ODESSA, Texas (KMID / KPEJ) – The city of Odessa is speaking out after Standard & Poor’s, a rating agency that ranks creditworthiness, withdrew its bond rating.
Odessa City Manager John Beckmeyer said a delay in the city’s 2022 and 2023 audits led to the withdrawal.
“There wasn’t anything wrong with the accounts – it was just getting the audit in,” he said. “We wanted to make sure that we had a true and good audit that was supported by the documentation that we have here at the city.”
According to City Council candidate Craig Stoker, a possible underlying cause of delayed audits was the turnover within the city’s finance department in recent years.
“For them to step into these roles and have a very steep learning curve, crash course in how to do these things – it’s been very difficult,” he said.
The city manager explained that the new employees had to fix issues with financial records and establish a new documentation process before the audits could be turned in.
Losing the bond rating puts Odessa at risk of not receiving funds from the federal government. Beckmeyer however, said no projects should be affected, including a recent $25 million investment in fixing the water. Stoker said the bond’s withdrawal should serve as a warning.
“It leaves us in a position that if we get into an emergency and we have to do any emergency spending, anything that comes, it leaves us in a very vulnerable position,” he said.
According to S&P, Odessa’s general obligation rating was withdrawn earlier this year after the City was warned and had 30 days to take action; which they failed to do.
“To maintain we rely on timely financial related information relevant to our credit analysis,” the group said.
The City of Odessa told S&P it expects the completed audit report to be available within the next 60 days.