By David G.
Barry
The
Baltimore City Employees’ Retirement System (ERS/EOS), which has operated
without a chief investment officer since a 2018 scandal, is looking to beef up
its in-house investment team.
The $2.1 billion
system is seeking to hire a senior investment analyst and an investment
analyst. Both positions will report to Executive Director David A. Randall,
said Aja Jackson, the system’s director of communications.
For the past
four years, the system’s investments have been overseen by its investment
consultants – Marquette Associates and Meketa Investment Group – and
the board of trustees. The two positions that ERS/EOS is seeking to fill will
provide “support,” said Jackson. The plan currently does not list any
investment team members on its website. Jackson said the two positions have
been vacant, but she did not have specific information on how long they’ve been
open.
The system
encompasses the Employees’ Retirement System, the Elected Officials Retirement System,
the Retirement Savings Plan and the Deferred Compensation Plan for regular and
permanent employees in the general administrative service of the city and
certain non-teacher employees of the Baltimore City Public School System. It
was 81.2% funded as of June 30, 2021. During the 2020-21 fiscal year, ERS/EOS
generated a 27.8% return and a net increase of $396 million. That compares to a
loss of $46.4 million for the 2019-2020 fiscal year.
In 2018,
longtime Executive Director Roselyn Spencer stepped down after the city’s
inspector general found she misspent more than $218,000 on renovations of the
system’s offices.
Also in 2018, Eliot Powell left his role as CIO
after a separate city investigation found an ERS board member recruited his
business partner to join the agency.
