Bradford City Council heard an update on the health of the city’s pension funds prior to its regular meeting on Tuesday.
Presenting the update was Sean Yarton, vice president and client consultant for Manning & Napier, the company that oversees the funds.
“My goal tonight is to give you some perspective,” said Yarton. He explained the trouble with looking at a long-term economic picture this way: “They give you the job of putting together a puzzle, but it’s got a thousand pieces, and they don’t give you the picture, and they only give you two pieces at a time.”
Yarton shared investment performance reviews for the city’s non-uniformed employees pension fund, its fire pension fund and its police pension fund.
The year 2017 was a good year for the funds, with all three up over 15 percent.
However, there was a slow start for 2018, with all three funds down in the period from January through April; they recovered somewhat in May, leading to a year-to-date increase of a little over 1 percent as of May 31.
Yarton mentioned some of the factors that influence the funds.
About half of the pension fund comprises bonds, and bond indices were down internationally for the period from January through April.
Unemployment is currently low, but volatility in the market has increased since Dec. 31.
Yarton talked about how the company decides what to invest in under the current market conditions.
Investments Manning and Napier have chosen include cloud computing, electronic payments, artificial intelligence, online advertising and consumption. Regarding bonds, the company has recently been choosing short-term bonds due to low starting yields so it will be able to purchase higher yield bonds as interest rates increase.
The regular meeting followed the pension meeting and a public hearing on a project of the local Office of Economic and Community Development.
During the regular meeting, council passed on second reading amendments to the ordinance on open burning.
The amendments added a clause making it unlawful to have any open burning between midnight and 6 a.m. except as authorized by the Bradford City Fire Department. Also, it increased the minimum fine for a violation from $50 to $100.
Council approved the issuance of one Certificate of Appropriateness for work at a downtown business and approved the denial of a second, both based on the recommendations of the city’s Historical Architectural Review Board.
A certificate will be issued to Wilbur Wright for improvements at 39-43 Mechanic St. including cleaning; repairing exterior bricks; cleaning and painting of the cornice, architectural details and features, removing the signboard and repairing or replacing windows.
Meanwhile, HARB recommended against issuing Bradford Publishing Co., 43 Main St., a certificate for a digital sign to be placed above the front entrance due to inappropriateness for the historic district, possible safety hazards and use of sign to advertise businesses not located at the site.
Chris Cobb and Steven Amrhein were appointed as temporary firefighters, effective June 1, for a period of up to 90 days or as long as a full-time firefighter is out due to illness, injury or long-term absence.
Council authorized the move of Downtown Bradford Business District Authority meetings to the Main Street manager’s office, first floor, 23 Kennedy St., beginning in July.
The next regular council meeting is set for 7 p.m. June 26.
