The City of Grove City is looking out for its dollar.
At the March 3 Grove City Council meeting, council unanimously passed a resolution to approve an investment policy for the city. Assistant Finance Director Mike Turner, who is soon to take over as finance director, explained that this policy directs him to maintain an investment portfolio of $40 million to $45 million for the city.
"Our number one goal is to safeguard our assets," said Turner.
According to the Ohio Revised Code (ORC), money not used for daily transactions can be invested and the interest would be credited to the city’s general fund. The objective is to invest all city monies in accordance with the ORC guidelines with primary consideration given to safety of principal and liquidity. Another objective would to be maximize the yield.
The city will create an investment board to assist in the management of the investment portfolio and review the actions of the finance director. The board will include Turner, Grove City Mayor Ike Stage, City Administrator Sharon Reichard and Finance Committee Chairman for City Council Michael Uhrin. The group plans to meet quarterly.
Council members also discussed plans to establish a charter review task force.
Council President Ted Berry explained that the task force would be comprised of members appointed jointly by city council and the mayor to review the existing charter.
The group would then make recommendations to a charter review commission that will be established to conduct a "comprehensive review" of the issues designated by the task force. Those recommendations would then be forwarded on to city council.
Berry noted that he plans to send out a draft resolution to council members prior to the next council meeting on March 17.
In other news
•Council signed a declaration to support the South-Western Education Association for their efforts to raise funds for the Reach Out and Read Across America program.
This is a a program that benefits the Children’s Hospital literacy program. From March 3-7, the district has been collecting books or money from the community. Their goal is to get one book for every student – that’s 20,748 books. Those books would then be donated to the literacy program.
•The Big Splash won the Jeff Ellis and Associates Platinum International Aquatics Safety Award for 2007.
This organization performs three unannounced audits to public pools where they test the lifeguards on safety skills. Lifeguards at the Big Splash scored in the top 9 percent of the world.
