — can be a tricky business for landlords and holds dangers for tenants as well, said Rich Green, manager of Housing Guru.

The company connects people who want to grow weed legally with landlords willing to allow them to do so.

Housing Guru acts as property manager, checking on the property, making repairs and taking care of any issues that arise.

Green said Housing Guru is managing properties all along the Front Range. Tenants range in age from 24 into their 60s, Green said. They include accountants, scientists, even a police officer.

During the four years the company has been in existence, Green has heard numerous stories like Brown’s.

Grow rooms require a lot of ventilation to prevent mold. To ready a home for the grow can require cutting holes in walls, installing air conditioning units, fans and duct work, all of which can lead to eviction if done without the landlord’s knowledge.

Housing Guru vets prospective tenants, assuring they have a verifiable stream of income, references that check out, and good rental and property histories. The company also runs court checks to search for legal judgments against them, Green said.

Demand for rentals where pot can be grown is soaring in Colorado, where marijuana — both medical and recreational — is sold legally, and the law allows residents to grow their own plants.

Patients on the state’s medical marijuana registry are typically authorized to grow six marijuana plants — with no more than three of those ready for harvest at any given time. But doctors can recommend that patients grow more plants.

Legislation passed last year restricts medical marijuana caregivers, who grow pot on behalf of patients, to 99 plants, said Mark Salley, Colorado Department of Health and Environment spokesman.

While Denver and some other cities allow residents no more than 12 marijuana plants, other jurisdictions have varying limits on the number of plants allowed in homes.

Varying limits can create confusion. “Under the law, you have home grows that look like businesses, with no license, no testing,” said Marijuana Industry Group executive director Michael Elliott. “While there are definitely legitimate ways of growing in your home, it is important to remember it is illegal to sell it to anybody.”

Green has heard complaints from tenants about landlords who kept their deposits, saying the grows violated terms of their leases, or who changed locks to keep them out of the homes. Some have demanded a cut of any profit on the plants, despite the fact that the law doesn’t allow sales of marijuana grown for private use in a home.

Some landlords are hesitant to rent to even the most upstanding tenant who wants to grow cannabis “because they have heard the horror stories,” Green said.

Dan Fortune, a landlord who rents out more than 20 properties in the state, said tenants in all of them grow their own weed.

He was leery of renting to growers before getting involved with Housing Guru.

He did some research, learning that tenants are willing to pay higher than market-rate rents to have a home where they can grow with the landlord’s knowledge.

He started with one property, and then began replacing tenants who moved out with others who wanted to grow, he said.

Fortune said the tenants who grow in his properties are among the best he has had.

Because they are engaged in an activity that many people frown upon, they are quiet.

“There is little turnover, and when someone leaves, Housing Guru tends to replace them before there is a vacancy,” he said. “The risk profile is very low.”

Resource: http://www.thecannabist.co

More rent than pay a mortgage: the Tory dream for London has crashed and burned

Politics often lags behind reality. But when the two get too badly out of sync, what’s produced is disaster. For proof, look at the catastrophe that is housing in London. We are in the final strait of the capital’s mayoral race. An odd, ugly and racist contest, it is also a remarkable one – perhaps the first housing election ever held in postwar Britain. Housing is the thing that Zac Goldsmith, Sadiq Khan and the rest of the candidates bang on about the most – rightly so, as it’s the biggest topic for voters. Yet the terms used by politicians are as inadequate as the policies they devise.

Take one of the lines most commonly trotted out: that this is a crisis for London’s young, who can’t afford to get on the property ladder. One of Britain’s most respected thinktanks, the Resolution Foundation, has been digging through the government’s own figures and given me exclusive access to its analysis for the capital. Perhaps its single biggest finding is this: the proportion of Londoners who own a home with a mortgage has been sliding since the early 90s – and has now dipped below the number who rent privately. In John Major’s time, less than 20% of all Londoners rented privately, now that is in the mid-30s, and marching up to 40%.

In other words, the idea that Generation Rent is the one with the problem is for the birds: London is becoming a city of renters. Nor is that trend likely to reverse. The consultancy PricewaterhouseCoopers predicts that, in less than 10 years, 60% of the capital will be renting from a private landlord or a housing association.

Let that point sink in, because only then do you grasp how much it changes politics in London. Britain’s political economy remains shaped by Margaret Thatcher’s desire to create a property-owning democracy: one in which Britons held shares in the privatised utilities and building societies and owned their own homes. What these figures show you is how badly the Tory dream has crashed and burned. Not only do fewer Britons now own shares than they did in Thatcher’s time, but also in the capital owner-occupiers (both with mortgages and without) will soon be an outright minority. For the Iron Lady and her generals, the whole point of spreading asset ownership was to bind the middle classes by self-interest to the upper classes. Do that, and Britain would turn a permanent shade of blue. The project has clearly failed.

What’s happened instead, the Resolution Foundation’s analysts find, is that London’s households are spending more than they ever have to keep a roof over their heads. One of the truisms of personal finance is that the absolute maximum you want to spend on housing is a third of your wage. Much more than that and the danger signs start flashing. And in the mid-90s, only about 17% of Londoners were spending more than a third on housing; now that’s rocketed up to 31%. It almost goes without saying that low-to-middle income households – think of a family with kids making £40,000 a year – are stretching themselves way more than that.

If interest rates and property prices go up, these trends will only get worse. As it is, they make a nonsense of those other political cliches of the great property disaster. Sure, many Londoners are mired in a housing crisis: renting eyesores, spending so much of their pay on basics as to make saving a hopeless dream. But a few others are having a very profitable crisis. They’ve used record-low interest rates both to pay their own mortgages and to buy more properties to let out. The estate agency Cluttons predicts that rents in London will go up 16% over the next four years, underpinned, it says, by “an ever-expanding Generation Rent class”. As ever, the money men are way ahead of the politicians.

So you have a political class – both Tory and Labour – preaching home ownership, and a pundit class mainly focused on young people getting on the property ladder. Meanwhile, in the capital, the safest way now to buy a home is to own one already. And when it comes to renting, the national discussion is nearly zero. As the Resolution Foundation’s’s Lindsay Judge says, the rights of renters versus landlords are “policy-light and politician-free debates”. That won’t change much nationally. Not with a housing minister, Brandon Lewis, who is also a landlord. Not with a Conservative party that draws valuable funding from the property developers. Not with a parliament in which one in four MPs rents out property.

Khan may boast of his council-estate upbringing as a badge of London authenticity, but after over 30 years of right to buy, that actually makes him a comparative rarity. Much more representative is the Greens’ Siân Berry. A 41-year-old private tenant, she’s moved six times in 18 years. “The last time I moved, we had to put down eight weeks of rent and hundreds of pounds in various fees,” she told the Guardian this month. “It just gets worse and worse.”

What is emerging in this vastly unequal city is a new and stark kind of class politics between owners and renters. To own property in London is to hold a golden ticket: an asset that earns more in two days than the average worker pulls in within a week. To rent, on the other hand, is to pay more every year just to live in an unliveable city. Towards the bottom of the market is to live in more crowded conditions and to be moved on by a landlord at the drop of a hat. And it is to know that – short of a miracle – your stay in the city is only temporary and insecure.

Yet the renters are yet to have a real political vehicle. At a housing conference in east London last Saturday, I was struck by how many attendees only grudgingly supported Labour. Khan and Goldsmith were both in the pockets of the property developers, ran the claim. Jeremy Corbyn needed to have a word with those Labour councils busy demolishing social housing. The disconnect between Westminster and local politics is as real in the capital as anywhere else in Britain. But at a time when David Cameron and co are assumed to be the only game in town, what’s most remarkable about the Tories is how they’ve failed to create anything like popular capitalism. Instead, what they’re defending is unpopular capitalism.

Resource: http://www.theguardian.com

Augusta council to consider property maintenance ordinance, review budget

AUGUSTA — Proposals to add staff members to help maintain and run Lithgow Public Library, which is undergoing a major expansion, and add a part-time code enforcement position to help oversee the city’s aging housing stock, are up for discussion Thursday as city councilors review the proposed city budget.

Councilors also are scheduled to take a final vote on whether to approve a controversial proposed property maintenance ordinance that would require residents to keep their properties up to standards set by the city.

The $58.1 million budget proposed to councilors early this month by City Manager William Bridgeo would increase property taxes by 4.24 percent as proposed.

Bridgeo said one of the primary drivers of the spending increase in the city’s $26.4 million share of the combined city and school budget is about $650,000 in increased wages and benefits for city employees.

While some of that increase in spending on wages is the result of contractual obligations for existing city employees, a significant portion is caused by the addition of a full-time custodian’s position, two part-time staff positions at the library, and a part-time code enforcement officer position.

Bridgeo said the additional library positions are needed to staff the expanded library, which will be well more than double its previous size when an ongoing renovation and expansion project is completed there late this summer or early fall. He said officials anticipated additional positions would be needed for the larger library before funding for its construction was approved by voters in 2014. Two new part-time library support positions, one of which would work in youth services, would be funded in the budget.

“If you double the size of the library, you’re going to need more custodial support and more library staff to monitor the building and see to the needs of the public,” Bridgeo said Tuesday.

Bridgeo said the proposed part-time code enforcement officer position is needed because the city’s two code officers are already overextended and the proposed property maintenance ordinance probably would place more demands on them. He said the city had three full-time code officers until cutting back to two in 2008 for budgetary reasons. He also said the city’s aging rental housing requires more staff time to help make sure it is safe.

The proposed city budget is on the city’s website. Councilors are scheduled to review different portions of the budget at each of their meetings over the next several weeks.

Councilors have said the proposed property maintenance ordinance was drafted because residents came to city officials with concerns about poorly maintained buildings. Those include buildings in foreclosure, some of which are an eyesore and could reduce neighboring property values.

However, some councilors and residents have said they think the ordinance goes too far and is an infringement on private property rights.

Councilors held the first of two readings on the proposed property maintenance ordinance April 7 and are scheduled to take what would be a final vote to approve it Thursday.

Councilors also are scheduled to hold public hearings and consider approving a tax increment financing agreement and a zone change to help J.S. McCarthy expand by adding equipment and 14,400 feet to its existing building in the Augusta Business Park.

Resource: http://www.centralmaine.com

Augusta councilors adopt Property Maintenance Ordinance

AUGUSTA — City councilors approved a Property Maintenance Ordinance on Thursday that will require land and building owners to prevent their properties from falling into disrepair.

The new ordinance includes a ban on having any windows boarded up on buildings anywhere in the city, a controversial ban some councilors said could make it harder for people to keep unoccupied buildings secure.

Some councilors said exposed glass windows in an unoccupied building could be an easy target for vandals to break with rocks and feared building owners might tire of the chore and cost of replacing them.

Ward 3 Councilor Patrick Paradis said he was concerned that banning boarding up windows could make unoccupied buildings less secure because people will be able to gain access by breaking glass windows.

“I’m for the legislation,” Paradis said in support of the Property Maintenance Ordinance, but expressing concern about the ban on boarded up windows. “I don’t like the plywood at all. It has been on for years in some of the buildings. But I also see buildings in an uninhabited state — ones with broken windows. My thing is about protecting the building, the inside of abandoned buildings. Are we putting the neighborhood in harm if they can get in the windows?”

However proponents of the ban said boarding up windows shouldn’t be a permanent solution and buildings with boarded-up windows are an eyesore that can detract from the appearance of the neighboring properties around it.

“We don’t want boarded up windows in general,” said Ward 1 Councilor Linda Conti, noting that in inhabited buildings, boarding up windows prevents light and air from entering into the building. “If it is an uninhabited residence (with boarded up windows), it just becomes an attractive nuisance or an eyesore. Boarded up windows are not supposed to be a permanent solution. If you can’t afford to maintain (your buildings), sell them to somebody who can.”

Councilors voted 7-1 to approve the ordinance.

“I think our community and taxpayers will be very excited when they see people start to clean up unnecessary junk around their home, and make the city of Augusta proud again,” said Ward 4 Councilor Anna Blodgett, a leader of the committee which drafted the new ordinance.

At-Large Councilor Jeffrey Bilodeau, the lone dissenting vote, did not comment Thursday on why he voted against it. However, Bilodeau previously has expressed concern that the ordinance could punish people who can’t afford to maintain their homes in accordance with its standards.

The ordinance forbids property owners to keep any motor vehicles that haven’t been registered and inspected for one year within 150 feet of a public right of way unless they are in a garage or buffered from public view; from having pipes, fans or ducts that discharge grease, steam, vapor or gaseous wastes directly upon abutting or adjacent public or private property; and from storing refrigerators that are not in operation on their properties.

The ordinance requires owners to prevent their properties from becoming infested with rodents.

It also requires property owners within the state Department of Transportation-defined urban compact area — generally the urban part of the city — to maintain their properties free from weeds or plant growth in excess of 10 inches. It makes exceptions for hayfields and pastures that are being managed actively, and for coastal or floodplain wetlands.

Mayor David Rollins said the ordinance originally was aimed at banks foreclosing on properties and not maintaining them and absentee landowners who do nothing to maintain their properties here. He said it is meant to give city code officers the tools they need to go after the worst offenders and the city’s most derelict, poorly maintained buildings.

“The spirit of this is not to set up a police state where we’ll be nitpicking and using a ruler to measure your grass,” Rollins said.

Eric Conrad, director of communication and educational services for Maine Municipal Association, said earlier Thursday that about a dozen Maine communities, mostly in the southern or coastal parts of the state, have similar property maintenance ordinances. He said how stringent they are varies.

“These kinds of ordinances can be controversial, because some people think about property rights first: ‘Why is the town or city doing this? It’s my property,'” Conrad said. “Property owners who have great neighbors may not think about what can happen if you get a new next-door neighbor who piles things on the front lawn, doesn’t cut the grass and doesn’t maintain the home. But the neighboring, good homeowner might not like it if that happens, and the complaints will go to the city or town. Also, nearby property values can be affected. If you have a beautiful home in a nice area and suddenly a neighbor comes in and treats his property shabbily, that can affect your property value as well as his.”

Resource: http://www.centralmaine.com

Drive-thru, MakerSpace among ideas for Monticello branch library in Shawnee

After more than a decade of waiting, residents in western Shawnee are full of ideas for the long-delayed Monticello Library branch.

Several dozen people attended a public input session last week at the Shawnee Library to voice their suggestions for the $14.4 million branch library being planned on a vacant 2.75 acres at 22435 W. 66th St. in Shawnee and currently scheduled to open in mid-2018.

First proposed in 2005, the Monticello library is finally moving forward thanks to last summer’s property tax increase to expand and maintain the Johnson County Library system. The county bought the property in 2010.

Rick Wise, senior principal for architecture firm The Clark Enersen Partners, said the branch “has been a long time coming” and asked residents for ideas on how the library’s building design, collections and technology could best serve them.

At 30,000 square feet, the branch will be the second-largest library in Johnson County.

“It’s not a building for us,” Wise said. “It’s a building for the residents of western Shawnee.”

For the building itself and surrounding grounds, residents asked for bike racks and connections to nearby walking and biking trails, a community garden, lots of natural light, a drive-thru window for picking up reserved library items and perhaps an elevated walkway to help pedestrians needing to cross nearby Shawnee Mission Parkway.

In response to questions about future expansion of the building, Matt Glawatz, another architect with Clark Enersen, said that the library’s current site is too narrow to accommodate additional construction and that it’s often too expensive to install infrastructure for adding future additional floors. That said, Glawatz said planners are looking at keeping the interior flexible to accommodate changing collections, power systems and community uses for the library.

“We are not only thinking about what the needs are today, we’re thinking about what the needs are into the foreseeable future,” Glawatz said.

For inside the library, speakers requested study cubicles, areas to listen to live and recorded music, amphitheater-like seating for children story times, rooms designed for cooking demonstrations and child care activities, art displays, educational exhibits, building-wide WiFi, sound buffering for the areas dedicated to children and teens and easier ways to reserve rooms and materials.

Tim Johnston echoed several audience members in wanting the eventual building to have a wide range of spaces for community groups that often have difficulty finding meeting rooms in the neighborhood.

“Our neighborhood association has to meet on the top floor of the bank up the street, and it’s only open during business hours,” Johnston said.

He added that the current seventh grade class is the largest in the De Soto School District, and those students will need somewhere to study when they enter high school.

“A lot of high schoolers, if they have to meet after school for projects, they meet in the coffee shop and things like that,” he said. “There’s a lack of space available in the area.”

Jeremy Brown suggested including a MakerSpace, similar to the one at the Central Resource Library in Overland Park, that would appeal to inventors, budding engineers and other do-it-yourselfers who want to use 3D printers, electronics, hardware supplies and other tools.

“My son’s very interested in engineering, technology, robotics and so to be able to have a place for him to go that’s close,” Brown said.

Residents also said the Monticello branch should have a larger-than-normal collection of materials given that the next closest library is Lackman Library, at 15345 W. 87th Street Parkway and a 15-minute drive away.

Wise said the county will schedule additional public input sessions in the coming months.

Resource: http://www.kansascity.com

HASTERT faces judge, accusers, maybe polygraph – RAUNER speaks of 'bipartisan momentum' -- NFL Draft in CHICAGO

ood Wednesday morning, Illinois. It is the day of reckoning for U.S. House Speaker Dennis Hastert, 74, who is to be sentenced in federal court for his role in violating banking laws. But as we well know by now, the case is about so much more. Prosecutors say Hastert abused at least five students when he served as wrestling coach at Yorkville High School and keeping that secret served as the underlying motivation in his federal court case.

Hastert’s lawyers have said he was near death and uses a wheel chair. They’re factoring health into their arguments calling for probation. U.S. District Judge Thomas M. Durkin will also weigh testimony from victims. Prosecutors have said that a victim identified as “Individual D” in court records may testify at the hearing as well as Jolene Burdge, the sister of the late Stephen Reinboldt. Burdge has said Hastert abused her brother in the 1970s.

Will Hastert apologize? He must if he wants Durkin to show mercy. So far, his apologies have come only through his lawyers. In a past court appearance Hastert has read from a prepared statement.

The hearing will no doubt describe dueling portraits of the man. Here's our story in Politico: http://politi.co/1qSmODs

-- If you're a journalist covering Hastert in court today, here are the media rules of procedure: http://1.usa.gov/1Wp34TH

HASTERT CASE OUTLINES -- “5 Things to Know About the Dennis Hastert Case,” by NBC Chicago’s Tom Schuba: “Former Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert pleaded guilty to financial crimes related to a hush money scandal that stems from sexual ‘improprieties’ committed decades ago. He will be sentenced Wednesday. The following is a brief run-down of the case.” http://bit.ly/24ixMk7

COULD SERVE UP TO FIVE YEARS -- “Details of sex abuse could mean prison time for Dennis Hastert," by The Associated Press' Michael Tarm: "When Dennis Hastert pleaded guilty last year to breaking banking laws, sentencing guidelines suggested that the former House speaker would probably serve no more than six months in prison ... But ... the judge made comments that suggested he might impose a longer sentence, potentially putting Hastert behind bars for several years, because of allegations that he molested at least four student athletes when he was a high school wrestling coach. Word that one of the accusers will speak at the sentencing hearing is sure to turn up the pressure on Judge Thomas M. Durkin to reject defense calls for probation and send the 74-year-old Republican to prison.” http://bit.ly/24io7dn

MAY FACE POLYGRAPH ON VICTIM QUESTIONS -- “Facing sentencing, Hastert could be ordered to undergo sex offender exam,” by Chicago Tribune’s Jason Meisner: “Regardless of whether Hastert, 74, spends a day behind bars, court officials are recommending the former Republican leader undergo a sex offender evaluation that typically includes a series of tests designed to expose any undisclosed wrongdoing and gauge whether he's a danger to society, recent court filings show. Federal prosecutors have said they also support the use of any ‘psychological and physiological’ testing deemed necessary by the probation department. Such tests can range from routine to invasive. One measure that's been suggested for Hastert by a probation official is a polygraph exam to determine whether he's lying about how many people he's victimized and whether any abuse has occurred recently, court records show.” http://trib.in/24ipicN

** A Message from Nuclear Matters: Providing 90 percent of Illinois’ carbon-free electricity, nuclear energy plants play a vital role in achieving our clean-energy and carbon-reduction goals. Illinois’ nuclear energy fleet supports approximately 28,000 direct and indirect jobs and contributes nearly $9 billion to the state's economy. Learn more at NuclearMatters.com. **

Welcome to the POLITICO Illinois Playbook. Have a tip, event, announcement, endorsement? Send to nkorecki@politico.com or @natashakorecki

SUBSCRIBE to Illinois Playbook: http://politi.co/1NTMQid

THE AYES AND THE NAYS HAVE IT. WAIT, WHAT? -- “Wild Harvey Council Meeting ends with officials debating if they passed levy,” by Chicago Tribune’s Joe Mahr and Matthew Walberg: “In one more twist to an already heated and highly unusual political battle, Harvey city officials can't even agree whether two aldermen were in the room during a crucial vote Monday night. At stake is the city's ability to collect property taxes and, the mayor says, avoid massive layoffs. The latest controversy occurs in a south suburb where Tribune investigations have shown the city has collectively lost millions of taxpayer dollars on insider deals, including at least one that has sparked an FBI investigation. Of six aldermen, four said they’ve refused to vote for the levy in the past in an attempt to force the mayor to stop being so controlling and secretive about how money is spent in the financially strapped town.” http://trib.in/1SqNDsR

WON’T YOU PLEASE COME TO CHICAGO -- “For The First Time, Over 50 Million People Visited Chicago In A Year,” by Chicagoist’s Emma G. Gallegos: “Chicago had a bangin' year for tourism: over 50 million domestic tourists visited in 2015. … Mayor Rahm Emanuel and Choose Chicago Board Chair Desiree Rogers announced that 50.97 million domestic tourists had visited Chicago, and that number is expected to hit 52 million once international tourists are factored in … The mayor's goal is to bring more than 55 million visitors each year by 2020 ... (That is, if the publicity surrounding the Laquan McDonald case, other ongoing police brutality problems and the ticked up murder rate don't turn off tourists.) ... over 39 million people are ‘leisure’ visitors and 20 million of those are overnight visitors. People who come for business make up over 11 million visitors, and nearly 8 million of those are overnight visitors.” http://bit.ly/24inEI7

CHICAGO HOSTS NFL DRAFT FOR SECOND YEAR -- From City Hall: "Mayor Emanuel will join NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell and NFL Draft prospects for a youth football clinic at the NFL Play 60 Field presented by Danimals in Grant Park. This is the first of many community events planned in Chicago around the NFL Draft. The Draft begins just as the newest domestic tourism numbers were released for Chicago. Last year, large-scale events like the Draft helped the City set a new record with nearly 51 million domestic tourists. The 2015 Draft attracted approximately 200,000 people over the three day event and a total economic impact of nearly $82 million."

--"What to do around the NFL Draft," Chicago Tribune: http://trib.in/1pDN8jN

NEW ANGER BUILDING TOWARD RAHM -- “Rookie alderman refuses to apologize for using the N-word," by Chicago Sun-Times' Fran Spielman: “A rookie aldermen on Tuesday refused to explain or apologize for his use of the N-word to condemn the ouster of popular Blaine Elementary School principal Troy Raviere. Ald. David Moore (17th), who is black, used the offensive and racist language to describe African-Americans in a Facebook post last week. Moore was essentially accusing Mayor Rahm Emanuel of engineering the ouster of the Blaine principal in retaliation for LaRaviere’s outspoken criticism of the mayor’s education policies. 'All I hear is, ‘Stay in your place n—er.’ Not one elected official, who cares about the education of our children, should remain silent about this DICTATORIAL move!' Moore wrote – though he spelled out the word.” http://bit.ly/24inZuu

BURKE PITCHES DEAL FOR DONOR -- “Medical pot could come to Loop under clout-heavy change,” by Chicago Tribune’s Hal Dardick: “Medical marijuana dispensaries would be allowed in the Loop under a change to Chicago zoning regulations pitched by Ald. Ed Burke and a campaign contributor he once helped nearly double his state pension through a one-month sweetheart deal. Former-state-lawmaker-turned-lobbyist Robert Molaro told the City Council Zoning Committee on Tuesday about the roadblock that pot dispensaries now face: They're technically allowed in some Loop areas, but the potential sites are within 1,000 feet of a school or day care facility, and that rules them out under state law.” http://trib.in/24ioW5W

SCROOTENED -- “To Honor Richard M. Daley’s 74th Birthday, Here Are Some Classic Daleyisms,” by DNAinfo's Mark Konkol: "On Sunday, former Mayor Richard M. Daley’s 74th birthday was celebrated on WLS-AM (890) with a half-hour audio extravaganza reliving some of ‘Da Mare’s’ greatest moments in front of a microphone. It was like a birthday gift to Chicagoans presented by the City Hall Press Corps dean, Bill Cameron, on his weekly public affairs show, 'Connected to Chicago.' In case you missed it, here are some of the best things that former boss ever said: Daley had the perfect response to news reports alleging that cops used potty breaks to cheat on promotion test by comparing answers in the bathroom. 'You can’t go in your pants guys. Gimme a break,' Daley said.” http://dnain.fo/24ippFh

-- Listen to Bill Cameron’s “Connected to Chicago.” It will make you laugh out loud. http://bit.ly/1WoVGHY

THE IV LEAGUE -- “Find out which Chicago hospitals are the safest,” by Crain’s Katherine Davis: “One of Chicago’s highest-profile hospitals gets only average marks in a new patient safety report. Leapfrog Group, a Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit that monitors safety and quality in American acute care hospitals, gave grades of A through F in its latest Hospital Safety Score report, gauging hospitals' track records of preventing avoidable deaths due to causes such as infections and miscommunication over medications … Of the 22 Chicago hospitals evaluated, six received As. Two received Bs and the remaining 14 got a C or below.” http://bit.ly/26sx7i6

FORGET SOMEONE? -- “Two-time Olympic gold medalist Candace Parker left off Rio roster: report,” by the Chicago Tribune: “Candace Parker was left off the U.S. women's basketball Olympic roster, according to people familiar with the decision. The two-time Olympic gold medalist won't be one of the 12 players revealed when the team is announced, likely Wednesday, for the Rio de Janeiro Games in August.” http://trib.in/26sxv0e

GOODBYE, MOTO -- “Former Motorola campus in Harvard sold for $9.3M in online auction,” by Northwest Herald's Katie Dahlstrom: "The 1.52-million-square-foot former Motorola campus has been sold to an unnamed bidder for $9.3 million, a Harvard official said. Online auction house Ten-X.com auctioned Motorola's former regional headquarters, which has sat vacant since 2003, during a sale that ended April 20.” http://bit.ly/24iwx4G

JUST WHEN THE CUBS GET HOT -- “Banquet hall proposed for former Cubby Bear North in Lincolnshire,” by Daily Herald's Russell Lissau: “An entrepreneur wants to open a banquet hall at the former Cubby Bear North sports bar in Lincolnshire. The proposed business would be called Loft 21 and would operate in the 31,000-square-foot building at 21661 N. Milwaukee Ave." http://bit.ly/24iwFkA

TRIPLE AXLE? FILE THAT UNDER ATHLETIC -- “Area high schools agree to give letters to figure skaters,” by Rockford Register Star's Randy Ruef: "Makala Arn has earned a varsity letter for cheerleading, which she does only in the fall. But the Stillman Valley senior has devoted roughly 15 hours a week year-round to her true athletic passion: figure skating. Yet Arn and hundreds of other area skaters over the years have not gotten the recognition for their success on the ice … because area high schools and the Illinois High School Association don't recognize figure skating.” http://bit.ly/24iwPbw

ANITA’s INFLUENCE -- “Rough road to judgeship for top aide to Anita Alvarez,” by BGA's Robert Herguth: “As Cook County State’s Attorney Anita Alvarez’s top aide, Daniel Kirk helps run the prosecutorial agency, which has been under fire for its handling of the Laquan McDonald shooting and other police misconduct cases. With Alvarez soon out the door after losing the March Democratic primary to Kim Foxx, Kirk is trying to score an appointment as a Cook County judge, but he’s finding it, so far at least, a difficult path. Not only was he bypassed in a recent round of 13 associate judge appointments made by sitting Circuit Court judges, the century-old Cook County Bar Association … has taken the unusual step of rescinding its positive rating of Kirk.” http://bit.ly/24iy4aP

STATE

‘THOSE WHO WILL BE WHACKED WILL BE WHACKED PRETTY HARD’ -- “Numbers war breaks out over Illinois graduated income tax,” by Crain’s Greg Hinz: “A war of statistics has broken out over a proposal to institute a graduated income tax in Illinois, with varying camps presenting it as a battle between ‘fairness’ and a potential business flight from the state. Both sides today offered a flood of competing facts, figures and charts—all accompanied by lots of spin—with one group contending that the plan would give Illinois the third-worst business tax climate of the 50 states. The truth appears to lie somewhere in the middle. A vast majority of the state's taxpayers, and those who 'pass through' owners of partnerships, S corps and the like, will be untouched. But those who will be whacked will be whacked pretty hard—hard enough that lawmakers ought to take some care before enacting anything.” http://bit.ly/26sxd9r

DON’T FORGET ABOUT US -- “Our View: Higher ed gets help, but what about the rest of Illinois?” Freeport-Journal Standard Editorial Board: “It’s a one-time deal and there’s no budget for the fiscal year that ends June 30. Lawmakers should be debating the next fiscal year or even the year after that. 'We are hopeful the General Assembly will build on this bipartisan momentum in the weeks ahead as we negotiate a balanced budget with reform for fiscal years 2016 and 2017,' Rauner spokeswoman Catherine Kelly said … We’re reminded almost every day of the effect the lack of a state spending plan is having on Illinois residents, especially those who need help the most … People with clout are being paid. Nonprofit agencies that serve the elderly, troubled teens, the poor, the mentally ill and others in the 10 percent have no clout.” http://bit.ly/1WoUODc

ONE-THIRD OF THE PRIZE -- “Eastern to see partial funding,” by The Daily Eastern News' Analicia Haynes: “Gov. Bruce Rauner signed a bill into law Monday that will help institutions of higher education survive through the summer and fund Monetary Award Program grants. Senate Bill 2059 will give Eastern about $12.5 million or about one-third of what it received in FY15 from the state." http://bit.ly/24iwYMd

BIPARTISAN DISGRACE -- “True colors showing,” by The News-Gazette's Edit Board: “The Illinois Senate recently rejected a common-sense proposal to put a constitutional amendment on the ballot that eliminates the office of lieutenant governor ... Even worse, it wasn't the party of government — the Democrats — that voted to keep this pointless office. It was the party of consolidating and increasing the efficiency of government — the Republicans — that voted to maintain it. Actually, they're all in it together, and they're hoping one day that people will just give up and quit bothering them. That can't be allowed to happen. Those who think Illinois can and must do better can't quit this fight. So in that vein, shame on Gov. Bruce Rauner, who was identified by the Chicago Tribune as instructing Republicans senators to vote 'no.’” http://bit.ly/24ix5Hw

BLOCKING GUN ACCESS TO MENTALLY ILL -- “Illinois bills would limit mentally ill from owning guns,” by The Associated Press' Ashley Lisenby: “Illinois' ability to keep guns out of the hands of people who are mentally ill or pose a danger would be strengthened under several proposals in the General Assembly … Each measure tightens a loophole in existing law, which some lawmakers said could prevent more gun deaths and keep potentially dangerous people from possessing firearms. But some gun rights advocates say a couple of the plans are too severe and that stricter gun laws disregard the rights of responsible gun owners.” http://bit.ly/24ixk5n

CRUZ's DELEGATE MACHINATIONS – This piece includes a bit about Illinois: "The parallel universe where Cruz is beating Trump," by POLITICO's Kyle Cheney and Katie Glueck: http://politi.co/1SrfbhG

A DEPARTURE -- “Reporter, writer, editor Rick Soll dead at 69," by Chicago Sun-Times' Maureen O'Donnell: "Rick Soll, an award-winning reporter for the Chicago Sun-Times and Chicago Tribune, died Friday of lung cancer. He was 69. Mr. Soll, the husband of WBBM-Channel 2 reporter Pam Zekman, was a star writer of the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s known for his investigations, combat coverage and punchy profiles of colorful characters. In 1973, the Tribune sent Mr. Soll to the Middle East to join correspondent Philip Caputo as he covered the 'October war.' 'He’d never done any foreign correspondence, let alone any war reporting, and he was quite young at the time,' Caputo said Tuesday. But Mr. Soll earned the respect of Caputo, a Pulitzer prize-winner and novelist who wrote the acclaimed Vietnam memoir 'A Rumor of War.'” http://bit.ly/24ixw4D

GRIM REAPER CAME KNOCKING TOO SOON -- “Prince's sister says musician had no known will,” by The Associated Press' Ryan Nakashima and Steve Karnowski: "Prince's sister believes the superstar musician didn't have a will and asked a Minnesota court on Tuesday to appoint a trust company to temporarily oversee his multimillion-dollar estate. Tyka Nelson, Prince's only full sibling, said in the court filing that immediate action was necessary to manage Prince's business interests following his death last week at Paisley Park, his famous home and recording studio complex in suburban Minneapolis … In just three days, the outpouring of grief and nostalgia after his death prompted fans to buy 2.3 million of his songs.” http://apne.ws/24ixRV8

TODAY's EVENTS Courtesy of IntelligentEvent @Chi_Intellevent

Dr. Andrew Rojecki on "America and the Politics of Insecurity" - Niagara Foundation - Dr. Andrew Rojecki from the University of Illinois at Chicago will speak on themes he covered in his newest book, "America and the Politics of Insecurity," such as responses to the Great Recession, the disregarding of global warming, and the renewed debate between liberty and security.

Migrants and the Economy: Perspectives and Worries in Europe - Institute of Politics - The Honorable Roberta Pinotti, Italian Minister of Defense joins IoP fellow Maria Latella to discuss the effects and the forecasts of the latest wave of immigration on Italy and Europe.

Terry Mazany, President and CEO , The Chicago Community Trust - City Club of Chicago - SOLD OUT

POWER TO THE PRESIDENT! A plan for more effective government - Institute of Politics - Professor Will Howell joins in conversation with David Axelrod on his new book RELIC: How Our Constitution Undermines Effective Government. Howell examines how the Constitution has wired our government to be dysfunctional, and what can be done about it. Is a new Progressive movement possible that alters the very foundation of our democracy, the Constitution?

WHERE’S RAHM? Joins NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell and NFL Draft prospects for a youth football clinic in Grant Park.

WHERE’S RAUNER? In Auburn, discussing school funding and “recent bipartisan momentum.” Then attending CEO Land of Lincoln Trade show in Lincoln.

** A Message from Nuclear Matters: Some of America's existing nuclear energy plants face early closure due to current economic and policy conditions. Providing more than 62% of America's carbon-free electricity, existing, state-of-the-art nuclear energy plants play a vital role in achieving our clean-energy and carbon-reduction goals.

In Illinois, nuclear energy plants provide 48 percent of the state's electricity and 90 percent of our carbon-free electricity. The existing nuclear energy plants in Illinois also support approximately 28,000 direct and indirect jobs and contribute $9 billion to the state's economy.

If we want to keep Illinois working, we need policies that will keep Illinois’ state-of-the-art nuclear energy plants working for all of us. Join us at NuclearMatters.com. **


Flint Crisis Could Happen in Cities Across America: Flint's water crisis began with a decision to save public funds. With the need to tighten budgets, have mayors felt forced to make cost-saving decisions that could lead to a threat in public safety or health? Mayors tell POLITICO Magazine that aging bridges, roads, and water pipes are some of their most-pressing issues in our quarterly Mayors' Survey, part of the Magazine's award-winning “What Works “series.


Resource: http://www.politico.com

Bill de Blasio Suggests Building Housing on NYC Hospital Land

Mayor Bill de Blasio’s kitchen-sink plan to save the city’s ailing public hospital system includes a proposal to develop “vacant and under-utilized parcels” at healthcare facilities across the five boroughs.

The mayor’s plan to fill Health + Hospitals’ yawning budget gap—projected to hit $1.8 billion by 2020 without action—relies largely on increasing and expediting reimbursements from the state and federal government, and allowing attrition and reassignments to shrink its payroll. But Mr. de Blasio’s 12 strategies also include monetizing chunks of property by creating supportive units for disabled and mentally ill homeless people, affordable units for the low-income and even market-rate housing.

“Pursuing these development projects will help Health + Hospitals’ bottom line in two ways,” the 55-page plan reads, citing studies that stable housing drastically reduces public medical expenses. “1) generate revenue from land sales and ground leases and 2) reduce costly healthcare services.”

Health+Hospitals is a public benefits corporation that operates 11 hospitals and five long-term care facilities across the city.  Its board of directors consists largely of de Blasio appointees.

The proposal to develop vacant Health + Hospitals land resembles Mr. de Blasio’s plan to revitalize the finances of another struggling city entity he controls—the housing authority. And, unlike private projects, developments on public land have the advantage of not requiring state-controlled tax abatements like the now-defunct 421a credit to be profitable.

Mr. de Blasio first hinted he might employ similar approaches in bolstering the hospital system in January. But whereas the NYCHA plan emphasized constructing below-market apartments toward the mayor’s goal of creating 80,000 affordable units by 2024, Mr. de Blasio said his main interest in Health+Hospitals was in generating cash.

“I don’t think of it first and foremost in terms of the affordable housing plan. I think of it in terms of revenue. What’s the best option for revenue?” he said, leaving open the possibility of luxury development.

First Deputy Mayor Anthony Shorris hinted that space currently allocated to cars and nonmedical facilities could become construction sites—and suggested that repurposing different buildings might open up more space for development.

“HHC has a lot of land, some of it’s used for healthcare facilities, some of it’s used for related things—parking garages, support buildings, etcetera,” he said. “There is no question that with a portfolio that big, there should be some opportunities.”

“The question is, are there ways to both use the portfolio more efficiently and perhaps create some revenue? That’s definitely something we’re going to want to look at,” he continued.

The administration was unable to provide estimates as to the amount of acreage that it could develop, or how many units of housing it could wring from it, and Mr. de Blasio sought to paint this as just one small aspect of his plan. But the mayor promised that no structures that are currently for acute care would become apartment buildings.

“We don’t have a specific set of sites,” Mr. de Blasio said. “The central commitment here is that we are keeping all the hospital buildings hospital buildings.”

Resource: http://observer.com

Outsourcing property management

Most real estate developments underway in Colombo are mixed-use developments or integrated developments, such as Shangri-La, Colombo One, Cinnamon Life, Tata’s One Colombo and Colombo City Centre. 4,000 condominium units are expected to be handed over to customers by 2019. JLL anticipates a supply pipeline of 2.6 million sqft of Grade A office space in the Colombo market in the medium term. More than ten retail malls totalling approximately 1.6 million sqft are expected to be operational by 2020.

Facilities Management (FM) focuses on managing real estate for occupiers (owners & lessees) and is defined as making the best use of available facilities, optimising for best business performance; this includes building maintenance, security, human resources, repairs & maintenance and reducing idling facilities. Property Management involves partnering with developers, owners and investors in real estate, including lease and tenancy management and day-to-day property maintenance (engineering, security and cleaning, etc.).

The concept of outsourcing Facilities Management is relatively new in Sri Lanka. Companies have historically adopted an in-house model while “out-tasking” single services, such as cleaning, catering or maintenance to external providers. There are only a handful of Facilities &Property Management companies in the market, of which JLL is the largest Facilities & Property Management service provider in Sri Lanka, with over 55 properties under management.

Benefits
Globally, the shift to an outsourced model has benefitted firms immensely by way of passing on the risk of service delivery to a Facilities Management company that takes overall responsibility for this function. Most importantly, this leads to a vested relationship between the client and the FM company where in the latter has skin in the game – making investments in the relationship for mutual growth and benefit.

Facilities Management of Corporates is different from Administration. With complexities in operating large infrastructure habitats having grown in recent times, marked differentiation has come in, with Facility Management becoming the umbrella where infrastructure and administration co-exist.

Energy consumption is arguably the largest cost for any operating premises.  FM companies have expertise and tried, tested and established formulae to cut down these costs and suggest investments that would have quick returns and savings in the long term, bringing in sustainability credits as well.

Trend
The market is shifting towards the adoption of Integrated Facilities Management outsourcing as a strategic operating model as it generates a value in the form of reduced costs, minimised risks and increased end-user satisfaction. Initially spearheaded by Western multinationals more familiar with outsourcing, an increasing number of Sri Lankan companies are exploring the possibility of turning to specialist expertise for such models. Sri Lankan firms understand that outsourcing Facilities Management can assist them in tackling the challenges of operating in Sri Lanka’s changing business landscape while mitigating significant risks and improving the company’s overall image and credibility. However, it is prudent to keep in mind that the outsourcing of all non-core activity to a Facilities & Property Management company will be latent for several reasons. It will invariably cause a threat to their employees who handle Facilities & Property Management, in terms of their job security, and the senior management’s decision and culture will play a key role.

Resource-http://nation.lk/

Dubai tenant breaches notice period to move out – but no financial penalty

I have just given one month’s notice that I will be vacating the property at the end of the lease period. However, the property management company pointed out that the tenancy agreement states the following: “Not less than two months prior to the date of expiry of the term, the tenant shall inform the landlord in writing whether or not the tenant intends to renew this agreement". They are now requesting that I pay one month’s rent as a penalty. This penalty is not mentioned anywhere in the tenancy agreement. The subsequent clause in the agreement only mentions the following: “If the tenant does not give not­ice of intention to renew this agreement within the period set out in clause 10.1 the landlord shall be entitled to show the premises to other prospective tenants during the said notice period". Are they entitled to demand one month’s rent as a penalty? VG, Dubai

The law actually states that 90 days’ notice is required by either party to inform the other of any changes to the contract. This can include rental amounts, renewing or not of the agreement or any changes to the terms and conditions of the contract. I presume you have agreed to the not­ice period stated by your contract, so the fact that you have given only one month’s notice will mean you have breached this part of the agreement. The absence of any financial penalties for breaking the clause, however, means they are not entitled to charge you for this. The only time a landlord is normally entitled to claim compensation of one or two months’ rent is when a tenant wishes to break the contract early and leave before the end of the agreement. My understanding is that you will remain in the property until the end of the agreement, but you have only given them 30 days’ notice of the same.

My developer recently notified me of the handover of my ­villa. However, upon viewing the home and before handover, I discovered a series of shortcomings in the villa, some of which will cause significant delays in getting rectified. I will be taking on a mortgage to take handover of this villa and my intention is to rent the property out as soon as I have possession. Since the snagging and defect rectification process will take a few weeks, I will not be in a position to rent out my villa, thereby causing significant financial losses to me. Therefore, can I refuse to take handover of my villa from the developer until a formal snagging process has been carried out and all the defects rectified? RG, Dubai

You have every right to accept handover of your villa only when all the obligations of the developer have been rectified. This process may take longer than you have anticipated, but finding a compensation solution from the developer due to loss of rent may be challenging, and its success is possibly only down to your ability to negotiate the same with them.

We renewed our rental for the year in November, now our landlord has said he is selling the house. He told us the contract carries over and if the new landlord wants to evict us, he only needs to give us two months’ notice. But I have read that to evict us we need to be given one year. We have a four-year-old and a four-month-old baby, so I am not looking forward to going house hunting or losing out on any money. Any advice is appreciated. KT, Dubai 

Resource-http://www.thenational.ae

Moody's assigns A1 debt rating to London and Quadrant's proposed GBP250 million bond issuance

London, 25 April 2016 -- Moody's Public Sector Europe , ("MPSE"), has assigned an A1 rating to the proposed senior secured GBP250 million bond issuance of London & Quadrant Housing Trust, the parent company of L&Q Group (A1, stable).

RATINGS RATIONALE

The proposed bonds are anticipated to have a long-dated (around 10 years) maturity. The issuance is expected to be comprised of GBP250 million in total. The bond will be immediately secured by a portfolio of social housing properties owned by London & Quadrant Housing Trust. The total estimated value of the security is GBP357 million, consisting of properties valued at both Estimated Use Value -- Social Housing (EUV-SH) at 1.05x and Market Value Subject to Tenancy (MV-ST) at 1.15x. Moody's views this threshold of asset coverage as offering limited enhancement for bondholders and as insufficient to lift the ratings of the bonds over that of the Group itself.

The debt rating assigned to the bonds issued by London & Quadrant Trust is derived from the credit quality of L&Q Group as the issuer is the asset-holding, parent company of L&Q Group. The proceeds from the bond issuance will be used to fund L&Q Group's ambitious growth strategy as well as refinance existing facilities. L&Q Group is one of the largest providers of social housing in England, with more than 71,000 units in management centred in London and the South East of England.

On April 6th, 2016 L&Q Group announced its intention to merge with two London-based housing associations: Hyde Group and East Thames Group Limited (A3, stable). The combined entity would manage 135,000 homes, making it one of the largest social landlords in England. Additionally, the merger announcement included plans for an ambitious development target of 100,000 homes over ten years. It is estimated that efficiency savings of GBP50 million per year would be achieved within five years of the formation of the new entity. L&Q Group expects the merger to complete by the end of 2016.

L&Q Group is undertaking due diligence and the boards have not yet agreed on a combined business plan, which will provide further clarity on the strategic direction and financial position of the new entity. However, we note that all three organisations are characterised by ambitious development plans and a high (>20% of turnover) exposure to market sales activity and that East Thames Group Limited (A3, stable) has a weaker credit profile than L&Q Group. With development aspiration as announced for the new entity exceeding that of the individual entities combined, if pursued without effective controls or if financial performance deteriorates, the additional development risk could be credit negative for L&Q. The rating assigned to this bond issuance of London & Quadrant Housing Trust reflects the financial position and projections of L&Q Group as a standalone entity.

The rating assigned to the proposed GBP250 million is based on documentation received by MPSE as of the rating assignment date. In the event that the structures change from the documentation submitted to us, we will assess the impact that these differences may have on the ratings.

WHAT COULD CHANGE THE RATING --- UP/DOWN

Any change to L&Q Group's issuer rating would result in a corresponding change to London and Quadrant Housing Trust's senior secured debt ratings.

The principal methodology used in this rating was English Housing Associations published in October 2013. Please see the Ratings Methodologies page on www.moodys.com for a copy of this methodology.

REGULATORY DISCLOSURES

For ratings issued on a program, series or category/class of debt, this announcement provides certain regulatory disclosures in relation to each rating of a subsequently issued bond or note of the same series or category/class of debt or pursuant to a program for which the ratings are derived exclusively from existing ratings in accordance with Moody's rating practices. For ratings issued on a support provider, this announcement provides certain regulatory disclosures in relation to the credit rating action on the support provider and in relation to each particular credit rating action for securities that derive their credit ratings from the support provider's credit rating. For provisional ratings, this announcement provides certain regulatory disclosures in relation to the provisional rating assigned, and in relation to a definitive rating that may be assigned subsequent to the final issuance of the debt, in each case where the transaction structure and terms have not changed prior to the assignment of the definitive rating in a manner that would have affected the rating. For further information please see the ratings tab on the issuer/entity page for the respective issuer on www.moodys.com.

For any affected securities or rated entities receiving direct credit support from the primary entity(ies) of this credit rating action, and whose ratings may change as a result of this credit rating action, the associated regulatory disclosures will be those of the guarantor entity. Exceptions to this approach exist for the following disclosures, if applicable to jurisdiction: Ancillary Services, Disclosure to rated entity, Disclosure from rated entity.

Regulatory disclosures contained in this press release apply to the credit rating and, if applicable, the related rating outlook or rating review.

Please see www.moodys.com for any updates on changes to the lead rating analyst and to the Moody's legal entity that has issued the rating.

Resource: https://www.moodys.com

Reprieve for families as landlord admits evictions 'invalid'

Fourteen families in Tyrrelstown in Dublin who received notices by post from management company Twinlite had contacted the Private Residential Tenancies Board to challenge the validity of the notices.

The letters gave the families dates by which they must move out of their homes because the ownership company intended to sell the properties.

Families said last night they feel they have won a considerable amount of extra time to fight to remain in their homes following developments yesterday.

Local mother Funke Tobun, who along with her husband Ademola, was the first tenant to challenge a termination notice.

She spoke of her delight after the board hearing that a lawyer for Twinlite accepted that the notices of termination were invalid.

This was on foot of a ruling by High Court Judge Marie Baker earlier this month that the mere intention of a landlord to sell was not sufficient grounds to issue a notice of termination.

"It is a relief. It has been a constant worry since I received the letter. But this means their attempt to end our tenancy has been set back," she said.

Challenge

"I think it will give a lot of confidence to other tenants in this situation to challenge the termination letters."

"At least when I go to bed tonight I can close my eyes," Ms Tobun added.

"I have not been able to sleep with the worry as there are no other homes available in this area."

Gillian Murphy and Damien Moore (25), parents of three young children, welcomed the news because they had also received one of the termination letters.

"It gives us hope for the future," said Gillian.

Anti Austerity Alliance councillor Matt Waine said the landlord would now have to start the process all over again.

"I think it will also add to the determination of tenants to resist any attempt to end their tenancies," Mr Waine added.

"While it is an important development, it is not a solution. Minister Alan Kelly and the Department of the Environment must step up their attempts to acquire the properties and put in place an affordable mortgage scheme to allow the majority of tenants to buy their homes.

Mr Waine said the situation in Tyrrelstown "demonstrates the continuing housing crisis and the need for the State to declare a housing and homeless emergency and to undertake a massive State house building programme to resolve the crisis".

Resource: http://www.independent.ie

Sequim’s Three Crowns is one-stop shop for property maintenance

Your honey keep begging off on your honey-do list? Is moss taking over your home? Need to have piles of junk go to the dump but drive a mini-car?

To the rescue is Three Crowns Inc., a property management company owned and operated by fifth-generation Sequim businessman Eric Godfrey. After living and working as a general contractor in Sweden for 20 years, Godfrey returned to his deep roots in Sequim and started a handyman business in 2013.

Client response was so good that in 2014, Godfrey decided to incorporate the company as Three Crowns Inc., a nod to Sweden’s national emblem.

Just three short years later, Godfrey has a crew of 10 highly skilled employees and more than 300 customers.

One-stop shop

“Three Crowns Inc. is your one-stop shop for property maintenance services,” Godfrey said from his small office with a large work assignment calendar. “We do it all … handyman services, home maintenance, moss control, gutter cleaning, power washing, dryer vent cleaning, landscaping, painting, remodels and much more. No job is too big or small. We change light bulbs to building new construction.”

Other services include building decks, fences and sheds, product assembly, lawn care, home organizing, installing locking mailboxes and even installing/removing Christmas lights.

Three Crowns has earned the trust — and repeat business — of home owner associations in Sunland and Sherwood Village in Sequim, plus real estate agents in helping sellers ready their homes to go on the market. Property management companies like Landmark and James & Associates also keep Three Crowns’ crews busy.

Having the right team members who also buy into Godfrey’s insistence on quality, integrity and superior customer service is key, he said, adding he’s proud that six of his employees  are over age 50 and approach each job with decades of experience.

“We’ve doubled the business every year since 2013 and it’s the team building that’s making a success of my business,” Godfrey said, “especially the quality of guys and their attention to detail. They treat customers’ homes like their own homes. We have a great team with a bunch of different trades and skills. I want to keep the quality high at reasonable prices and also put food on my employees’ tables.”

Teamwork, character, integrity

Crews work with honey-do lists, seller checklists and buyer inspection lists. Godfrey said after clients call, he comes to their property with an intake sheet on the jobs to be done, quotes a price and after reviewing their needs, schedules the right crew mix to complete the projects.

All employees wear company uniforms with the logo also on their vehicles.

“We take pride in our work, as each home was our own. There are no short cuts. We answer the phone and call back!” Godfrey grinned. “We are on time, efficient and consistent. We follow up on our work and my guys leave the job site as clean as it was when they arrived.

“Teamwork, character and integrity — that’s what we promise.”

Godfrey’s goals for the future are within the next five years to have shops with 10-15 member teams in Port Angeles and Port Townsend and he believes that he can achieve them because Three Crowns has a strong foundation.

“I’m excited about building this business for the long haul and I want to give jobs and opportunities for others,” Godfrey said.

“I love this city, this community and the people in it. My reward is giving services to homeowners and giving back to my employees.”

If you’re in a spring-cleaning frame of mind, call Three Crowns at 775-9897 to see what it can do for you.

Resource: http://www.sequimgazette.com

Commercial property: What am I bid?

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His right arm outstretched towards the audience, George Walker switches his gaze like clockwork between the handful of active bidders in the crowded room, as he goads them onwards and upwards. “Go on, sir, you’ve bought the train ticket. It’ll be a lonely ride home without a contract in your pocket,” he urges, gavel poised over the lectern.

The bidding rises rapidly in £5,000 increments, until Mr Walker’s hammer falls and the prize is carried off for £650,000. Attention swiftly moves on to the next lot, one of 170 to be put up for sale that day.

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From his perch in the swanky surroundings of the Berkeley Hotel in London’s Knightsbridge, one might expect Mr Walker, a partner at auctioneers Allsop, to be selling exquisite paintings, lustrous antiques or highly prized jewellery. In fact, these objects of desire are more mundane: commercial premises ranging from banks, supermarkets and shoe shops to pubs and kebab houses.

To those lined up in front of Mr Walker, though, there is nothing remotely dull about this asset class, which offers the chance to own income-enriching buildings across the UK and collect rent cheques from some of the biggest and most reliable brand names in the country.

Commercial property is an investment wallflower compared with buy-to-let, which has hogged the limelight among Britain’s amateur property investors for nearly two decades. But policymakers’ efforts to douse demand for the latter through higher taxes and new limits on reliefs — as well as rising house prices — is prompting fresh scrutiny of the former. FT Money assesses whether this specialist asset class could find renewed favour with investors.
Unfamiliar territory

Why has commercial property failed to match the dizzy trajectory of buy-to-let over the past two decades? “It’s always been clouded in mystery,” says Mr Walker, speaking to the FT in the lunch break between bidding sessions. “Everyone can relate to a flat because we’ve all rented one. They see a Starbucks or a Johnsons dry cleaners as something risky.”

But for those willing to put their money into the niche, the rental yields can be attractive. Mr Walker cites a residential flat for rent in Fulham, which might produce a yield of at most between 2 and 3 per cent, excluding capital growth. In contrast, the average yield on high street shops sold through Allsop is 6.25 per cent. “You might get five years straight on the lease and four cheques a year. The first time investors go into the market they can’t believe it. Is it that easy?”

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Broadly speaking, the commercial market is in some ways the inverse of residential, where the value of a property resides in its vacant possession. The success of a commercial investment, by contrast, is often determined by the quality and longevity of the business tenant.

Unlike buy-to-let, where a lease might run for six months or a year, commercial leases are traditionally longer — one of the chief attractions for people seeking a reliable, long-term income stream. But the days when a buyer might expect to get a 20-year commercial lease as standard are over, says Tom Entwistle, founder of Landlord Zone, a website portal for landlords.

“Some of the big businesses will take on long leases but even they will be careful,” he says. “They have come down to 10 or five years. For a lot of businesses, three years would count as a long lease.” Banks and supermarkets have become much smarter about structuring leases with break clauses and other means of maximising their flexibility, he adds, sometimes to the landlord’s cost.

Choosing the right sector may give investors added reassurance. Convenience stores, for instance, have been stable providers of rental income in recent years, Allsop says, since by definition they require a physical presence near homes — unlike betting shops or banks, which can move online or consolidate their operations.

One of the biggest challenges that commercial property investors have faced has been the fallout from a period of shopping centre development in towns and cities, driven by overblown expectations of retail demand. Cities such as Derby, Nottingham, Rotherham or Newport have an excess of commercial property relative to shopper numbers — a reason why many investors prefer to focus their energies on smaller market towns such as Tunbridge Wells or Nuneaton, where lower retail capacity improves the reliability of tenancies.
Tax matters

Aficionados of the asset class point to tax-related advantages. A three percentage point stamp duty surcharge on buy-to-let and second homes, which came into effect on April 1, is not payable on commercial property. So a residential purchase of £500,000 attracts £30,000 in stamp duty, whereas a commercial building of similar value incurs £14,500.

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There is another attraction: curbs to mortgage interest tax relief, which have sown fear among many buy-to-let investors and are due to start taking effect from 2017, do not apply to commercial property. Unlike residential homes, these assets can also be invested in a personal pension or Sipp, improving the tax position for individual investors.

Investors do need to consider whether they want to be receiving high levels of annual income. For some, the four quarterly rent cheques a year written by a commercial tenant may push them into a higher income tax bracket; many will prefer buy to let, offering lower rental income but a potentially higher rate of capital growth.

Even as commercial property remains in the shadow of buy-to-let, some have seen a way to have their cake and eat it: buying a premises such as a shop with rooms above. Canny landlords will convert the upper floors into flats, thus capitalising on the growth potential of residential but eliminating the need to pay a stamp duty surcharge on purchase. Mr Watson says the changing needs of high street retailers have reinforced this shift: as retailers have moved more of their operations online, a storeroom above a shop “is worth far more as a flat than a store.”

But the high street factor has also brought greater risks to the commercial investor: the secular decline in bricks-and-mortar retailers across the UK, combined with the widespread closure of banks’ branch networks, can threaten an apparently “safe” investment. “If you go into a lot of towns at the moment you’ll see office space to let. There’s money to be made but you’ve got to be very selective,” says Mr Entwistle.

The hard work required of buyers may continue long after purchase. Sophisticated investors will do “whatever they need to do” to enhance value, says Neil Richardson, group real estate director at lender One Savings Bank. “You get the ones that collect the rent, who don’t want to do any management but like the regular income stream. The second type is prepared to roll up their sleeves, manage the asset, obtain planning enhancements and re-engineer the leases. It’s a real skill to manage high quality commercial property.”

At the Allsop auction, Chan Singh Bhogal, 56, a Birmingham-based investor, appears to fall into the former category. He has no stocks or shares, but has put his money into a portfolio of more than 20 commercial properties, mainly in the Midlands. And he is happy to buy sight unseen, as long as the conditions are right: “You don’t need to see the property, as long as the tenant is secure — a Tesco or Sainsbury, anything that’s safe — and you have a long lease.”
Rates revisited

In his March Budget, Mr Osborne announced changes to the stamp duty regime for commercial property, aligning it with the residential regime in shifting from a “slab” to a “slice” system, where the duty is payable on the portion of each transaction that falls within the price bracket, rather than the entire property value.

Duty has risen on properties costing more than £1.05m, the Treasury said, but those buying below that level would pay less under the new regime. The chancellor introduced a new zero rate band on purchases up to £150,000; a 2 per cent rate on the next £100,000; and a 5 per cent rate on properties above £250,000. But Mr Osborne’s moves on business rates were arguably more important for investors.

Business rates are a key consideration for investors. Although payable by tenants, landlords become liable to pay should the property fall empty (when a lease ends, or if a tenant goes bust).

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And this liability is significant, due to the highly retrospective nature of the way business rates are currently calculated. Thanks to a government-sanctioned delay, commercial property valuations used to calculate rates date back to 2008 — the peak of the last property cycle. Even though rental values have since slumped in many locations outside London and the south east, business rates remain punishingly high — in many cases, exceeding the annual rent a property could command.

Exactly how much falls due depends on variables including the area of the building and its position — the better located in a town, the higher the rates will be. The next revaluation is due in 2017. While this will reduce artificially high rates bills in the regions, the reverse will apply to properties in and around the capital where values have substantially increased. Retailers (who by the location-driven nature of their business typically end up paying the highest rates bills) may be put off taking a lease if high rates threaten the viability of their enterprise.

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Nick Hegarty, director of HD, a property developer that focuses on Bridgend, Wales, says extortionate levels of rates are often what lies behind an apparent bargain at auction. He cites a £160,000 property bought by HD, which carried a £29,000 annual rates bill. In order to attract a tenant, he has reduced the rent to just £4,000 a year. “We’re prepared to do that because we want to see the town centre thrive,” he says.

But he feels cause for optimism in the chancellor’s measures to ease the situation. In the Budget, Mr Osborne announced that from April 2017 the threshold above which rates are payable would rise from a rateable value of £6,000 to £15,000, predicting as a result that 600,000 small businesses would see a saving of nearly £6,000 a year. “It’s a good change,” Mr Hegarty says. “In a place like Bridgend, it will be very beneficial.”

Resource: http://www.ft.com

State Department Office Removed Benghazi Files After Congressional Subpoena

State Department officials removed files from the secretary’s office related to the Benghazi attack in Libya and transferred them to another department after receiving a congressional subpoena last spring, delaying the release of the records to Congress for over a year.

Attorneys for the State Department said the electronic folders, which contain hundreds of documents related to the Benghazi attack and Libya, were belatedly rediscovered at the end of last year.

They said the files had been overlooked by State Department officials because the executive secretary’s office transferred them to another department and flagged them for archiving last April, shortly after receiving a subpoena from the House Select Committee on Benghazi.

The new source of documents includes electronic folders used by senior officials under Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. They were originally kept in the executive secretary’s office, which handles communication and coordination between the secretary of state’s office and other department bureaus.

The House Benghazi Committee requested documents from the secretary’s office in a subpoena filed in March 2015. Congressional investigators met with the head of the executive secretary’s office staff to discuss its records maintenance system and the scope of the subpoena last April. That same month, State Department officials sent the electronic folders to another bureau for archiving, and they were not searched in response to the request.

The blunder could raise new questions about the State Department’s records process, which has come under scrutiny from members of Congress and government watchdogs. Sen. Chuck Grassley (R., Iowa), chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, blasted the State Department’s Freedom of Information Act process as “broken” in January, citing “systematic failures at the agency.”

The inspector general for the State Department also released a report criticizing the agency’s public records process in January. The report highlighted failures in the executive secretary’s office, which responds to records requests for the Office of the Secretary.

Since last fall, the State Department has taken additional steps to increase transparency, recently hiring a transparency coordinator.

But the late discovery of the electronic folders has set back the release of information in a number of public records lawsuits filed against the State Department by watchdog groups.

The State Department first disclosed that staffers had discovered the unsearched folders in a January court filing. Attorneys for the department asked the court for additional time to process and release the documents in response to a 2014 lawsuit filed by the government ethics group Judicial Watch.

Around the same time, the State Department alerted the House Select Committee on Benghazi to the discovery. On April 8, the department turned over 1,100 pages of documents from the electronic folders to the House Benghazi Committee, over a year after the committee’s subpoena. The committee had received other documents from the production in February.

The delay has had consequences. The Benghazi Committee had already completed the majority of its interviews with diplomats and government officials regarding the Benghazi attack before it received the latest tranche of documents.

Rep. Trey Gowdy (R., S.C.), chairman of the Benghazi Committee, said in an April 8 statement it was “deplorable that it took over a year for these records to be produced to our committee.”

“This investigation is about a terrorist attack that killed four Americans, and it could have been completed a lot sooner if the administration had not delayed and delayed and delayed at every turn,” Gowdy said.

The decision by State Department officials to transfer the electronic folders to another bureau after receiving the subpoena could also raise questions.

The subpoena requested Benghazi-related documents and communications from 10 of Hillary Clinton’s top aides for the years 2011 and 2012.

The requests included standard language that “Subpoenaed records, documents, data or information should not be destroyed, modified, removed, transferred or otherwise made inaccessible to the Committee.”

The State Department’s attorneys said the executive secretary’s office transferred the folders to the Office of Information Programs and Services for “retiring” in April 2015. Public records officials did not realize for almost eight months that the folders had been moved, and so they were not searched in response to FOIA requests or subpoenas.

“In April 2015—prior to its search in this [Judicial Watch] case—the Secretariat Staff within the Office of the Executive Secretariat (“S/ES-S”) retired the shared office folders and transferred them to the custody of the Bureau of Administration, Office of Information Programs and Services,” the State Department said in a Feb. 5 court filing.

“The IPS employees working on this FOIA request did not initially identify S/ES retired records as a location to search for potentially responsive records because they were operating with the understanding that, to the extent responsive records from the Office of the Secretary existed, they resided within [the executive secretary’s office].”

According to congressional sources, officials on the House Benghazi Committee had a meeting with the executive secretary’s office to discuss the subpoena and the locations of potentially relevant records on April 10, 2015. Electronic folders of senior staff members were discussed during the briefing.

State Department officials at the meeting included the director of the executive secretary’s office staff, who was responsible for handling the office’s records maintenance, the assistant secretary for legislative affairs, and Catherine Duval, the attorney who oversaw the public release of Hillary Clinton’s official emails. The officials gave no indication that electronic folders had recently been transferred out of the office.

The State Department declined to comment on whether the folders were transferred after the meeting took place.

A State Department official told the Washington Free Beacon that personnel did not mislead congressional investigators, and added that no officials at the meeting were involved in transferring the folders.

“The Department personnel who briefed the Select Committee in April 2015 did not play a role in the transfer of these files to State’s Bureau of Administration,” the State Department official said.

The official added that department files are often moved as a routine matter.

“Files that are generated in an office are regularly moved to the Bureau of Administration for storage according to published records retirement schedules,” the official said. “This is a routine action that would not involve a senior supervisor. It also continues to make them available to respond to either Congressional or FOIA requests.”

Duval left the State Department last September. She had previously overseen document production for the IRS during the targeting controversy. Republicans had criticized that process after agency emails were reportedly destroyed and a key IRS official’s hard drive was shredded months after they had been subpoenaed by Congress.

In recent months, the State Department has been working to increase transparency.

“The Department has worked closely with the Select Committee in a spirit of cooperation and responsiveness,” a State Department official said. “Since the Committee was formed, we have provided 48 witnesses for interviews and more than 95,000 pages of documents.”

The efforts drew some praise from the House Benghazi Committee last fall.

“It’s curious the Department is suddenly able to be more productive after recent staff changes involving those responsible for document production,” committee spokesman Jamal Ware said in a Sept. 25, 2015 press release.

Still, it could be months before the public is able to see many of the Benghazi-related documents belatedly discovered by the State Department. The House Benghazi Committee is still completing its investigation and has not released them.

The department’s attorneys have also been granted extensions to produce the documents in response to several public records lawsuits. In one FOIA case, first filed by the watchdog group Citizens United in 2014, a judge has given the State Department until next August to turn over the new materials.

Correction: The original version of this article stated that the House Select Committee on Benghazi had submitted two subpoenas to the State Department. The Committee only submitted one subpoena, on March 4, 2015. The November 2014 request was an official letter from the Committee to Secretary John Kerry.

Resource: http://freebeacon.com