MONEY MATTERS
Sixteen Years Serving Special Districts By Laura Labanieh, Chief Executive Officer, CalTRUST
As special districts, you know well the importance and critical need of public agencies to provide specific, specialized services to the citizens of California. As a joint powers authority (JPA), the Investment Trust of California (CalTRUST) takes great pride in providing a specific and specialized services to the myriad of public agencies in California. Created by California public agencies, for California public agencies, CalTRUST is your solution for investment choice and diversification. When CalTRUST was first conceptualized 20 years ago, the state’s investment pool, the Local Agency Investment Fund (LAIF), was essentially the only investment option for California’s public agencies that sought to invest funds while maintaining adequate liquidity. Many jurisdictions held 100% of their investments in LAIF with no diversification. With 40
LAIF capped at $40 million back then, and allowing a limited number of transactions monthly, some public agency treasurers and fiduciaries began to realize that it was not a sufficient option. One of these public servants was Dave Ciapponi with Westlands Water District. Working in concert with the Treasurers of Solano and Sonoma Counties, the idea of CalTRUST was born. In 2002 Solano County, Sonoma County, and West Lands Water District began forming a joint powers agreement to exercise common powers under government code to invest funds. This was a complex process and required legislation to amend California Government Code 53601 to allow municipalities to invest in such a JPA. After years of hard work, forming supportive symbiotic relationships with local government organizations and
many hours of legal review to ensure that all the I’s were dotted and the T’s were crossed, CalTRUST officially launched with the founding agencies and a total of $25 million in assets in 2005. As of today, CalTRUST has over 135 unique public agency shareholders and close to $2.3 billion in assets with roughly a third of assets under management being from California special districts. We are proud to have been a CSDA Endorsed Affiliate since 2008. CalTRUST is currently governed by a seven-member board of trustees, including Matt McCue, director of administrative services with Mission Springs Water District and Bobbie Ormonde, deputy general manager of Finance and Administration with Westlands Water District. In addition to having a high-caliber board of trustees, CalTRUST ensures we have the best partners to serve our public agencies. As a JPA, CalTRUST believes in process and regularly issues requests for proposals for all service providers to ensure the best service for our shareholders. Currently, BlackRock, the world’s largest asset manager, serves as the investment management team for CalTRUST and is also available as a resource to our shareholders. From day one, the purpose behind CalTRUST was simple, to provide investment diversification options to California’s public agencies and to be of true service. CalTRUST has accomplished this by creating a product that is easy to access, easy to transact in, of the highest caliber quality, and evolves as a direct result of the needs of California’s special districts and California Special Districts • May-June 2021
