MOI Trust board urges ordinance unchanged, says trust manager must have institutional investment experience

Representatives of the MOI Trust Board told the Anchorage Assembly’s budget committee that the board supports the pending ordinance to designate a trust manager and urged the Assembly to pass it as written when it returns on May 20.

The trust board said the manager position must hold “institutional investment” experience and that the proposed staffing and budget changes primarily reallocate existing costs rather than increase the net cost of the trust.

Chair Slifka, chair of the MOI Trust Board, said the board’s objective is “to meet our fiduciary duty in consistent with both the charter and the code,” and repeated the board’s recommendation that the trust have “a trust manager who very specifically possesses significant institutional investment management.” Slifka said the board is indifferent about where that person sits inside municipal structure so long as the person has the stated investment credentials.

The trust’s history was reviewed for context. Slifka said the trust was founded in 1999 with ATU proceeds and that Dan Moore, then the municipal treasurer, served as trust manager for 24 years. In 2021 and 2022 the municipality added responsibilities and proposed a deputy treasurer position to help manage the growing trust; the trust paid roughly $200,000 in intergovernmental charges in 2022, Slifka said. Voters approved a structural change in April 2023 and the Assembly incorporated that change into municipal code with Ordinance O-2368 in June 2023, the board representatives said.

Slifka said the administration initially proposed an administrative-level position without investment experience in late 2023; the trust board objected and continued discussions through 2024. He said the current administration has agreed a trust manager should have investment experience and proposed moving the position into the Office of the Chief Financial Officer, which the board supports.

Onna Brows, director of the Office of Management and Budget, told the committee that “the current administration is in support of the change, and the adjustment under the IGCs is minimal.”

Board representatives reported several changes to the trust’s budget presentation after recent feedback: removal of an $80,000 travel and training line item that had raised concerns, and a commitment to begin quarterly reporting rather than a single annual report. Slifka said the trust expects the net cost to the municipality to be neutral because the change primarily reallocates who in city government bears those costs.

Assembly members asked whether the trust board recommended amendments to the pending ordinance. Slifka said the trust board would “urge passage as is,” and that the board stands ready to meet individually with Assembly members to answer questions before the ordinance returns to the Assembly on May 20.

The committee did not take a formal vote on the ordinance at the meeting; the item remains scheduled for the Assembly meeting on May 20. Officials said any remaining questions could be addressed in a planned work session before that Assembly meeting.

The trust board presentation and the documents the board referenced were made available to committee members and posted on the municipal website, the chair said.

The trust board presentation and the May 20 Assembly agenda will provide the next public opportunities for formal action on the ordinance.