NEW YORK, NY — (Marketwire) — 03/14/12 — The Bond Buyer, the daily news source for the municipal bond industry, will hold its first-ever Symposium on Distressed Municipalities on March 27-28, 2012 at the Hyatt at the Bellevue in Philadelphia, PA. The event will explain the diverse root causes behind the nation-s growing roster of fiscally-troubled communities and educate municipal finance officers, elected officials, financial advisors, and investment bankers on the choices they face and best practices they can employ to try and meet the needs of all municipal stakeholders, from residents to bond investors.
“There are very few -road maps- for state and local government officials to consult when trying to resolve these crises. The policy makers who attend this event will have the opportunity to identify the strategies and tactics that work and can be applied more widely,” said Michael Stanton, The Bond Buyer-s Publisher.
The experienced speaking faculty includes a mix of policy makers from communities facing distress today, as well as cities and counties that have recovered, including:
Jillian Barrick, City Administrator, CITY OF EAST ORANGE, NJ
Hon. Robert Flanders, Jr., Partner, Hinckley, Allen & Snyder LLP, RECEIVER, CENTRAL FALLS, RI
Natwar Gandhi, CFO, DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA
Joseph Harris, Emergency Fiscal Manager, CITY OF BENTON HARBOR, MI
Joyce Parker, Emergency Fiscal Manager, CITY OF ECORSE, MI
Robert Stout, Finance Director, CITY OF VALLEJO
Timothy Sullivan, Deputy County Executive for Finance, NASSAU COUNTY
Nancy Winkler, Treasurer, CITY OF PHILADELPHIA
This year-s exceptional speaking faculty has been recruited by The Bond Buyer and the event-s Co-Chairs Ballard Spahr LLP and The PFM Group.
“With a number of cities and counties in various stages of financial distress, facing difficult decisions on spending cuts, borrowing, and planning for the future, the roster of speakers and panelists is a virtual -who-s who- in finance and government,” said Dean Kaplan, Managing Director and Conference Co-Chair, The PFM Group. “PFM has an ongoing commitment to client education, and this seemed an excellent opportunity to share experiences and strategies with a broad spectrum of government officials,” he added.
“The Symposium is a terrific opportunity to discuss a number of fundamental, but vexing, issues that challenge the capacity of our elected officials to meet the needs of the electorate and the expectations of investors,” said William C. Rhodes, Partner, Public Finance Department Chair and the Practice Leader of Ballard Spahr-s Municipal Recovery Initiative.
Tony Williams, Former Mayor, District of Columbia, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, GLOBAL GOVERNMENT PRACTICE, CORPORATE EXECUTIVE BOARD
Edward G. Rendell, Former Governor, Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, PARTNER, BALLARD SPAHR LLP
Michael Nutter, Mayor, CITY OF PHILADELPHIA
Mark Funkhouser, Former Mayor, KANSAS CITY, MO.
The Bond Buyer is the daily news source for the municipal finance industry.
Established in 1891, The Bond Buyer is published five days a week except on national holidays and currently reaches more than 35,000 municipal finance professionals, bond issuers, government officials, and investors. It provides readers news, analysis, and data regarding municipal finance that is unavailable in its comprehensive form in any other news outlet. The Bond Buyer-s Symposium on Distressed Municipalities is produced by SourceMedia. SourceMedia is an Investcorp company, is a leading provider of timely and essential news, analysis, research, data and insights for members of the financial services community, and related fields in professional services and technology. SourceMedia offers its clients and subscribers publications and online information services, industry-standard data applications and in-depth seminars and conferences.
For information, visit
Michael Stanton
Publisher
The Bond Buyer
212-803-6552