East Point council hears bank pitches as officials map an investment policy; city manager can reconfigure accounts to raise interest

Councilwoman Ziegler opened a presentation on an investment policy and invited bank representatives to describe options for the city’s cash-management arrangements.

Leonard Bohannon of Bank OZK introduced his firm and its local office in East Point and said the bank seeks to build local relationships and “add value to the city of East Point” through deposit and treasury solutions.

Representatives from Regions Bank said the city’s current account structure is not optimized for interest income and rebates. Fabian Wilson, Regions’ vice president and commercial-relationship manager, told council: “If we were to implement the proposals that we've proposed, it would, you know, the city would earn an additional $60,000 a month in additional interest.” He also described a commercial (purchase) card platform that can be configured with controls and an expense-management mobile app to capture receipts and apply vendor-rebate programs.

Council members pressed for specifics about how quickly account changes could be made and whether any decisions required direct council approval. City Manager Jones and the city attorney advised that restructuring deposit accounts to take advantage of bank products generally falls within administrative authority, subject to statutory collateralization requirements, but that credit-card policy and purchase-card rules should be adopted as council policy before some card features are deployed.

Council discussion centered on two decisions: continuing the investment-policy drafting work to present formal policy language in a March work session, and hearing the remaining bank (Bank of America) in March before selecting a primary depository or product. Several council members expressed support for directing the city manager to implement straightforward account-structure changes (routing deposits into account types that earn higher net interest) so the city can start capturing improved yields without delay. Other members emphasized that the purchase-card platform must support the policy the council eventually adopts—particularly receipt capture and shutdown controls when policy requirements aren’t met.

The council directed staff to produce a consolidated investment-policy draft and to schedule final bank presentations and a formal vote on credit-card/purchase-card adoption in April so the body could compare vendor features and ensure policy and product alignment.