Oklahoma City retirement board consolidates bond managers, receives market report and approves routine pension actions

The Oklahoma City Employee Retirement System on March 13 approved an update to its investment policy statement that consolidates multiple bond managers into a single multisector manager, received a monthly investment report from its consultant and approved a slate of routine board actions including minutes, claims, retirements and death-benefit payments.

The investment policy change, presented by Jason, the system’s investment consultant, replaces separate manager-specific guidelines for a now-closed global bond manager and a core-plus strategy with a single multisector manager guideline. “It looks daunting with a lot of red lines, but it's pretty minimal changes,” Jason said, describing the update as a cleanup to reflect current manager lineups rather than a change to the fund’s target asset allocation.

Jason told trustees the portfolio remains broadly in line with its targets at the asset-class level, with a continued overweight to large-cap equities and an underweight in private equity as the fund works toward a 15% private-equity target (current allocation reported at 9.6%). He said $97,000,000 was funded into the new multisector commingled vehicle at the end of February as part of the transition from the outgoing manager, and that the Western Asset Management transition should be fully completed by April. “We're keeping that underrepresented portion of private equity within large cap,” he said, explaining the timing lag in meeting private-equity targets.

On performance, Jason said the S&P 500 was down about 4.5% year to date through mid‑March while non-U.S. developed markets had outperformed. He noted short-term volatility and singled out small-cap growth managers as having a difficult month: “Your small cap portfolio [was] down 7% versus the Russell 2500 down 4.7%,” he said, and recommended bringing small-cap managers and private-equity/private-real-estate managers in for review at a future meeting.

Trustees voted to approve the investment policy update after the consultant’s presentation. The board also formally received the monthly investment report.

Votes at a glance - Item 2: Approve minutes of the Feb. 13, 2025 meeting — approved (motion and second; vote recorded, not specified). - Item 3: Consent docket (five items taken by a single motion) — approved (motion and second; vote recorded, not specified). - Item 4: Ratify approvals — approved (motion and second; vote recorded, not specified). - Item 5: Approve claims docket — approved (motion and second; vote recorded, not specified). - Item 6: Approve applications for service retirement — approved (motion and second; vote recorded, not specified). - Item 7: Approve continuation of pension to spouse — approved (motion and second; vote recorded, not specified). - Item 8: Receive report of death; authorize payment of $5,000 death benefit and authorize secretary to make conforming changes — approved (motion and second; $5,000 death benefit payment authorized; vote recorded, not specified). - Item 9: Receive report of death; authorize secretary to make necessary changes to conform — approved (motion and second; vote recorded, not specified). - Item 10a: Approve sending attendees to the International Foundation for Employee Benefit Plans Public Plan Trustees Institute, July 15–16, 2025, Chicago — approved (motion and second; vote recorded, not specified). - Item 10b: Approve updated board of trustees election guidelines — approved (motion and second; vote recorded, not specified). - Item 10c: Approve updated investment policy statement (manager consolidation and guideline clean‑up) — approved (motion and second; vote recorded, not specified). - Item 11a: Receive monthly investment report from investment consultant — received (motion and second; vote recorded, not specified).

Board staff reported no additional comments from staff or citizens. The meeting was called to order at 10:00 a.m. and adjourned at 10:19 a.m.

The board’s actions on March 13 were procedural and governance-focused: they update written guidelines to reflect manager changes, confirm operational items (claims, minutes, retirements) and authorize a small death benefit payment. Several trustees asked no substantive questions during the investment-policy discussion; staff indicated additional manager reviews (small cap and private assets) will be scheduled for future meetings.