The New York State Thruway Authority board last week authorized its executive director to negotiate but not execute on his own a new contract with Hawkins Delafield & Wood LLP, which has been bond counsel for the agency for all of its 60 years of existence.
Authority staff selected Hawkins Delafield from 19 responses to an April request for proposals for bond counsel to work on the general revenue bonds.
At its monthly board meeting last week, the board authorized executive director Michael Fleischer to negotiate a contract with Hawkins but removed language that would have allowed the agreement to be executed without board approval.
Hawkin’s current five-year contract ends on Dec. 31. The new contract would be for another five-year term and maximum compensation of $750,000.
The RFP did not apply to highway and bridge trust fund and personal income tax bonds that are issued on behalf of the state, which chooses its own bond counsel from a pool. Board members questioned why the Thruway has used a single bond counsel since its inception and didn’t use a pool.
“Hawkins Delafield & Wood is the largest firm in the country solely dedicated to public finance,” said authority general counsel William Estes. “They have a history with us. They’re very highly regarded.”
He said the firm scored highest in the RFP process.
Hawkins was the second-highest ranked bond counsel firm in the nation last year, serving on 292 deals totaling $23.62 billion, according to Thomson Reuters.
Board member Brandon Sall asked for a representative from Hawkins Delafield to be introduced to the board but none were present. Thruway spokesman Tom Ryan said the firm had not been asked to be there because the procurement process was still ongoing.
The Thruway Authority operates and maintains 641 miles of roadway including a 496-mile toll road.
