All-American municipal analyst awards.

The Bond Buyer's All-American Municipal Analysts Awards are being presented at a pivotal time for credit evaluation. Orange County, Calif., has filed for bankruptcy, and it has defaulted on a bond issue - all as the result of high-risk investments of its giant intergovernmental investment pool. Much of what has happened in the last 16 days could not have been foretold because the information was not made public to analyze.

Municipal bond analysis gains importance with each giant set of credit problems. It came into its own with the New York City financial crisis of 1975, and it grew in stature with the record bond default by the Washington Public Power Supply System in 1983. This month, Orange County has revealed investment pool losses of at least $2 billion, and the municipal bond market once again is reassessing its information requirements.

With all the talk about more disclosure, analysts are still hindered by great gaps in the municipal market's information system. The Bond Buyer's nationally recognized municipal information repository, for example, received Orange County's 1993 financial report only last month, a time lag of almost a year. Moreover, the 1993 financial statement of the county shed no light on the outlook for its investment fund.

Such gaps apparently are going to lead Washington legislators and regulators to require more extensive disclosure by municipal bond issuers. Earlier this week, a spokesman for the Securities and Exchange Commission disclosed that the agency is studying the matter, and U.S. Rep. Christopher Cox, a Republican from Orange County, said he plans to introduce legislation in 1995 that would subject municipal bond issuers to the same disclosure requirements as corporate issuers.

Cox, who was a corporate finance lawyer before he was elected to Congress, contends that investors would have been aware of Orange County's risky investments if municipal bond issuers had been subject to the same disclosure requirements as corporations. If Cox carries through with his effort, it will mean repeal of the Tower amendment, which now exempts local governments from filing with the SEC. If he succeeds, municipal bond analysts will have more information more quickly, and their work will move up one more rung in stature.

In determining the winners of the awards this year, The Bond Buyer strove to make procedure as simple as possible. The All-American analysts selected this year were chosen by ballots mailed to all individual subscribers of The Bond Buyer. Subscribers were permitted to nominate any analyst they chose in all eight categories, and The Bond Buyer tabulated the returns. No second-place awards were considered.

* Environmental Facilities *

Marie Pisecki,

Vice President and Manager,

Central Regional Ratings,

Moody's Investors Service

Marie Pisecki has been chosen for the 1994 All-American Municipal Analysts Team as a specialist in environmental facilities. Pisecki serves on the board of the Solid Waste Association of North America and is a member of the Municipal Forum, a financial adviser to the Public Resources Advisory Group in New York, and a member of the Municipal Analysts Group of New York.

Pisecki joined Moody's public finance department in 1988, and worked in the department's insurance group and the Northeast regional ratings group before becoming manager of the central region group. She is now a member of the public finance department's solid waste specialty group and a member of the credit agency's rating committee.

* Municipal Generalist *

Robert W. Chamberlin,

Senior Vice President,

Dean Witter Reynolds Inc.

Now a two-time winner of the All-American Municipal Analysts Award, Robert W. Chamberlin can boast 31 years in the industry that command respect. The Bond Buyer has quoted Chamberlin frequently on city and state infrastructure issues. We are honored to present him as the generalist on this year's team.

Chamberlin began his career in 1963 with B J. Van Ingen & Co., joined Dean Witter Reynolds Inc. in 1967, and has remained there since that time.

Thirteen months ago, Chamberlin gave his views about the outlook for the municipal bond market in 1994, and his answers in large part determined his selection as the team's generalist, the designation for the analyst most able to see the big picture with prescience. He provided accurate insight into the year ahead, suggesting the possibility of a "cataclysmic loss" in the issuance of bonds in 1994 from the record-breaking pace of 1993.

Speaking in early November last year, he foresaw a "severe cutback" in the volume of bonds to be refunded, and he suggested that "it could be low enough in combination with lower totals for new issues to bring us down to the $160 billion to $170 billion range." With 11Z\x months of the year gone by, it now appears that bond issuance this year will total $165 billion, a drop of 43% from last year's record $291 billion.

He expressed worry about the outlook for infrastructure finance. "Appeals to infrastructure needs and the demands are, as often as not, thinly masked requests to have someone else take and pay the costs," he said. "The cries come the loudest from the jurisdictions that have really a lousy history of capital budgeting. Unfortunately, I suspect those numbers are growing larger."

On derivatives, he also spoke with foreboding. The difficulty with derivatives, he said, is that analysts don't have information enough and cannot know precisely the right questions to ask. "At the analytical level, we are called upon to draw judgment upon subsequent credit status of third parties who are involved in derivatives about whom we have no particular knowledge. That means many of us sense that we may be working with time bombs," he said.

* General Purpose & Infrastructure *

Claire Gorham Cohen,

Vice Chairman,

Fitch Investors Service

This year's All-American Team is privileged to include Claire Gorham Cohen as general-purpose and infrastructure analyst for the fourth time. Cohen's 30-year career has spanned virtually all aspects of the municipal market as well as covering international sovereign issuers. She has also been the recipient of the National Federation of Municipal Analysts Career Achievement Award.

Cohen oversees state and sovereign credit ratings at Fitch. She started her career at Dun & Bradstreet. She has served as chairman of the Municipal Analysts Group of New York and on the board of governors of the National Federation of Municipal Analysts. Cohen is also a member of the Municipal Forum.

* Health Care *

Glenn Wagner,

Principal,

Morgan Stanley & Co.

Glen, Wagner is this year's distinguished analyst in the health care category. Wagner has long been recognized as an expert in this field. His opinions have been widely sought as the nation ponders health care reform and portfolio managers grapple for the best-performing issues.

Wagner provides analytical support for Morgan Stanley's sales, trading, and underwriting desks regarding the creditworthiness of tax-exempt has covered the health care industry for over 15 years from positions with other Wall Street firms, a bond insurer, and a rating agency.

* Housing *

Kurt van Kuller,

First Vice President,

Municipal Bond Research,

Merill Lynch & Co.

This is Kurt van Kuller's second consecutive year on the All-American Team in the housing category.

At Merrill Lynch, van Kuller is responsible for covering the housing sector for the institutional sales, trading, marketing syndicate, and derivatives departments, and interfacing with the banking unit. Previously, he was managing director for research at Lebenthal Co. and fixed-income director at Moseley Securities Corp. He began his career at Standard & Poor's Corp. in 1980.

Treasurer of the Municipal Forum of New York, van Kuller also serves on the board of the National Federation of Municipal Analysts.

* Higher *

Education

Katherine R.

Bateman,

Assistant Vice

President and

Sector Manager for

Higher Education

Securities,

John Nuveen & Co.

Active in the National Federation of Municipal Analysts since its inception and the first editor, of the Municipal Analysts Forum Katherine R. Bateman is a welcome member of the All American Team for her work in the higher education sector. This year, the federation gave Bateman the Municipal Industry Contribution Award for her ongoing participation in the market's joint committee and its work on the document that became the core of the Securities and Exchange Commission's amendment to Rule 15c2-l2.

Bateman's primary responsibilities at Nuveen involve heading the college and university security sector and producing research reports on higher education, and on legislation and other events that affect the tax-exempt market. She joined Nuveen in 1983.

* Industrial Development & Utilities *

Gary M. Krellenstein,

Senior Vice President,

Lehman Brothers

Gary Krellenstein holds two spots on the 1994 All-American Municipal Analysts Team as industrial development and utilities analyst. Few, if any, in the industry can claim his background on public power technologies.

For Lehman, Krellenstein provides research to the firm's capital markets and investment banking departments, advising institutional investors as well as issuers. His focus is the credit analysis of public power, water and sewer, and tax-exempt debt issued by private corporations.

Before joining Lehman Brothers in 1987, Krellenstein was a corporate and municipal utility analyst with Merrill Lynch and Morgan Guaranty Trust, respectively. He has also worked as a nuclear engineer and systems analyst for EBASCO Services, the U.S. Department of Energy, the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, and an energy research group at Cornell University.

* Transportation *

Earnest R. Perez,

Director,

Standard & Poor's

Earnest R. Perez joins the 1994 All-American Municipal Analysts Team as transportation analyst. A frequent source for The Bond Buyer's articles on the subject, Perez is in charge of transportation in Standard & Poor's Corp.'s infrastructure group.

With Standard & Poor's since 1983, he is primarily involved with rating special tax revenue bonds and transportation-related financings, and with developing criteria for highway, toll road and mass transit financings. Perez's previous experience includes rating all types municipality utility debt.

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