MEDIA ADVISORY

Mayor: Jennifer P. Dougherty

CONTACT: Nancy Gregg Poss, Public Information Officer, 301-360-3842

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Tuesday, September 10, 2002

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CITY OF FREDERICK RECEIVES

RECORD LOW BIDS ON BONDS

Frederick, Md. --- After receiving excellent ratings from Moody’s Investors Service and Standard and Poor’s last week, today the City of Frederick accepted bids on their General Obligation General Improvement Bonds, Series 2002. Bids were accepted by John Leisenring, Chief Financial Officer for the City of Frederick, from seven companies including; Merrill Lynch & Co., Salomon Smith Barney, Inc., UBS Paine Webber, Inc., Ferris, Baker Watts, Inc., Morgan Stanley, Dean Witter, Legg Mason Wood Walker, Inc. and ABN AMRO Financial Services, Inc. The bid was awarded to ABN AMRO Financial Services, Inc. at a rate of 3.86% over a 20-year period.

The City if Frederick was assigned ratings of Aa3 (Moody's Investors Service) and AA- (Standard and Poor’s), which are comparable. Budgeted conservatively, this low rate will save the City $500,000 over the life of the issued compared to an AAA rating, stated Sam Ketterman, the City’s Financial Advisor with Davenport and Company. “The rate the City of Frederick received was 15 basis points better than the AAA index for today, September 10^th,” Ketterman added.

Mayor Jennifer Dougherty commented on the sale of the bonds, “This is great news for the taxpayers of the City of Frederick. It will save us $90,000 this year and proves we are on the right track with our capitol improvements management.”

The closing of these bonds will take place on September 19, 2002.

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