Investment committee to have better organization

Better planning and organization are in the works to make sure the Cape Girardeau investment board complies with meeting requirements, city finance director John Richbourg said.

An independent, 123-page auditor's report of the city's finances disclosed one finding of noncompliance, that being the failure of the investment committee to hold regular quarterly meetings.

The report recommended the investment committee "hold quarterly meetings in order to determine investment strategies and monitor results" and "submit a quarterly report to the city manager as outlined in the city's investment policy."

City councilman Richard Eggimann drilled Richbourg with a series of questions at the council's study session Tuesday night.

"We passed this as a policy," Eggimann said. "I'm really concerned that two years in a row the auditor suggested we did something wrong and that policy is not being followed."

But Richbourg is confident the board is on the right track now.

Hard to find replacements

Richbourg, one of the four committee members, said one of the main reasons the board did not meet regularly was because members resigned their positions and it was difficult finding replacements.

Three committee members resigned their posts on the committee, Richbourg said. They were replaced by Ivy Locke, vice president of finance at Southeast Missouri State University; Rob Huff, business manager at the Cape Girardeau School District; and Tony Balsano, controller at St. Francis Medical Center.

The previous members were Jim Wente, Kent Dobbins and Richard Swaim.

City manager Michael Miller is responsible for appointing this board, but Richbourg does the recruiting.

Because of a potential conflict of interest, Richbourg did not seek members of the banking community, which made it difficult to find qualified volunteers, he said.

"It may be because I just don't know that many people, but as far as finding volunteers, they were hard to find," Richbourg said. "But it appears we have a real good group."

Richbourg is also doing more advanced planning. He said in the past, it was difficult to get the board members to be available at the same time.

Committee full now

Richbourg has already scheduled the year's quarterly meetings so board members can avoid future scheduling conflicts, he said.

"We believe we can meet the policy," Miller said. "We have a full committee now and we have quarterly meetings scheduled, so we're pretty much set up."

The main function of the board, Richbourg said, is to oversee the city's investments. The committee is not responsible for making the investments.

"What the committee does is just to add knowledge, a second opinion, on whether or not we're using the right kind of investments so it gives us an outside view," Miller said.

The audit report said the failure to meet regularly and submit reports could result in losses of city funds arising from fraud, employee error, misrepresentation by third parties, unanticipated changes in financial markets or imprudent actions by city employees.

bmiller@semissourian.com

335-6611, extension 127