BRADENTON, Fla. - Winter Park-based Dunlap & Associates Inc., one of Florida's largestindependent financial advisory firms, will open its third office in the Sunshine Stateon May 1 with a highly respected finance official at the helm.
Damon Adams, 56, a former finance director of Fort Lauderdale, will become senior vicepresident and open a Dunlap office in that city. The firm also has an office in Tampa.Adams, a certified public accountant, served nearly 30 years as finance director beforeretiring in April 2003. During his tenure with the city, Adams conducted the firstInternet bond sale by a city government in Florida. He also worked in the Tampa area asan auditor for the city and a staff accountant for local CPA firms.
While he has traveled abroad and golfed since retiring, in March Adams finished a four-month stint as interim pension administrator for Boca Raton.
Then Craig Dunlap, the president of the firm and Fort Lauderdale's financial adviser,approached Adams with a job offer.
"Damon has a wealth of knowledge and experience, and he is extremely well respectedamong his peers in the state," Dunlap said. "I think he will be very effective being anadviser. He can assist me in the work that I do throughout Florida and also hopefullyadd some new accounts to our resume."
Adams looks forward to teaming up with Dunlap.
"I want to keep my finger in the pie as far as municipal finance is concerned," he said."I think I can bring a unique perspective to the firm, having been on the issuer sidefor so long, and I do have a lot of contacts throughout the state."
Because of potential conflicts of interest stemming from his former job, Adams will notwork with Fort Lauderdale for several years, said Dunlap, who has picked up a fewcontacts of his own across Florida over the years.
The firm, which has five employees, concentrates on advising municipal governments onthe use of tax-exempt debt to finance public projects, Dunlap said, noting that the firmdoes no underwriting.Most recently, the city of Coral Springs, which Dunlap has advised for 13 years, becamea gilt-edged credit when Standard & Poor's raised its general obligation rating to AAAfrom AA on April 9.
The firm also serves as financial adviser for the cities of Miami, West Palm Beach, VeroBeach, Ocala, Daytona Beach, Jacksonville Beach, Temple Terrace, and Plant City.
Other clients include Pasco County, the Reedy Creek Improvement District, the FloridaMunicipal Power Agency, and Florida State University.
Adams is a member of both the Florida and American Institutes of Certified PublicAccountants. He is also a member of the Government Finance Officers Association andserved on its executive board from 1997 to 2000 and on its special review executivecommittee from 1990 to 1996.
The Florida GFOA honored him with its Lifetime Achievement Award last year. He served aspresident of the organization in 1984 and became a certified government finance officerin 1997.
Dunlap was the director of the state Division of Bond Finance from 1973 to 1977. Afterthat he headed up a regional public finance department for Dean Witter Reynolds andworked for Evensen Dodge Inc. before opening Dunlap & Associates in 1995.
"Craig and I have the same philosophies," Adams said. "We both strongly feel that inevery transaction where there is debt borrowing, there is a need for an independentfinancial adviser. We both believe that as much competition for the transaction shouldbe created as possible."
Last year Dunlap & Associates was ranked fifth among financial advisers on municipalbond deals in Florida, with 19 deals for a par amount of $861.2 million, according toThomson Financial.
