NATCHEZ — City officials were slated Friday to potentially vote on refinancing the $7 million debt still owed on the Natchez Convention Center, but the meeting fell through when not enough aldermen showed up to conduct business at the specially called meeting to address the issue along with other items.

It is not clear how much associated fees would cost in refinancing the debt and no one could say Friday what the interest rate would be if the city were to proceed with the refinancing deal.

Natchez Mayor Darryl Grennell said the fees would be based off a small percentage of what is refinanced, though Grennell said he was unaware of what the percentage would be as of Friday.

“All of that will be presented, but I haven’t seen a percentage,” Grennell said.

If and when the board proceeds, the agencies working for the city would come back before the board at a later date with definitive numbers, City Attorney Bob Latham said.

“When Butler Snow gets down here, they can give us an idea (about the fees),” Latham said, adding the refinancing would be in the neighborhood of the aforementioned $7 million figure, though the board has discussed potentially piling on a few hundred-thousand dollars to make capital improvements to the convention center, such as a new speaker system.

Nnamdi Thompson, the city’s financial adviser said he could not speak in detail about the proposal but said he believes the refinancing has no downside, even though he could not give any specifics on the proposal, such as the costs of refinancing consulting fees or interest rates.

Despite hearing concerns from at least one citizen, attorney Paul Benoist, about the city extending its debt on the bond, Thompson said the refinancing would do no such thing.

“From a city’s perspective,” Thompson said, “no — all you’re doing is saving money. That is it.”

Thompson also said the refinance would not extend the payoff date which for the Natchez Convention Center bond issue is set to mature in 2024.

“You’re not going out; you’re just lowering the rate enough to still effect lower payments,” Thompson said, adding he believed Natchez could shave off approximately $200,000 in interest owed on the $7 million debt, even after refinancing fees though he could not provide estimates of the amount of those fees.

Documents from the Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board show a remaining debt of just more than $7 million on the bond, with the next payment due July 1 showing $720,000. According to those documents, the current debt financing has the city making a final payment of just less than $2 million in July 2024.

The $200,000 in estimated savings was an estimate based on the interest rates at the time of the meeting, which Thompson pointed out are always in flux.

Those savings would meet the statutory requirement that a municipality achieve at least a 2-percent savings in order to refinance a bond.

Another concern that had been brought up to the board was whether they had the capability to refinance again after already doing so in 2006 — Thompson said that would not matter.

As part of this current round of refinancing, the city must also terminate a swap transaction — a complicated venture that involved the city exchanging its fixed interest rate with a bank’s variable interest rate — used to facilitate the 2006 refinancing.

To do that, the board must hire a firm to handle the termination. At the board of aldermen’s Feb. 27, Ward 1 Alderwoman Joyce Arceneaux-Mathis asked for the approval of a resolution to retain the services of law firm Chambers and Gaylor, PLLC to handle the termination of the swap transaction, but the matter was deferred until the board could seek legal and financial counsel.

The next opportunity the aldermen will have to discuss all of these matters will be at Tuesday’s regular meeting, though the status of that meeting remains in limbo due to the Arceneaux-Mathis, Alderman Billie Joe Frazier and Alderwoman Felicia Irving’s travel. At least one of those aldermen would need to participate via telephone for the board to make a quorum.

Thompson said he would not be able to make the Tuesday meeting.