Committee reports investments doing better

In tough economic times, Costa Mesa’s investments are doing better than comparable state-managed investments.

This will be one of the highlights of city Finance Director Marc Puckett’s report at the quarterly Investment Oversight Committee meeting today.

The committee, made up of City Manager Allan Roeder, Mayor Eric Bever and three City Council-appointed residents will give suggestions to Puckett, which he will relay to the City Council.

The meetings are not generally well-attended by the public. The meeting will be at 3:30 p.m. in Costa Mesa City Hall’s first floor conference room 1A.

Puckett says the city’s investments are outperforming the Local Agency Investment Fund, one of the benchmarks he uses to assess performance, by 1.4%.

The investments Costa Mesa, like many cities, makes are more conservative than private portfolios.

“Safety and liquidity are the most important things when investing city money,” Puckett said.

— Alan Blank