David Hooks was hired last week to be Jefferson County’s director of capital structure and investments, according to the Birmingham News.
Hooks, who will make $130,000 a year in his new post, was chief of staff to Jefferson County Commissioner Jimmie Stephens. Stephens heads up the commission’s committee that oversees finances.
County manager Tony Petelos hired Hooks and said his experience was needed to manage the county’s debt.
“Maybe if we had somebody with his bond market experience on staff years ago we wouldn’t be in the financial mess we are in today,” Petelos told the newspaper.
The county filed for Chapter 9 protection in November with $4.2 billion of outstanding warrants. Of those, $3.14 billion are sewer warrants. Most of them are in default.
Hooks is a member of the Homewood City Council, where he serves as chairman of the committee on finance, administration and intergovernmental relations for the Alabama League of Municipalities.
He had formerly worked for the Birmingham-based Sterne, Agee & Leach Inc. as a managing director of public finance.
