INFORMATION 10-15-2018 - Laserfiche WebLink

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Information Memorandum To: Mayor and City Council From: Lori Ziemer, Finance Director Date: October 15, 2018 Subject: Quarterly Investment Report (July September, 2018) _______________________________________________________________________ Introduction The purpose of this report is to update the City Council on the status of the various investments the city maintains as of September 30, 2018. Background The investment policy, originally adopted in 1998 with subsequent modifications in 2007 and 2014, complies with state statutes and generally follows the Government Finance Officers Association (GFOA) model. The investment goals for the City of Elk River are passive in nature due to the allowable investments permitted under state statutes. The city has four objectives for investing, in order of importance, they are; 1) safety of principal, 2) liquidity, 3) return on investment, and 4)maintaining the public trust. This means we are focused on not losing on the original investment, having sufficient funds on hand to meet ongoing operating cash needs, getting a market rate of return, and not purchasing speculative investments. generally limited to federal and state government obligations or agencies backed by them, rated debt of local governments, short-term highly rated commercial paper, certificates of deposit, and money market accounts (with collateralization if in excess of FDIC insurance amounts). The city intends to hold investments until maturity, which means we will get the rate of return for which we invest our funds. Our goal is not to extend our maturities beyond 10 years unless we are matching cash flow to a specific debt service payment. The finance staff makes sure the city is sufficiently liquid by continually updating our forecast on the anticipated cash flow needs over the next five-year time horizon. We anticipate two large tax settlements each year along with the regularly-scheduled debt service