Winning the second annual Jim Lebenthal Infrastructure Champion Award is special for Dale Horowitz.
"Jim was a great proponent of municipal financing. He knew what he was talking about," Horowitz, a senior managing director at Citigroup, said of Lebenthal, a longtime champion of muni bonds who
"He believed in the municipal market and a lot of people did very well because they listened to him. He was a salesman along with his hard work. He made a lot of people very happy. We could use Jim right now with issues like Detroit and Puerto Rico."
Horowitz, 83, a major banking figure during the New York City fiscal crisis of the mid-1970s and the Orange County, Calif., bankruptcy about 20 years later, will receive the award Jan. 26 at The Bond Buyer's National Outlook 2016 conference at the Metropolitan Club of New York.
"Jim Lebenthal was extremely passionate about the important role that municipal bonds play in rebuilding and enhancing our nation's infrastructure," said Michael Ballinger, publisher of The Bond Buyer. "To honor his legacy, we are delighted to give the second annual Jim Lebenthal Infrastructure Champion award to Dale Horowitz, an individual who embodies that spirit."
Horowitz's career has spanned 60 years with Salomon Brothers, Salomon Smith Barney and Citigroup. A graduate of Columbia College and Columbia Law School, Horowitz joined Salomon in 1955 and became general partner in 1967.
"Dale was one of my Dad's favorite people because he was – and still is – an amazing, consummate municipal professional who countless times has been at the forefront, whether it's Orange County or New York City," said Alexandra Lebenthal, daughter of Jim Lebenthal and co-chief executive of Lebenthal Holdings LLC. "He really worked for solutions to save not just bondholders, but to save the municipalities themselves.
"Dale was one of those people when I first started out in this business that my Dad said you'd have to meet. They were close friends," she added. "The fun thing about doing this award is looking at things through the
Alan Anders, deputy director of the New York City Office of Management and Budget, won
As a Salomon Brothers partner during New York's worst financial crisis, Horowitz was a guiding force in the underwriting group that structured the first bonds sold by the Municipal Assistance Corp., even as others in the financial markets were skittish. MAC, a state agency, sold almost $10 billion in bonds to keep the city solvent.
"I really came in contact with Jim during the city's financial crisis in 1974 and 1975," Horowitz recalled during an interview at his Citigroup office overlooking the Hudson River. "He was a staunch supporter of the city despite its problems.
"Jim was in the forefront. We knew what he was talking about and believed in what he was saying. He was really interested in good finance. He wanted people to understand that with good finance came securities that had excellent value."
Horowitz saw MAC's potential and with his firm's support made that vision materialize. He later served a five-year term through 1994 as director of MAC, which dissolved in 2008.
"What made a major difference in solving the crisis in New York City was that there was a collective will to do this, from the unions that kept their wage demands down, to the banks who supported the market, to the real estate industry that prepaid taxes," he said.
Horowitz also fondly remembers William Salomon, who built the family bond trading house into a major Wall Street force. Salomon died in December 2014 at age 100.
"Billy was special because he believed that the most important rule was 'client first,'" said Horowitz. "The one way to get fired was to do anything that would impugn the integrity of the firm," he said of Salomon, who once fired a high-producing floor trader over padded expenses.
"He took a second-bracket firm and turned it into a powerhouse," said Horowitz. "He was responsible for major change on Wall Street. He encouraged using the firm's capital to take risk for the client, which differentiated Salomon Brothers at the time. The business I knew when I came into the market in 1955 had little relation to what it was in 1978 when Billy retired."
Horowitz was also the chief financial advisor on the Salomon Brothers team for Orange County, enabling it to emerge from a 1994 Chapter 9 bankruptcy filing. The event shook the muni bond market at the time.
"New York City wanted to pay but couldn't," said Horowitz. "Orange County had the means to pay but was slow to do so."
Orange County had an Aa1 rating – the highest of any California county – when it filed for bankruptcy.
"You have to judge each individual security on its own merit," he said. "I think you've got to look from credit to credit and do some of your own credit work. I know it's not easy. You can't rely solely on ratings by any means."
The county rebounded and received two investment-grade ratings in 1998.
Horowitz was an original member of the Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board, and its chairman in 1977.
"The municipal market is a highly professional market," said Horowitz. "It's a difficult place for some individuals, particularly in relation to other markets. What differentiates this market is that in addition to credit, you have a whole set of laws about what a municipality can do and can't do."
Horowitz understands the difficulties of funding infrastructure today.
"Like anyone else, an elected official wants to keep their job, and so they have to satisfy a number of constituents," he said. "I understand the pushes and pulls of infrastructure. 'Do I respond to the public and not raise their taxes or do I rely on what I think is the right thing to do for the community?'" he said.
"It's not easy, but if a banker gets into a car and the road's broken, you're not going to get to the office. It's as simple as that."
