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Kosciusko County Sheriff’s Office Merit Board heard updates about the Kosciusko County Police Retirement and Police Benefit Plans from Lake City Bank in a meeting Thursday, Oct. 8.
Andrew (Andy) R. Haddock, senior vice-president and chief investment officer of Lake City Bank, and his team presented the updates to the board.
“It’s been a challenging year, but a good year, despite all the geopolitics and some of the economic uncertainty,” Haddock said.
Haddock shared with the board an account overview, including a summary of the portfolio’s performance.
“You can see in the year-to-date that bonds are down a little bit … but bonds have a built-in mechanism to recover … bonds are like a roller coaster; you collect good income and oftentimes, with higher rates, income does go up,” Haddock said. “The values can change from day-to-day, even as I sit here today, bond prices are varying a little bit here.”
He added that equities are off to “a good start,” up 14.80% year to date.
Alan Alderfer, a member of the board, asked, “Andy, you’ve outperformed the market … how did you do that?”
Haddock cited the “large-cap core stock selection,” a model Lake City Bank uses in many accounts, as helping the accounts’ outperformance.
“I think it comes down to the stock selection, would be the primary driver,” Haddock said.
Haddock also shared with the board the U.S. consumer environment and inflation expectations and its effect on the retirement and benefit plans.
“We’re in a very, kind of strange period,” Haddock said. “Every election year tends to be a little more volatile than the rest … once we get past the midterms, we’re going to hopefully start to see some closure … bond yields should come back over time and take some pressure off inflation.”
In response, Sheriff Jim Smith asked Haddock what he had historically seen happen after the midterm elections.
“Once you get to the midterm, then that next 12 months has always been positive,” Haddock said. Later, he said, “you’ve got a good balanced portfolio.”
After the presentation, Smith thanked Haddock and his team for “taking care of” the “retirement of the deputies,” and he also thanked Alderfer and the rest of the board for their expertise before allowing the deputies present to ask questions.
“I’m really happy with where we’re at, and I speak with Alan (Alderfer) a lot. I know Alan is impressed with everything, and … I’m confident in what we’re doing as far as the pension,” said Chief Deputy Chris McKeand.
In other business:
• Shanna Wallen, Kosciusko Community Recovery Program resource navigator, shared the Jail Chemical Addiction Program’s women participants are in their sixth week and are set to start community service near the end of the week.
In the KCRP program, 217 people have received services, 149 are completely released and 17 have returned to the program, resulting in an approximate 11% recidivism rate, Wallen said.
“It’s always reassuring, too, when you talk to folks in the community and how supportive they are of, not only your program, but also JCAP, and people just wrap their arms around it,” Smith said. “It’s working. Sure, you ... want those numbers to be a little better, but I think we need to be very proud of where we’re at and the difference it is making.”
• Public Information Officer Sgt. Doug Light shared new hires Micah Mansfield and Peyton Hendrix are in their “shadow phase” of field training, having already completed the academy and other training. Newer hire Jaxon Torpy is working on completing field training and Ethan Patrick, another newer hire, is in the “admin. phase” of his training, spending time with dispatch and detectives.
• A fireside chat will be held at Lincoln Elementary on Tuesday, Oct. 20 where members of the community can learn more about community officials’ roles.
• The KCSO’s podcast, “More Coffee Than Donuts,” hosted Tim Kyle, the mayor of Kosciusko, Miss., to discuss the shared history between Kosciusko County and Kosciusko, Miss.
