At approximately 10:30 a.m. last Tuesday, agents of Davenport and Co. (the financial advisor selected to handle GO Bonds for the county), sold on behalf of Putnam County, $22.7 millionworth of General Obligation Bonds, which will result in a countydebt of $24 millionwhen fees and interest are added.
At approximately 7 p.m. on July 23, 2024 (eight-plus hours later), agents of Davenport and Co. appeared before the Board of Commissioners and asked for approval of the sale. Simple question: who authorized Davenport and Co. to sell the GO Bonds before the sale was approved?
To my mind, only two possibilities: 1) Someone from the county, or 2) Davenport and Co. took it upon themselves. In either case, this begs the question of who is running the county? Certainly not the BOC or else the request from Davenport and Co. wouldn’t have been toratifythe sale, it would have been to request approval tomakethe sale.
Not that it makes any difference now, I suppose, but the referendum that was passed by the voters some time ago authorized the issuance ofup to $22 millionin GO Bonds. Davenport and Co., with the approval of the BOC, has sold GO Bonds worth$22.7 million.
To just a dumb layman like me who can barely read and write, this seems like a violation of what the voters authorized. Pay attention out there, folks. It is you, the taxpayers, who will have to pay off this $24 million debt.
Billy Webster Putnam County