County unsure of investment opportunity

Alexis Barker
NLJ News Editor
 
Flaunting high investment numbers in a short period of time, Troy Hunsucker, the regional director of marketing for Wyoming CLASS pitched to the Weston County Commission the opportunity to join his newly formed local government investment pool. Despite what appears to be significant success in the first two months of the investment pool, the Weston County commissioners made no official decision on joining the 12 other counties in the state that have invested a reported $100 million into Wyoming CLASS. 
According to its website, Wyoming CLASS (Wyoming Cooperative Liquid Assets Securities System) “was created as a service for Wyoming political subdivisions. The purpose of the program is to provide a convenient method for political subdivisions to pool their liquid assets collectively. The general objective of the Trust is to generate a high level of current income for the Participants while maintaining liquidity and preserving capital by investing only in instruments authorized by Wyoming State Statutes and the Wyoming CLASS Investment Policy.”
“We have 12 counties participating, and we have only been out there a couple months. We have $100 million invested. I am pretty proud of that; it has kind of been a five-year journey for me,” Hunsucker said. 
Wyoming CLASS operates within Wyoming statute with the purpose of providing all “political subdivisions with a convenient, short-term investment opportunity carefully selected to optimize interest earnings while maximizing safety and liquidity,” Hunsucker said. He noted that Weston County would receive professional management of its public funds, access to markets not typically available to smaller entities, high levels of liquidity, institutional knowledge and the ability to withdraw money at any time. 
Open to any county, state agency, town, city, health district, special district, community college district or school district that wants to participate, according to information provided to the commission, Wyoming CLASS is directed by a supervised board of trustees composed of eligible participants. These include Bill Novotny, a Johnson  County commissioner; Matthew McBurnett, director of administrative services for Rock Springs; and Jonathan Teichert, the Douglas city administrator. 
Hunsucker suggested that the commissioners consider joining Wyoming CLASS, investing money with the newly formed operation. 
“Ultimately, what we would like to do, ... we would like Weston County to be participating in Wyoming CLASS, have a money market account. We do bonds and CDs and longer-term investments,” Hunsucker said. 
Commissioner Nathan Todd suggested the county consider investing while Commissioner Marty Ertman argued that she is comfortable with the county’s investments where they are. 
“I’m not sold on it yet; I’m not sure,” Ertman said. 
“We don’t have a lot of money to invest,” Chairman Ed Wagoner added. 
Treasurer Susie Overman stated that the county would have to pull its money out of local investment avenues to go with Wyoming CLASS. 
To date, further discussion has not been scheduled.