Monte Carlo is lovely in October. The average temperature is about 70 degrees. The breezes from the Mediterranean caress this beach-front community.
And the gambling. Oh, the gambling.
Turns out this lovely European spot is just one of four international “educational trips” various trustees of the Employees? Retirement System of Baltimore took for investment conferences in the past year, according to Roselyn Spencer, the executive director of ERS.
City Comptroller Joan Pratt jaunted to Paris for “Private Equity: The New Frontier in Europe.” And mayoral appointee Kevin Davis flew to Bangalore for a “Passage to India,” and enjoyed the majestic mountain and Pacific views in Vancouver, Canada, at an investment trends conference. He also managed to fit Monte Carlo into his schedule, as did Dorothy Bryant and Brenda Clayburn.
How can city employees pay for trips like that? Turns out trustees each receive a $10,000 yearly educational allowance. But we wonder how $10,000 can pay for so many trips. We haven?t even mentioned the U.S. conferences those mentioned above have attended. Maybe they chip in?
Spencer said the board must approve each trip in advance.
We suppose that seminars on “Recent Developments in French Pension Fund Reform” and “Pan European Pension Funds, Fact or Fiction?” could be quite enlightening. But we?d like to know how they translate to improving the return for employees in the pension system.
“Fund performance is entirely different from trustee education ? I would not equate the two,” Spencer said. But shouldn?t there be some relationship?
Conferences should help trustees choose the best money managers. But that hasn?t worked ? performance has stumbled, largely the result of hiring poorly performing and politically connected fund managers and brokers, as a March Calvert Institute for Public Policy Institute study shows.
We think the City Council should call for an investigation of how the ERS paid for those trips. In the interim, all “educational allowances” should be eliminated. That money should instead be returned to the fund where it can best benefit its recipients, city employees.
Note: Stephen Janis raises questions about whether trustees followed ethics guidelines in paying for the conferences in today?s paper, page 12.
