Casper officials outline plan to allow limited equity investing for city funds

City Treasurer Jill said the city is proposing changes to its investment policy to permit limited equity investing after Wyoming voters approved Amendment A in 2022 and the Legislature later enacted implementing language (Senate File 145).

The treasurer told council the state created two paths: a state-run pool (referred to in discussion as YOStar3) limited to an S&P 500 index fund with a $5 million initial minimum, a five-year lock-up and $1 million withdrawal increments thereafter; and a direct-investment option permitting local governments to use their own portfolio manager to buy SEC-registered mutual funds or ETFs. "The direct investing is available once we get the investment policy approved by the Council," Jill said.

Casper staff proposed calculating "unobligated funds" once a year, using reserves, the perpetual-care corpus and the sinking fund for fire aid as the basis. Using the city's 2026 budget and year-end holdings, staff estimated roughly $76 million would be defined as unobligated; 20% of that unobligated total yields a $15 million maximum allowable equity allocation. The treasurer said the city would phase into that cap over two years, moving about $2 million per quarter from maturing bonds rather than selling bonds prematurely.

The proposed policy would treat equities as a complement to the bond portfolio, with a target allocation (for example, 80% bonds/20% equities) and quarterly rebalancing if any subclass (large cap, small/mid cap, international, emerging markets) drifts more than 5 percentage points. Jill and outside advisors emphasized diversification and index-linked funds; consultants said the portfolio would use appropriate indices (S&P 500 for U.S. large cap; MSCI variants for international) and provide quarterly benchmark comparisons.

Advisors present included Brenda Janakowski, a local financial advisor, and representatives from First Interstate Bank, the firm selected through a 27-RFP process to act as portfolio manager. Janakowski and First Interstate staff told council the direct-investing approach would offer more diversification than the state pool and more flexibility for withdrawals and rebalancing. "YOStar3 is not ready yet," Janakowski said, adding the state pool's terms were more restrictive than Casper needed.

Councilors asked whether accounts would be discretionary and how performance would be benchmarked; staff said the account would be discretionary (the manager executes trades under city direction) and that quarterly reports would include the relevant index benchmarks and comparative performance.

The treasurer asked council for support to adopt the revised investment policy and to pursue direct investing rather than the state pool. Several council members expressed informal assent to proceed; no formal adoption vote was recorded at the Sept. 23 meeting.

Questions remain about final state treasurer rules and administrative implementation; staff said they would return with a draft policy for council action and with quarterly reporting templates. Ending: The council did not take a formal vote but directed staff to continue refining the policy, return materials for formal adoption and to schedule any necessary procurement and oversight steps.