Interviewing a
total of six firms on Monday, the Porter County Council and two County
Commissioners decided to hire Capital Cities LLC of Indianapolis as its
investment advisor for the county government’s new community endowment
foundation.
Voting in favor
were Commissioners Jeff Good, R-Center, and Laura Shurr Blaney, D-South.
Council members voting in favor were President Dan Whitten, D-at large,
along with members Jim Biggs, R-1st, Jeremy Rivas, D-2nd, Karen Conover,
R-3rd, and Robert Poparad, D-at large.
Dissenting were
Council members Mike Jessen, R-4th, and Sylvia Graham, D-at large, who had
spoken in favor of considering another firm, SEI Institutional Group.
Not in attendance
at the joint meeting was Commissioner President John Evans, R-North.
Whitten told the
Tribune that all six firms had excellent qualifications but what made
Capital Cities stand out was their direct experience with the state’s Major
Moves money when the proceeds from long term lease of the Indiana Toll Road
were invested.
“That is very
similar to what we’re doing,” he said.
Capital Cities’
service fees will be $65,000 annually.
Some firms offered
packages to the County that would take a lot of work off the hands of
elected officials, Whitten said, but the consensus was for the Council and
the Commissioners to maintain a hands-on approach, at least at the beginning
of the foundation. Capital Cities also showed more attention to helping
clients like Porter County who are just starting out with this kind of
investment, Whitten said.
Both the Council
and the Commissioners will need to vote on an enabling ordinance to start a
foundation, which is being drafted by the Council’s attorney Scott McClure.
The Commissioners will take a vote at their next meeting on Sept. 1 and the
Council may be ready to vote at its meeting on Thursday.
Good and Blaney
advocated investing what is currently liquid of the $157 million from the
Porter Memorial Hospital sale principal and set aside $10 million for now in
case of an emergency. Any use of the hospital sale principal funds requires
a 10-0 vote from both Council and the Commissioners.
McClure is now
writing the ordinance to say $10 million will be left for emergencies and
that any of the hospital sale proceeds currently tied up in other
investments that become available at the end of this year will be diverted
to the foundation investment.