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Allentown pension trustees approve $3.1 million rebalancing across police, fire and O&E funds
Summary
The Allentown City Pension Board voted to adopt rebalancing proposals for the Police, Fire and O&E plans, shifting allocations within U.S. equity and fixed-income holdings and moving cash into shorter-duration instruments. The motion passed on a roll-call vote; Trustees also approved the proposal en bloc.
Trustee John Strobula moved that the board adopt the rebalancing proposals for the Police, Fire and O&E pension plans as presented in the meeting materials dated May 20, 2025; Trustee Bina Patel seconded the motion. The board carried the rebalancing en bloc by roll-call vote with the members present voting yes and one member absent.
The rebalancing items presented by Pat, investment consultant with Marquette, proposed targeted partial redemptions from broad U.S. equity ETFs into more defensive equity strategies and additions to the bond ladder rather than extending maturities. For the Police plan, Marquette proposed a $1,000,000 redemption from the Vanguard Total Stock Market fund into Vanguard Equity Income. For the Fire plan the proposal included a roughly $1,500,000 redemption from Vanguard Total Stock into Vanguard Equity Income and a $600,000 shift out of MFS (non-U.S.) into the Vanguard Total Bond Market. The presenters said those moves were intended to tilt exposures slightly toward value and higher-income fixed income without increasing the plan’s cash exposure.
Pat described the rationale as risk-management in light of recent volatility: “the broad market tends to do well when times are good… but then when things turn south, those [mega-cap] stocks get hit the hardest,” and the rebalancing seeks to maintain the funds’ policy alignment while reducing concentration risk.
Trustee Strobula made the motion at the board meeting: “I make the motion that we adopt the rebalancing proposals as contained on pages 10, 12, and 14 of the discussion materials dated 05/20/2025 from Marquette. Do I have a second?” (John Strobula). The motion was seconded and then approved by roll call. The board recorded the votes as Yes from Bina Patel, Jeff Glaser, Ebi Balag, Alex Kuskravage, Rob Bush, Andrew Weiss, John Strobula and Darrell Hendricks; Trustee Tim Bruce was noted as absent.
Board members who spoke during the discussion generally supported the proposal. Trustee Bina Patel said she agreed with the rebalancing given tariff-related uncertainty and potential impacts on consumer prices and corporate profits. No member called for separate votes to modify the amounts on the floor; the board approved the package as presented.
The board did not change the funds’ overall strategic targets or extend the bond ladder as part of this motion. Marquette noted the money market yields and short-term Treasury yields in May and explained the trade-offs of extending maturities versus staying shorter in the current environment.
The rebalancing will be executed by staff and investment managers consistent with the board-approved directions in the meeting packet; the board did not set any additional implementation conditions during the vote.
Ending: The rebalancing vote completed the investment-actions portion of the agenda; trustees directed staff to carry out the allocations and to report implementation results at the next meeting.
