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Council Bluffs approves Security National Bank to manage 457(b) plan, creates investment advisory committee
Summary
The City Council approved an agreement with Security National Bank to manage the city's 457(b) deferred compensation plan, acknowledged a same-day correction to allow self-directed accounts, and established a small investment advisory committee to review performance and compliance.
The Council Bluffs City Council voted to approve an agreement with Security National Bank to manage the City of Council Bluffs' 457(b) employee retirement plan and adopted a resolution establishing an investment advisory committee to oversee the plan.
City officials said the contract packet was corrected earlier the same day to change the retirement plan's self-managed account option from "no" to "yes," allowing employees the option to use self-directed investment accounts under the plan.
Brenda, human resources staff, described the committee the council approved as a small, quarterly oversight group that will work with the city's advisor to review both investment performance and the record keeper's service. "This will be a small group that will meet on a quarterly basis with our advisor to look at the performance of both the investments and the performance of [the record keeper]," Brenda said. "That group would be the ones to say, hey, we have questions from this group of employees or we would like more frequent education or we would like another set up of 1 on 1 meetings."
A city staff member noted the document change on the record: "If you looked at this prior to earlier today, there was a change where the equitable documents titled retirement vision plan set up in section 13, self managed account option. The correct option has been changed from a no to a yes. So everything is in there. It's just a flip from the no to the yes in there, and that was updated later this afternoon in case anybody's looking at it." The council approved the bank contract and the committee by voice vote.
Council members and staff said the oversight group is intended to be advisory and small to avoid excessive meeting logistics; proposed representatives include the HR director (or designee), the finance director (or designee), union presidents or their designees, and a nonunion employee representative. Brenda said meetings would be open to observers and that the committee representatives would handle formal requests or decisions.
Staff described the procurement process that led to the selection, saying the city issued an RFP, received multiple responses and interviewed finalists with union and nonunion representation. The city's previous record keeper was said to have stopped providing some advisory services and to have charged fees the city judged higher than market; the new arrangement was presented as offering more education and personal attention for plan participants.
The council's action included two related resolutions: one approving the agreement with Security National Bank to manage the 457(b) plan and a second establishing the investment advisory committee to create an investment policy and oversee compliance. The motions passed by voice vote with all present members voting in the affirmative; the clerk noted one member, Roger Sandow, was absent.
City staff said the change allowing self-directed accounts affects only that option on the plan setup page of the packet and does not alter other provisions of the retirement plan. Officials urged employees with questions about the plan or available education to contact HR or the new record keeper.
