Butte County committee puts two investment options on watch and approves replacing Vanguard fund

The Butte County 457 Deferred Compensation Committee voted Feb. 5 to place the Nationwide Fixed Account and the Sterling Capital Total Return Bond R6 on the committee's watchlist and to remove the Vanguard US Growth Adm Fund from the plan lineup, replacing it with Fidelity Blue Chip Growth K.

The committee's move to put the Nationwide Fixed Account on watch followed Hyas Group's recommendation that the account is trailing benchmark performance for the three- and five-year periods. A separate motion to place the Sterling Capital Total Return Bond R6 on watch for qualitative concerns was also approved.

Brenda Sallade moved the motion to place the Nationwide Fixed Account on watch; Sheri Waters seconded and the motion was approved. Brenda Sallade then moved to place the Sterling Capital Total Return Bond R6 on watch; Troy Kidd seconded and the motion was approved.

On the fund-replacement item, the committee reviewed three replacement candidates for the Vanguard US Growth Adm Fund: JPMorgan Large Cap Growth R6, Fidelity Blue Chip Growth K and Putnam Growth Opps R6. The committee voted to remove the Vanguard fund and add Fidelity Blue Chip Growth K to the 457 plan lineup. The motion to replace the fund was moved by Brenda Sallade, seconded by Sheri Waters, and the committee approved the motion. Nationwide will notify impacted participants of the change.

The committee did not record a roll-call tally in the minutes for these votes; minutes state simply "Motion approved." The changes take effect under the committee's usual participant-notification process.

The decisions reflect the committee's regular monitoring of fund performance and are intended to address underperforming options while preserving participant choice. The committee scheduled no additional deliberations on these funds at this meeting.