Community Corner
Board of Finance Forms Investment Committee
Board of Finance members will work closely with Town Manager Garry Brumback to find a qualified investor and develop an aggressive, but realistic investment policy for the town of Southington.
With a surplus of over $12 million in the rainy day fund and an AA+ bond rating from Standard & Poor’s, the Board of Finance and Garry Brumback are moving forward in developing a comprehensive investment policy for the town.
The board established an investment committee Wednesday evening during their first meeting since the 2011 municipal elections, appointing members Joseph Labieniec and Sandra Feld to work alongside Brumback in hiring and investment advisor and establishing a plan for the town. Former Board of Finance member Kevin Beaudoin will also be invited to join the committee.
“We’ve done a lot of work in recent years to establish a sufficient rainy day fund and at any given time, we have between $12 million and $30 million to invest, but we are getting low returns,” said Finance Chairman John Leary. “We need to find a way to improve on that.”
Despite being able , Finance Director Emilia Portelinha said Wednesday that the town continues to struggle on investments and is currently $50,000 below the anticipated return four months into the fiscal year.
Leary and Labieniec each said the town would be restricted in what they could do and would need to find an advisor who understands municipal restrictions, but also has innovative ideas and will be able to safely, but aggressively help the town grow it’s money.
The committee will begin meeting in the next couple weeks, Feld said, and the first task will be to conduct interviews with prospective advisors. The interviews will include an hour-long presentation from each with follow up interviews. Town Council members will be invited to join the committee for this process, Brumback said.
Once an advisor is hired, the committee will work closely with him or her to develop the comprehensive policy.
Labieniec said the ultimate goal is to find a way to offset expenses so that the town can continue to provide services to residents at no additional costs to the taxpayers.
“To put it simply, we want improve our returns in a way that can help the town, and more importantly, the taxpayer,” Labieniec said. “Every dollar we gain in investment returns in one less dollar in taxes.”
Board of Finance Notes
The Board of Finance also elected officers as part of their meeting Wednesday. Leary will continue to serve as chairman with Labieniec serving as vice chairman and Edward Pocock Jr. serving as the secretary.
The board also discussed costs associated with the response to the rare October Nor'easter, which Southington Patch will provide in a detailed story tomorrow.
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