Habersham Development Authority approves recurring bond-management deal with Tim Sims

The Habersham County Development Authority unanimously approved a lease agreement with Tim Sims for bond-management services at its May 9, 2024 meeting, setting compensation at $1,500 for each bond per year. The approved minutes record the motion, second and unanimous vote, turning an item scheduled for consideration into an authorized recurring arrangement.

The decision puts financial-management work connected to the authority’s bonds under a per-bond annual charge. For residents, the central unanswered question is the deal’s full cost: the recorded action gives a rate but does not identify the bonds covered or their number, so it does not permit a calculation of the yearly total.

The matter first appeared on the authority’s May 9 agenda as a proposed review and approval of Sims’ lease agreement. Later that same meeting, according to the approved minutes, the authority acted on the proposal and approved it unanimously. The minutes also said a bond attorney for this and future bonds would most likely cost $18,000 to $36,000 annually, providing the authority’s stated comparison as it considered the arrangement.

The Development Authority approved the agreement and its stated compensation structure. Sims is the person authorized to provide the bond-management services under the agreement. The minutes describe the arrangement as including language defining his role in managing bond-related financials, while the attorney-cost figure is presented in the minutes as a likely cost for bond counsel on this and future bonds, not as a documented savings calculation for the Sims agreement.

The approval itself is complete; it is not a pending proposal. But the meeting materials do not include the full executed agreement, a list of bonds covered, invoices or payments, or records describing services performed. Those omissions do not establish that Sims has not worked or been paid; they leave the agreement’s implementation, scope and total annual financial reach unresolved.

The next public development would be a later Development Authority record showing implementation, an amendment or completion of the agreement. An executed agreement or later financial record could identify the covered bonds, show the total annual cost and describe the work performed. Until such a record appears, the authority’s approval and the $1,500-per-bond annual rate are established, but the number of bonds and resulting yearly expense remain undecided in the public record cited here.