Personal contact is a beautiful thing

By Staff
Steve Gillespie / staff writer
March 28, 2004
Moody's Investors Service of New York pioneered the rating of the U.S. bond market when John Moody, the company's namesake, published the first debt ratings in the "Manual of Railroad Securities" in 1909.
A rating is the company's opinion on the ability and willingness of a bond issuer to make timely payments on a debt.
Lauderdale County wants to issue $3.8 million in bonds to carry out its road improvement plan. The bond rating from Moody's, which is essentially a credit rating, will be considered when financial institutions bid on issuing the bonds.
To determine the rating, Moody's gathers information and evaluates risk. The company monitors on an ongoing basis whether the rating should be changed.
According to information supplied by Moody's in a pamphlet, bond rating analysts use various sources of information, like public annual reports, stock price trends, economic data from industry and financial agencies, financial journals, news reports, sources in industry and government, and information from meetings or conversations with the debt issuer.
Moody's doesn't tell who they meet with either. In a telephone conversation Wednesday with John Cline who identified himself as communications manager with Moody's, and whose official title, according to an e-mail from him, is vice president of rating communications said he didn't know who was coming to visit them from Lauderdale County and that they don't divulge the comings and goings of people, anyway.
He said face-to-face meetings happen all the time with bond issuers, either in New York or with analysts that travel. But, asked whether personal meetings between Moody's and bond issuers have any effect on ratings, he said: "A face-to-face meeting has no bearing on the level of a rating at all."
So, why did seven Lauderdale County officials feel it was important to go to New York to have a meeting with these people for what Lauderdale County Administrator Rex Hiatt said would probably last about 90 minutes to two hours?
Hiatt said it's important to introduce the newest members on the county's board of supervisors. That's two people. District 1 Supervisor Eddie Harper and District 4 Supervisor Joe Norwood, the vice president and president of the board, respectively.
But, everyone had a job to do, a topic to talk about, whether it was economic development, the financial condition of the county, pending legal actions, the Navy base and the roads that they want to borrow $3.8 million to work on.
The roads presentation was to be made by Neal Carson, Lauderdale County engineer. He said he would use color-coded maps to give an overview of the county's skill and equipment, and present a list of roads to be overlaid and a list of roads to be paved.
I think all the presentations made to the people in New York would be beneficial to Lauderdale County residents. I think every dime spent associated with the trip, including travel, lodging, attorneys fees everything should be divulged when they get back.
When elected president of the board of supervisors in 2002, District 3 Supervisor Craig Hitt said it is important for the board to stay in touch with "the people."
Norwood said the same thing this year when he was elected president. He even said he wants to hold town meetings on a quarterly basis. He held town meetings when he first got on the board. Hitt held at least one after he was elected, too.
I don't doubt that all of the county officials who went to New York believed their presence would, or could, make a difference.
Even when personal contacts are not supposed to matter, they do. It has its advantages. Anybody who has grown up around "good ol' boys" or cliques has seen it first-hand.
Our new governor campaigned that his personal acquaintance with President Bush and other Washington heavyweights would help Mississippi "do better." Most voters believed him.
Now is the time for our county leaders to take that extra step to improve their personal contact with us, here at home.