Travis County Commissioners Court
June 12, 2007
Item 11
Number 11 to consider and take appropriate action on request to approve order amending chapter 23, investment policy and procedure of Travis County code. I thought it was important for us to lay this out for the public.
>> yes, judge, Commissioners. I'm mary mays, the investment manager for Travis County. Here with me is harvey Davis, the assistant investment manager. These recommendations are the result of the annual review that is required by law. They have been approved by the investment advisory committee in their meeting on may the 30th. And I just wanted to say we've had exaingz on the committee. I think that thank Commissioner Davis for his long service on the committee and Commissioner Daugherty as well. And we have now Commissioner eckhardt as a member of the committee and we have five new outside advisors. And I'd like to briefly publicly thank them. Cal abbott, who is the posht portfolio manager. Art arfuro who is the treasurer of the city of Austin. Bill chapman, the cfo of the central Texas regional mobility authority. Kathy swain, director of investment oversight for the university of Texas system. And tito viagas junior with the municipal risk pool. Our new members have really jumped in and I mention this because they recommended this first change.
>> the prudent investor law was passed in Texas January of '04 and really the law applies to a trustee who invests and manages trust assets, but certainly we feel that we have that same fiduciary responsibility for the public funds of Travis County citizens. Basically this is more specific. It says we have considered general economic conditions, the yield curve, which is changing lately, the role that each investment plays within the overall portfolio and the risk reward relationship of investments that are being considered. So we have these and additional recommendations, and we ask for your approval of these changes. Any questions?
>> what are the other changes?
>> the second one is to kind of tweak the ethics language that we added to the policy in the last review. We decided that it was a little ambiguous and the language could be interpreted as allowing a 50 over $50 to be accepted as long as that fact reported and that was not done. And we made it clear that we would not accept gifts over $50 from the same vendor over an annual period. In addition, we're recommending a time limit for that disclosure so that it must be made within 30 days after the receipt of a gift under $50. Also we're recommending time lines of again 30 days for the manager to bring a portfolio back into compliance with the required weighted average maturity, which is 365 days. And we're asking that we add to the broker applications a request for broker crd numbers. This will enable us to access their record at the national association of securities dealers and that's part of our review process when we look at broker dealers.
>> what court members are currently on the committee?
>> Commissioner Daugherty and eckhardt.
>> move that we approve the recommended order?
>> second.
>> discussion?
>> I would like to comment, all of these changes hold us to a higher standard, correct?
>> yes.
>> I think that that's a wonderful compliment to the way Travis County operates.
>> thank you.
>> all in favor? Show Commissioner eckhardt and yours truly voting in favor. Commissioner Davis --
>> I'm abstaining because of my son's possible involvement with some of the things that goes on with the investment groups with the company that he works for. So I have to (audio difficulty).
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Last Modified:
Wednesday, June 13, 2007, 8:00 AM