December 20, 2022
By: Dwayne Page
The return of Steve Bates?
Two and a half years ago the former county commission voted 8-6 to defund the county’s fiscal agent/financial advisor position held by Steve Bates, of Guardian Advisors, LLC based in Hohenwald.
The idea at the time was the county could save the $15,000 a year it was paying Bates for annual budget preparation and secure the services of the County Technical Assistance Service (CTAS) who could do the same work free of charge. But now with potentially two major building projects to be considered by the county commission in the near future, a new jail expansion or justice center and a new elementary school, County Mayor Matt Adcock is recommending to the county commission that $22,500 in funding annually be approved to contract with Bates for financial planning and budget preparation services going forward.
County Mayor Adcock addressed the county commission Monday night during its informal committee of the whole meeting, and he introduced Bates to the new commissioners. If approved Thursday night during the county commission’s regular monthly meeting, funds for the position would be taken from the county general fund balance to finish out the fiscal year.
For several years Bates had worked for the county as fiscal agent/financial advisor, a contracted service. He was brought in during the administration of former County Mayor Mike Foster and stayed on under former County Mayor Tim Stribling until Bates’ position was defunded in July 2020. His purpose was to give financial direction to the county mayor and members of the budget committee in the preparation of the annual spending plans and they relied on the computer software Bates used to format the budgets because it was easy for them to follow showing actual and proposed budget numbers for the current and following year as well as audited financial performance numbers from the two previous years.
After Bates’ departure, some members of the former commission regretted the decision to drop him and in July 2021 made an unsuccessful attempt to bring him back on a 7-4 vote in favor with eight votes needed for passage.
From that 14-member county commission when Bates’ position was defunded in 2020, only four members still remain and three of them supported Bates at that time.
County Mayor Adcock, who was a sixth district county commissioner at the time, was one of those members in 2020 who voted to defund the Bates’ position, but he has since had a change of heart.
Although CTAS was a valuable asset to the county, Mayor Adcock said Monday night he thought Bates, as a paid contracted service, could do more for the county.
“I was one of the county commissioners at the time that voted him (Bates) out and not have a (paid) financial advisor, but with us now coming into a new year with a lot of big projects I feel like Steve could bring more to the table and give us a history lesson on ourselves (county) since he was here previously for so long,” said County Mayor Adcock.
“I recently met with Steve. He came to my office and talked to me and said he would love to come back and help us out if we ever needed anything. He has a lot of background with DeKalb County Government and experience with projects we have done and with just his history alone it seemed like it could help us tremendously,” said Adcock.
“My primary role is to issue bonds and be a financial advisor to local governments and I have issued probably a billion dollars in bonds over the years in my career. I have issued bonds for broadband, schools, bridges, water and sewer treatment plants, etc.”, said Bates in his remarks to the county commission Monday night.
“I actually got into doing budgets when Mike Foster was here and at the time, I really didn’t want to do that, but I agreed to help him, so I started with DeKalb County (being financial advisor and doing budget preparation) and then I began working with Wayne, Lawrence, and Decatur Counties,” said Bates.
“My role is to look ahead and what I do is a blend of the law, accounting, and investment banking all rolled into one,” Bates continued. When you start talking about doing projects, what you really need is someone who can make some projections for you and my goal would be to help you do your project at the lowest cost and protect your finances. I don’t care who buys your bonds. I am totally independent, and I don’t have any conflict of interest. I want the same thing you want, and I want the project structured in a way that matches the debt service requirements of DeKalb County. That’s all and I do that for every community I serve. I can help you with financial planning, get you ready to issue bonds when you are ready, and have your finances in order so you maintain a good bond rating to protect your credit rating,” Bates said.
Should the county initiate a building project, Bates said he could help with the issuance of bonds.
“Typically, if you hire me to do your budgets, I will write your bonds,” said Bates, “I create bonds and then I put them out for sale to the banks and once I do that, they are advertised in a platform in New York City, and it goes global. I have kept the same fee for 30 years and that is five dollars per one thousand on general obligation bonds so if you do a one-million-dollar bond that is $5,000. If you do $10 million my cost is $50,000. That is the only fee I get on bonds except for reimbursement for mileage and incidentals like postage. It doesn’t matter who you get to issue the bonds somebody is going to earn that fee and there are fees other than mine that are also involved in the issuance of bonds,” said Bates.
If the county is seriously considering a building project, Bates urged the commissioners not to wait too long and possibly get something in place by next September due to further projected rising interest rates.
The county commission will meet in regular monthly session Thursday, December 22 at 6:30 p.m. in the auditorium of the Mike Foster Multi-Purpose Center.