Liberty Township trustees have adopted a policy that will govern the manner in which the township handles investments.

Fiscal Officer Nancy Denutte started the discussion in July when she presented a standard investment policy to trustees. She told trustees that she couldn’t find any documentation regarding an investment policy for the township and thought it would be prudent to have one on file.

A resolution approving an investment policy was tabled by trustees while Denutte and staff reworked the standard language to fit the investment ideas of the township.

“I like how you took it from a boiler plate to customizing it a bit,” said Trustee Melanie Leneghan.

The approved resolution states the necessity of the policy, “in order to ensure compliance with all applicable investment statues to continue effective and prudent management of the township’s investment portfolio.”

A copy of the policy will be filed in the township fiscal office and with the Office of the Auditor of State.

Trustee Tom Mitchell said he found language of the investment policy, “cleaned up and much improved.”

Speaking of investment

Trustees heard a presentation from Jason Click, president of public funds of Meeder Investment Management Inc., who discussed the management of the township’s investments.

According to Meeder’s website, the company is an investment management firm from Dublin, Ohio that works with both groups and individuals to devise investment strategies and management solutions.

Trustees entertained a similar discussion from Click in July. He suggested to trustees that Meeder would only manage certain funds for the township, ensuring a maximum return of interest.

However, Mitchell voiced concerns about putting township funds at risk. After meeting with Click he was more at ease with Meeder managing township investments.

“He did a really good job of walking me through how they analysis how much we can and can’t put into the investment vehicles,” Mitchell said. “I like the fact that you review it quarterly and are pretty hands on.”

Denutte spoke up before trustees officially approved the resolution entering into the agreement.

“Just so you know to date, right now, the township has made $73,000 in interest income for the first three quarters,” she said.

Contract for document storage

In an effort to reduce costs, time, and space, township staff recommended entering into an agreement with ComDoc, a Xerox-owned company that offers electronic document storage and management service. The proposed contract is five years.

Fire Chief Tom O’Brien said he hadn’t used ComDoc.

“We’ll have a go at it,” he said. “I don’t want to submarine anything, but five years, what if we don’t like it is the only thing.”

“I have those concerns as well,” said Leneghan. She stated that she had never seen a five-year contract that didn’t include some sort of “out clause” in case the buyer wasn’t satisfied with the service. “Maybe it’s worth $7,500 to do three (years)?”

Denutte said she thought they were nitpicking about the contract.

“When you look at the cost of this in relation to how many invoices we’re processing, it’s just a small amount,” Denutte said. “We’re processing a lot of invoices and that’s not all what we’ll be doing.”

Mitchell also thought the duration of the contract was long, but agreed with Denutte.

“We should be using something like this in this day and age,” he said.

After reviewing the contract and weighing options, trustees decided to approve the five-year contract, not to exceed the cost of $32,454.