The Opp City Council did not amend its agenda and vote on whether to go with Stifel or Harbor Financial to refinance the hospital’s portion of the 2011 bond issue.

The council has heard from several firms over the last few months about refinancing the $6 million bond issue that the city council floated to fund Mizell Memorial Hospital in 2011.

It was decided that the since the city refinanced the utilities department’s 2007 bond issue earlier this year, and had a few other loans out, that refinancing would put them over the threshold for bank qualified debt limit of $10 million.

The plan is to do the deal in the calendar year, but not close until 2018 to lock in the interest rate.

On Monday night, Reese Rainey of Harbor Financial asked the council to allow his company and Stifel to give figures on the same day to compare “apples to apples.”

“My costs are always less than the competition,” he said.

Rainey said that Harbor Financial and Stifel both use the same lenders, but that Harbor’s fees are always less.

During the last bond refinance, the city spent some $20,000 in legal fees. Rainey said he could get the fees down to about half of that.

He also said he could get the issuance fees down lower than Stifel’s as well, committing to a $5 per $1,000, which he said was negotiable, if Stifel came in lower.

Rainey said there wouldn’t be much legal work since the city had recently did a refinance.

Mayor Becky Bracke said that they wanted to do the resolution for deciding which company to go with at Monday night’s meeting because it needed to get done before the end of the year.

City Clerk Connie Smith said they had been told that Monday was the last day to get it in so that there would be time to get the paperwork done before Dec. 31.

Rainey guaranteed that if he were given until Tuesday to get numbers he could get it done by Dec. 31.

The council agreed to give him time to get his numbers together.

At the last council meeting, the council voted to allow Stifel to get a proposal together for them.