The Sabine Parish Police Jury stands to lose $1,112,729.99 over a fiveyear period because it did not accept the best bid for its fiscal agent, according to a letter to the Jury from BOM Bank President and Chief Executive Officer Ken Hale. That amounts to $222,546.00 per year.
The Jury accepted bids until Sept. 30 at which time they were “publicly opened and read aloud,” according to the notice for bids. The Jury’s Finance Committee met Oct. 9 and recommended acceptance of the bid of City Bank and Trust Co. At the Jury meeting of Oct. 16, the Jury voted in favor, with only Juror Thomas (Bo) Stewart, District 1, voting against.
In his letter to the Jury dated Nov. 7, Hale wrote: “In comparing the interest rate calculations of BOM’s bid versus the winning bank’s bid based on the Jury’s average deposits over the last 12 months, the Jury will receive over $222,500 less in interest per year. This, on top of everything, is the hardest to understand. I thought the Police Jury, as elected members and the governing body of the parish, had fiduciary responsibilities to the citizens of Sabine Parish to get the best overall deal for the parish.”
The Jury used a “Proposal Scoring Tabulation” to determine what fiscal agent should get the bid, as follows: “Length of time the financial institution has been in business, length of time the financial institution has been in Sabine Parish, availability of local problem assistance, experience with the financial institution and financial strength of the bank.” It should be pointed out that apparently the Jury did not take into consideration how much interest it could have earned by accepting the BOM bid.
Continuing, Hale pointed out in his letter “glaringly incorrect, inaccurate and basically fraudulent items on the Proposal Scoring Tabulation,” as follows: “Length of time the financial institution has been in business. Both banks were scored 15 points, BOM was opened in 1903, and the winning bank was opened in 1933. This information is on both banks’ websites and is easy to find. I am unsure how three decades longer in existence does not allow BOM more points, especially considering on the next metric BOM received less due to not being in Sabine Parish as long.
“Length of time the financial institution has been in Sabine Parish. BOM was awarded 5 points and the winning bank was awarded 10 points. The scoring tabulation is not factual showing BOM in Sabine Parish for 4 years. BOM has been open in Sabine Parish for 11 years. The winning bank is shown to have been in Sabine Parish for 23 years. I have no way to know if this is correct or not with so much inaccurate and fraudulent information. I will give the benefit of the doubt, and say the 23 years is true and the winner was awarded more points for 12 years longer in Sabine Parish. This being said, why did BOM receive less points than the winning bank while being in existence for three decades longer? Last I checked, 30 years/3 decades is longer than 12 years/1.2 decades. [NOTE: It was checked, and City Bank opened in Many in June 200l.] “Availability of local problem assistance. BOM was awarded 10 points and the winning bank was awarded 15 points. BOM has 12 full time employees at our Many location, and we are in the process of building five additional offices onto our Many branch with intentions of hiring even more Sabine Parish employees. Regional President Daniel Bennett works at our Many location and was born, raised and lives in Sabine Parish. BOM has two Regional Presidents bank-wide and Daniel is one of the two. Daniel is a Senior Executive at BOM and manages the entire northern region of BOM. I am unsure of the amount of employees at the winning bank’s office in Many, but I can confidently say that I think it is less than 12. If I am right, BOM should not have received less points.
“Experience with the financial institution. Both banks received 5 points. This is the only section that is actually fair and correct, in my opinion.
“Financial strength of the bank. Both banks received 45 points. BOM has $1.2 billion in assets and over $157 million in total consolidated capital. The winning bank stated in their bid packet that they have $327 million in assets and $39 million in capital.”
Continuing, Hale wrote about BOM’s proposal for interest on deposits, saying, “BOM’s bid offered a more superior rate (than was accepted) and the rate would have been paid on 100% of the Jury’s deposits versus the winning bank paying an inferior interest rate on an unknown portion of deposits.”
Hale ended his letter saying, “As you can see, something is not right. Let’s give the benefit of the doubt and assume the total score in the Proposal Scoring Tabulation was the exact same and that fraudulent information had not been used for BOM. Both banks would have ended with the same exact score. The higher rate paid by BOM on ALL the Jury’s deposits versus the interest rate paid on an unknown PORTION of the Jury’s deposits by the winning bank literally takes hundreds of thousands of dollars out of the pockets of hard-working Sabine Parish citizens. Over time, it could add up to millions.”