Homewood finance director presents Synovus Bank depository proposal; committee to consider formal vote Monday

Finance Director Lester Smith told the Homewood City Finance Committee Jan. 6 he is asking the committee to recommend that the City Council approve Synovus Bank as a depository and treasury-services partner.

"We're asking the finance committee to recommend the city council the approval of Synovus Bank as a depository," Finance Director Lester Smith said. Synovus representatives Laura Clark, Jared Best and Annie Scott gave a detailed presentation on services the bank would provide, including a business-process review, fraud mitigation, payments management (virtual or "ghost" card programs), accounts-receivable tools such as a Smart Safe, and daily feeds to accounting software for faster reconciliation.

Synovus presenters said the bank would work with Homewood to document workflows, introduce dual-control checks on transfers and improve reconciliation so cash receipts are recorded daily rather than at month-end. "That process review can really help us ... identify what's pertinent to your situation, what's cost effective, what's gonna improve efficiency, and deliver results that you all want in a ... controlled environment," Synovus treasury specialist Annie Scott said.

Bank staff described account and pricing proposals: they proposed consolidating roughly 30 accounts down to about 10 essential accounts to simplify accounting and ensure funds that must be segregated remain separate. Synovus told the committee those consolidated accounts would earn an indexed rate — described in the presentation as Fed funds minus 75 basis points — yielding an illustrative rate of about 3.75% at the time of the presentation. The presenters estimated that, after fees and consolidation, the approach could yield approximately $132,000 per month in interest credit for the city. Jared Best, Synovus's government solutions relationship manager, said the bank also uses an earnings-credit-rate model so fees are offset by interest credits rather than hard charges on statements.

Synovus described the Smart Safe (installed and serviced by an armored depository vendor such as Loomis) as a vault at City Hall that records who made deposits and denominations, gives next-day credit and reduces the need for employees to make bank drops. "Once it's in, you can't get it back out," Synovus staff said, describing security and insurance features.

Committee members discussed oversight and relationship management. Smith said the city will need to designate signers for accounts and reiterated that, in his current position as finance director, he does not have authority to wire funds or sign checks. The committee was told the Synovus team would be available for more frequent in-person engagement early in the relationship and would tailor services after a business-process review.

Lester Smith said the project timeline is constrained by other IT and accounting system work: Synovus's services are slated to begin work Jan. 20 with an operating go-live target of May 1. Smith said because of schedule constraints the Synovus briefing was presented to the Finance Committee rather than being referred via the usual council channels.

Votes at a glance: At the Jan. 6 Finance Committee meeting the committee approved the minutes by a 5-0 vote and approved a motion to drop agenda item 14 1124 (request to amend a tax incentive agreement) after staff said the project's proponents were not present. The committee did not vote to select a bank; Smith said the Synovus item would appear as "other new business" on the City Council agenda on Monday for a formal vote.

Ending: The Finance Committee received the Synovus presentation and directed staff to bring a recommendation and related documentation to the City Council for formal action on Monday. The committee discussed signatory authority and next steps for integrating treasury workflows and accounting-software changes.