Item 9A. CONTROLS AND PROCEDURES

Quarterly Assessment

We carried out an assessment as of December 31, 2016 of the effectiveness of the design and operation of our disclosure controls and procedures and our internal control over financial reporting. This assessment was done under the supervision and with the participation of management, including our Chief Executive Officer and our Chief Financial Officer. Rules adopted by the Securities and Exchange Commission ("SEC") require that we present the conclusions of our principal executive officer and our principal financial officer about the effectiveness of our disclosure controls and procedures and the conclusions of our management about the effectiveness of our internal control over financial reporting as of the end of the period covered by this annual report.

Principal Executive Officer and Principal Financial Officer Certifications

Included as Exhibits 31.1 and 31.2 to this Annual Report on Form 10-K are forms of “Certification” of our principal executive officer and our principal financial officer. The forms of Certification are required in accordance with Section 302 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002. This section of this Annual Report on Form 10-K that you are currently reading is the information concerning the assessment referred to in the Section 302 certifications and this information should be read in conjunction with the Section 302 certifications for a more complete understanding of the topics presented.

Disclosure Controls and Procedures

We maintain disclosure controls and procedures that are designed to provide reasonable assurance that information required to be disclosed in our Exchange Act reports, such as this report on Form 10-K, is recorded, processed, summarized and reported within the time periods specified in the SEC’s rules and forms, and that such information is accumulated and communicated to our management, including our President and Chief Executive Officer and Executive Vice President-Chief Financial Officer, as appropriate, to allow timely decisions regarding required disclosure. These controls and procedures are based closely on the definition of “disclosure controls and procedures” in Rule 13a-15(e) promulgated under the Exchange Act. Rules adopted by the SEC require that we present the conclusions of the Chief Executive Officer and Chief Financial Officer about the effectiveness of our disclosure controls and procedures as of the end of the period covered by this annual report.

Internal Control over Financial Reporting

Establishing and maintaining internal control over financial reporting is a process designed by, or under the supervision of, our President and Chief Executive Officer and Executive Vice President-Chief Financial Officer, as appropriate, and effected by our employees, including management and our Board of Trustees, to provide reasonable assurance regarding the reliability of financial reporting and the preparation of financial statements for external purposes in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles in the United States of America. This process includes policies and procedures that:

Limitations on the Effectiveness of Controls

Management, including our Chief Executive Officer and Chief Financial Officer, do not expect that our disclosure controls and procedures or internal control over financial reporting will prevent all errors and fraud. In designing and evaluating our control system, management recognized that any control system, no matter how well designed and operated, can provide only reasonable, not absolute, assurance of achieving the desired control objectives. Further, the design of a control system must reflect the fact that there are resource constraints, and management necessarily was required to apply its judgment in evaluating the cost-benefit relationship of possible controls and procedures. Because of the inherent limitations in all control systems, no evaluation of controls can provide absolute assurance that all control issues and instances of fraud, if any, that may affect our operation have been or will be detected. These inherent limitations include the realities that judgments in decision-making can be faulty, and that breakdowns can occur because of simple error or mistake. Additionally, controls can be circumvented by the individual acts of some persons, by collusion of two or more people, or by management’s override of the control. The design of any system of controls also is based in part upon certain assumptions about the likelihood of future events, and there can be no assurance that any design will succeed in achieving its stated goals under all potential future conditions. Over time, controls may become inadequate because of changes in conditions that cannot be anticipated at the present time, or the degree of compliance with the policies or procedures may deteriorate. Because of the inherent limitations in a cost-effective control system, misstatements due to error or fraud may occur and may not be detected.

Scope of the Evaluations

The evaluation by our Chief Executive Officer and our Chief Financial Officer of our disclosure controls and procedures and our internal control over financial reporting included a review of our procedures and procedures performed by internal audit, as well as discussions with our Disclosure Committee and others in our organization, as appropriate. In conducting this evaluation, our management used the criteria set forth by the Committee of Sponsoring Organizations of the Treadway Commission (COSO) in the 2013 Internal Control—Integrated Framework. In the course of the evaluation, we sought to identify data errors, control problems or acts of fraud and to confirm that appropriate corrective action, including process improvements, were being undertaken. The evaluation of our disclosure controls and procedures and our internal control over financial

reporting is done on a quarterly basis, so that the conclusions concerning the effectiveness of such controls can be reported in our Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q and Annual Reports on Form 10-K.

Our internal control over financial reporting is also assessed on an ongoing basis by personnel in our accounting department and by our independent auditors in connection with their audit and review activities. The overall goals of these various evaluation activities are to monitor our disclosure controls and procedures and our internal control over financial reporting and to make modifications as necessary. Our intent in this regard is that the disclosure controls and procedures and internal control over financial reporting will be maintained and updated (including with improvements and corrections) as conditions warrant. Among other matters, we sought in our evaluation to determine whether there were any “significant deficiencies” or “material weaknesses” in our internal control over financial reporting, or whether we had identified any acts of fraud involving personnel who have a significant role in our internal control over financial reporting. This information is important both for the evaluation generally and because the Section 302 certifications require that our Chief Executive Officer and our Chief Financial Officer disclose that information to the Audit Committee of our Board of Trustees and our independent auditors and also require us to report on related matters in this section of the Annual Report on Form 10-K. In the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board’s Auditing Standard No. 5, a “deficiency” in internal control over financial reporting exists when the design or operation of a control does not allow management or employees, in the normal course of performing their assigned functions, to prevent or detect misstatements on a timely basis. A “significant deficiency” is a deficiency, or a combination of deficiencies, in internal control over financial reporting that is less severe than a material weakness, yet important enough to merit attention by those responsible for oversight of the company’s financial reporting. A “material weakness” is defined in Auditing Standard No. 5 as a deficiency, or a combination of deficiencies, in internal control over financial reporting, such that there is a reasonable possibility that a material misstatement of the company’s annual or interim financial statements will not be prevented or detected on a timely basis. We also sought to deal with other control matters in the evaluation, and in any case in which a problem was identified, we considered what revision, improvement and/or correction was necessary to be made in accordance with our on-going procedures.

Periodic Evaluation and Conclusion of Disclosure Controls and Procedures

Our Chief Executive Officer and Chief Financial Officer have conducted an evaluation of the effectiveness of the design and operation of our disclosure controls and procedures as of the end of the period covered by this report. Based on that evaluation, the Chief Executive Officer and Chief Financial Officer concluded that such controls and procedures were effective as of the end of the period covered by this report and provides reasonable assurance that information required to be disclosed in our Exchange Act reports is recorded, processed, summarized and reported within the time periods specified in the SEC’s rules and forms, and that such information is accumulated and communicated to our management to allow timely decisions regarding required disclosure.

Periodic Evaluation and Conclusion of Internal Control over Financial Reporting

Our Chief Executive Officer and Chief Financial Officer have conducted an evaluation of the effectiveness of the design and operation of our internal control over financial reporting as of the end of our most recent fiscal year. Based on that evaluation, the Chief Executive Officer and Chief Financial Officer concluded that such internal control over financial reporting was effective as of the end of our most recent fiscal year and provides reasonable assurance regarding the reliability of financial reporting and the preparation of financial statements for external purposes in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles in the United States of America.

Statement of Our Management

Our management has issued a report on its assessment of the Trust’s internal control over financial reporting, which appears on page F-2 of this Annual Report on Form 10-K.

Statement of Our Independent Registered Public Accounting Firm

Grant Thornton LLP, our independent registered public accounting firm that audited the financial statements included in this Annual Report on Form 10-K, has issued an attestation report on the Trust’s internal control over financial reporting, which appears on page F-3 of this Annual Report on Form 10-K.

Changes in Internal Control Over Financial Reporting

There was no change in our internal control over financial reporting during our fourth fiscal quarter of 2016 that materially affected, or is reasonably likely to materially affect, our internal control over financial reporting.