Investment Committee - Regular Meeting

Good afternoon. Welcome to the town of Mount Dessert Investment Committee meeting. I'm Phil Lichenstein, the chair. Next to me is the finance director, May Wiler. Present in the room is Jamie Blaine. Welcome back, Michael Bailey, and Matt Weaver from the first. Uh absent today is uh our representative from the board of selectment uh Wendy Littlefield and ex official and on his way out the door shorttimer Darlan Luck and I have to emphasize the shorttime because we're not going to short sell him ever cuz he did a really good job. It's incredible. He's been here as long they used to run town managers out of town Michael in the old days here. pack them up for you. Okay, let's let Matt Wheeler do his thing. Weaver do his thing.

Thanks, Phil. And uh Derlin, enjoy your retirement and it was it was a uh wonderful working with you over the years. Um so I want to start with uh some comments on the the overall allocation looking at these pie charts then we'll move on to performance and uh then look at the portfolio composition for a few minutes and then I'll take your comments or questions. Uh the allocation as it stands right now is about 56% equity. Uh very little cash. Uh the reason for that is that there was a very large dispersement uh several days before the end of the fiscal year uh in late June. It was about one and a half million. Uh so we took that from the cash position and uh then we have uh bonds at 44%. Uh we're sort of in the middle in terms of the the range that we have in the policy uh between stocks and bonds where we're we're at that 56%. We can go as high as 65%. Uh that that's a little misleading because we also have a hedge that's part of the equity position called the Calamos market neutral fund which adds about three 3% or so to that to that number. So we're actually closer to 53%. uh the the mix of equity in the middle there is uh you know a bias towards large cap US stocks. Obviously uh if you if you took all of the markets around the world and you you looked at the all the market caps uh you'd see that large cap US makes up about half of the world's market cap. So you know that's why we have uh that allocation as it is. Uh we also have a uh international large

cap position which uh has has caught up a little bit to to US uh equities this year. Although if you look at uh the overall PE of the markets, you have a forward PE in the US markets at 22. You have a forward PE of of the large cap international at 14. So, um, we're going to be moving a little bit of, uh, of the large cap US position into international and, uh, hopefully take advantage of some more catchup on the international side. Um, we also have obviously midcap, small cap and and that arbitrage fund is is in there as well and emerging markets. Uh on the fixed income side, uh we have a mix of CDs, corporate bonds, some bond funds. Uh most of the positions, the individual fixed income positions are uh are throwing off north of 4% uh for income. Uh we we do have several that are uh below 3%, but they'll be coming off uh maturing in in the next six months or so. So, um, you know, that's why we we like to have that flexibility. We know that, you know, the Fed is 94% uh that they're going to cut in in September. So, you know, we want to take advantage of rates now uh before they before they go down. So, uh we'll be we'll be adding uh you know, before the the Fed cuts the expected 100 points uh by the the end of the year. So that's uh that's sort of the breakdown on the on the allocation. Um on the performance side, I I'm sorry. Anyone have any questions or or comments on on the allocation part?

Yeah. I I'm curious about the 53% 47% stock bond. Is that is that why if if you can go to 65, why are you at 53? uh we we think that uh markets are at least the the markets in in uh the US are are fairly valued or you could even make the argument that they're overvalued at 22 times. And uh I I I when the VIX is this low, I get nervous. um you know and and you've we've got a few things that are out here uh that we don't know yet in terms of where we are we're going to uh have that um that tariff number. Is it going to be closer to 20% when we get done here or is it going to be closer to 10? um you know PPI was uh was hot and so I'm I'm just not convinced that that tariffs uh are not going to to have some effect on our on our economy over the next three to six months. So um that's why we're we're sort of in the middle of that allocation.

Have you traditionally been in the middle or higher?

Well uh we've been all well we've been lower actually. Um we've been we've been lower than than that. Um you know when we've had periods of volatility um you know in in mid June when we when we bombed Iran and and the Middle East was firing up. Um I I'm just shocked at how the uh you know how the markets have climbed this wall of worry that I I I mentioned in my in my newsletter. Um it's just remarkable. Um, so that that gives me gives me pause that um, you know, we we we we don't need to be, you know, fully invested, but we're, you know, we're we're close to that uh, you know, long-term endowment allocation that, you know, we we all know is typically 60 to 40 6040. Um, so I I'm I'm good where we are. I'm just going to make some some moves in terms of rebalancing, take some funds out of the out of the large cap US positions and move them um into international and and hopefully uh international is going to continue to to catch up to uh to US markets. I think we took a really good advantage though of the high interest rates with the cash that we had using the money markets correctly. And I think we, you know, I think that window is shutting very quickly as we probably all know, especially if as interest rates go the other way or the cuts go the other way. And you know, as always a reminder of the group, we can't bet the farm. You know, we are not individual investors. We are, you know, we are a town with, you know, with this is our rainy day fund and this is also our capital reserves and, you know, if the marina goes out to sea and we keep getting king tide storms, we need to be able to have access to these funds and say, "Oh, we

had it and we don't." So, I kudos to you, Matt, for being just smart on your feet and careful. And I believe the tariffs could go either way also. Yeah. Thank you, Phil. And uh you know if if we do have a significant pullback I'll certainly uh you know move move that allocation higher um you know and take advantage of lower prices but I don't think it's the time to do it. Thank you. Is everyone comfortable with that in the group? Michael Jamie again I'm just asking a question. Yeah. But are we comfortable with his allocations? I mean because you brought it up and now we're discussing them. I'm listening. Yeah. I I I I think you're I think you're in the right

a second got some listening to he's not a micro bander anyhow. We know that uh May uh the performance report is uh I think the next page page page five. Um sorry the print is is so uh so small on that but I'll uh

little laptop it's harder to read the screen also. uh fiscal year to date we're at about 5 and a half% against the benchmark of of 6.02 02 uh I can explain that uh you know uh short-term v uh variances in in uh these numbers are easy to explain over longer term it's not um so uh we have a very I would say shortterm bond uh portfolio uh we we do have some intermediate bond exposure but and we'll be moving you know towards more of an intermediate as we try to uh you know lock in some of these you know four to four and a half% u uh coupons that are out there that are going to go away. Um so we we have a an intermediate term bond uh benchmark that we've we've always used. We we don't we don't believe in changing benchmarks based upon our portfolio construction. So, we could have, you know, we could have moved a short-term bond uh benchmark in here and and even things up in terms of the return, but um it works both ways. So, when uh when rates are going up and you've got a short-term bond portfolio against an intermediate term benchmark, you're going to look like a hero. Um and then the the other ways uh when it goes the other way, you you might be uh underperforming a little bit. But if you go towards the right here and you see uh what we've done over 5 years, seven years, and since inception, that variance goes away. Um and and and it should because there's going to be periods where, you know, our our sort of shorter term bond uh portfolio is is going to look much better against that uh that intermediate. But um you know, three-year annualized um 8.58

uh fiveyear 6.25 25 7-year they're all there uh beating the benchmark. Uh so we're pleased with that. Um you know the the target for this fund long-term should be with this allocation you know you want ideally you want five plus three right you want uh you know 3% is long-term uh inflation you know maybe if you looked at the rolling average over the last five years I think it's closer to 5% but um that's what you really are looking for is 8% and you've got that on an annualized uh number over over the last three years. So that I think that's uh that's good for the town and uh you know we've we've uh done very well. Markets have have um have cooperated here recently. So uh any any questions about the the performance that I can answer?

Yeah, Matt, I just wanted to can you clarify again um how exactly you calculate the benchmark? Now Jamie had that question last meeting and I think you touched on it but I just want to make sure I have it correctly.

Yeah. So uh all the the benchmarks here at the bottom of this page you see the percentages um and so our vendor our our third party vendor uh that that's that's um uh looking at the running these numbers uh is using that benchmark below and all the percentages right there for each individual benchmark. But but how do you what is your benchmark? So, it's it's made up of uh the S&P 500, uh the S&P 400 midcap, the Russell 2000, uh the MSCI EH, uh the MSCI Emerging Markets, uh the Intermediate Government Credit, and then we have the Footsie um which is for the the foreign bond um allocation. Oh,

I can I see it's there. Yeah.

Yep. And you know, we've we've always used ETFs. Um, we want those ETFs sort of to match up with uh with its with its benchmark, which we we we uh we've done. So, you know, ETFs, they not only provide that diversification that we love, but they're also market neutral, right? So, we're not taking any bets, uh, you know, on, you know, overweight tech or overweight healthc care, underweight financials. We're we're letting those ETFs uh give us that u um exposure to the markets that's that's market neutral. And I I I believe that's the way to go with with institutional money. It's a good question, mate. Yeah, from last time. Helpful.

Okay. Yeah. And finally, uh, yes. Um, I wanted to look at the portfolio composition quickly and and take any any final questions you may have, but that's on the the other report. May Got to get down. There's this. Oh, sorry. Where is it? Sorry. Which page, Matt? Uh, it's not in the presentation piece. It's the It's a separate PDF.

Yeah. Okay. Hold that up. Will the quarterly statement work or do you want the June one through June 1 or 31?

June the June 30th is it's fine. Yeah. Page three, the uh the equity piece. Uh we here's the the Calamos market neutral fund which I was referring to the uh small hedge that we have in the portfolio. Uh we have the the money market rate. You were asking about the rate of return on the money market. It's on the the far right column 4.15. Um that's and that's what it is currently. Um it resets on a monthly basis. I expect it to reset um after the the September Fed meeting. So we we should be closer to I would think three and a half at that point. Uh going down to the equities as you as I noted we have uh all these Vanguard ETFs. Uh we have both the growth and the value S&P 500 ETFs in here so that we have some uh mobility in terms of you know where we want to be. Uh is is is growth going to outperform value over the next 6 to 12 months uh or is it going to be more of a a value market? So we that's why we have those two ETFs in there so that we can we can make adjustments and and strategic adjustments from time to time. I don't like to to you know uh overweight too much on either value or growth, but we do have these separate ETFs. Uh we have the the Russell 2000 in here. Small caps have underperformed versus the large caps and midcaps this year. So, um, we we'll we'll likely add a little bit to to that position as well, uh, and take advantage of, uh, you know, hopefully as we move forward here. Lower rates should help small cap. It helps

their, uh, their their their, uh, financing, the lower financing costs uh, typically help help the small cap companies. And uh we have the developed markets uh ETF in here which I mentioned we'll probably be adding to that as well. Um so overall we're we're you know we're we're pleased where we are in terms of uh our allocations. And on page four long list here of of individual bonds and CDs that we've purchased. As you can see over to the far right, the current yield, most of them are over 4%, so they were purchased, you know, after uh rates moved up in in 2022 and 23. Um, so we took advantage of those higher rates. Some have come off over the last five or six months as they've matured. Um, and as you can see, as I, you know, we just have a couple here that are, you know, under that two and a half% threshold, but um, the city group's coming due here in in in a couple of weeks. The Sally May at the bottom of the page is two and a quarter. That's that's coming due here in about six months. So um you know that's that's why we keep that that uh allocation to um you know to to shortterm bonds and CDs and and but we will have some intermediate exposure. If you see on the next page the Vanguard intermediate term bond um we have almost threequarters of a million dollars um in in that fund. So we do have some intermediate exposure and I if I can find you know issues that are I think are attractive between now and you know the end of September I'll certainly be you know buying and I I do think that sweet spot right now in the

fixed income markets is that uh three to three to five year uh time frame. What's with this Texas Exchange Bank?

That is a CD. That's a CD. And uh my my feeling about CDs is, you know, if you keep your exposure under 250,000, the town is is fully insured, FDIC. Um so that I tend to buy more CDs than I do corporates because I I just don't like that uh default risk in the portfolio. But I I will buy them from time to time if I, you know, if I'm if I'm comfortable with owning uh the company's debt. Good answer.

Almost 50 grand in dividends alone, too. I'm sorry, Phil. I'm I'm went further down and I see we've made almost 50 grand in just dividends alone.

Yeah. Yep. Um you know I if you look at the the current yield on on all the fixed income, we're north of 4% and you know that's that's that's where we are on the on the Fed funds rate right now is is in that uh ballpark. So, you know, I'm I'm pleased, but you know, I think uh you know, we we'll need to to lock in a few things. I'll I'll look for non-allable if I can. I because if rates are going down, uh whatever I buy in the next three to six months, if it has a call provision, it's probably going to get called and I'd rather hold on to it for, you know, the two or three year term. That's all I have.

Last year's 15. You did great. Thanks, Phil.

Great. Thank you so much, Matt, for for your presentation. That was great. Well, and I just really, you know, for a small town in Maine, thank you so much for, you know, being mindful and, you know, make helping us keep the lights on for the future and and, you know, the social responsibility that comes with the people that sit in the room and are online today. It's just it's really we feel very lucky to have, you know, being looked after and most of all trying to be safe. You know, we we we can't bet the farm in our particular case. I know that said that earlier, but I believe that Yeah, and I I appreciate that, Phil. And you know, I've been doing it for quite a while and uh especially with the municipalities and I I can I can discuss this because it's it's public knowledge, but um you know, town of Bucksport when we signed them up town 10 years ago, the the uh the mill was still running. Um they had plenty of reserves. Now they're using them. um you know because you know things change and and uh you know they don't have the tax base they had um and and they had to use up the funds that they they put away. So, um, you know, I I feel it's I have a a very big responsibility to make sure that those funds are are managed responsibly and we're we're prudent with them because u there may come a day when uh when you need them.

Matt, what's if you take out the CIT, what what's left in the in the portfolio? How much? Um that's that's an internal um that would be an internal question I can I can handle. Okay. Yeah. So for him yeah that's a sub accounting more of a sub accounting for me which I used to do years ago but uh now I have some very competent uh young men that that just graduated college are doing it for me. So I think that's a really good thing for you both.

Me too. I mean, as a captain, I you have to learn how to delegate. It's the only way to get any sleep offshore.

Well, uh the these two uh are are great and uh they'll they'll be in my seat uh before you know it. So, um they're learning the ropes. They're coming to uh coming to some of these meetings with me and and uh learning how, you know, how the town finances work. And um you know, we're we're usually just, you know, managing long-term uh surplus or or reserve funds or or those trust funds that get left to the town. Um so, you know, I I it's a I I I enjoy it. I I enjoy working with towns and uh I've got about I've got about 10 years left before I'm I'm headed to Florida. So, I uh I hopefully we're we're still doing this 10 years from now.

Oh, I appreciate that, Matt. Yeah. Thank you, Matt. I hope you you and the family have a good weekend. I hope you you get some time off before summer's over. Yes. Yes. In fact, I'll be up there next weekend. Uh I'm I'm uh playing in the member guest with Tony U at KBO. Uh I I guess I'll I'll uh our tea time I think on Friday is at 11 o'clock. So, I'll uh What time do you think I should leave Dammerscotta? Like six in the morning at least. You could actually do it at two and a half hours, but I Why Why be White Knuckles? Yeah, right. They serve breakfast now at the club.

Um I That's a practice day, but I'm sure there's there's breakfast on the other days. No, no, but the club itself serves breakfast on a daily basis. Oh, they do? Yeah. So, there you go. I hear it's good. It is. Well, yeah, it's good. Look, that pub is good. What day is that? Next week. It's all It's an all weekend event. And uh weekend. Okay. So, you won't be here during the week, so we won't see you next week. You'll be with Tony Camp, right? Nice. Yeah. Yep. Yep. Please tell him we say hi. I will. All right. We'll let you sign off. Thank you again.

All right. Thanks. Take care. You too. All right. Now we can say anything we want. Those numbers were horrible, right? You know, they were excellent, you know, and it was a good quarter.

We We got lucky. I think he told the story of like how delicate it must be to be sitting behind a desk with seven computers watching the world throb and you know what the spitballs being thrown in Washington machine DC and how to read that and how financial markets react and I really appreciate when he spoke up about how everything happened about the bombing of Iran and how that all just changed and you know they were ready for everything to go south and it didn't. I think that was terrific. Absolutely. Okay. Um would you like to review and approve uh the prior meetings minutes?

Yes. Uh can I get a motion? I'll make a motion to approve uh the the meeting of what we 4:18. Second. Great. All in favor? It's just so we can post them again. The board of select read them. Okay. Next item. Next item. Review the for I can't see it. That's because we're on the minutes right now and we're back to the agenda. Okay. All right. Now we're having internal reporting time. All right. Meanwhile, our finance director should

Okay. Um so for the last quarter ending uh the end of our fiscal year was June 30th. Um this was the ending balances for our cash account uh or the the accumulation of all of our cash accounts right here. Um again these top two of our is our general fund operating account. This one right here is our reserve IC reserve that uh does sweeping for um for invest purposes with the um I don't know how to describe that. It's sweep account. Um so the the uh the net of those two numbers is what's in the operating account at any given time. Um these are this was what was left in the school account. This is interest for the school account. Um well that's not interest it's the allocation to the school's account. Um and then this was what was left in our first national money market account right here. this 507. Um I did that transfer um for cash flow purposes in um late June for 909 9 and $99,000. So that left uh 500 500,000 left um in our in that account um which was to be in compliance with our investment policy of a $500,000 uh liquidity level. And then this is

you took it right to the you took it nice and close. I love that. Yeah. Yeah. And that's actually with the with interest. So I had it down to 500 exactly within the month accounted for. So yeah. Um then we had our see our capital projects. Uh so these are the VIPs and no this is the capital. These are bonded bonded everything that Brian's got going. Correct. These are the balances of our various um uh capital projects and bond funding. And what's the 554 9 the highest one there? Just as an example. Let's see. Where are you? What's 554? This one here.

Am I in the right place? Um cash bank. No, I'm Oh. Oh, yeah. So, you have to look at this the right hand side the end balance. Okay. Sorry, I'm in the wrong place. Right. So the that would be the the end balance of this particular account. 59 is I'm not sure what project is up at the top. It's okay. It'd be too hard. Yeah, you go by a number. Anyhow, um this 900,000. Sorry. I don't expect you to remember everything. Thank you. I appreciate that. I do know this 355,000 was for solar panels, right? So that was when we bought the panels the for the highway garage.

For the highway garage. We we own the array now at the highway garage, Mike. Uh we did a power purchase agreement from revisions. Now we own that. We'll probably get the next 20 years out of it. So what an investment. Correct. Sounds like a great deal. It was a great deal. Yes. And so we still have a bit left in there. Um this the 1.6 million these were these last four ones were um projects that are approved at the 2024 town meeting. Um, and so this one, this 1.6, that was for the sewer. Um, and then, uh, 240. Again, I can get you. Um,

no, we don't need this as a general. We want to keep things really light like this. We're not here to like tear apart your balance sheet. Thank you. Okay, so Jamie, this is going back to the question you had about how much is in the CIP compared to the rest of the investment portfolio. Great question. Yes, it is. So right here, uh, this after we did, um, we did the fiscal year 24. This actually should be 20. That's correct, though. It's

No. Yeah. Yeah, we're good. But yeah, this is the Yeah, fiscal year 24 liability uh transferred to our to our operating account. So, this is left in our CIP right here. This 9 million. Uh, and then this 1.179, that's specifically for the marina for their own fund. And then the remaining and the unallocated investments is 2.1 almost 2. So if for for for Michael's information the marina's done as an enterprise zone and so they have their own separate CIP that they pay you know so separate budget separate government everything is separate because of the way because we it is a it's run as a business not a governmental. He gets it. Okay.

Yeah he got it. He got it. Um, so and then this balance right here 12 434970 that balances with Close your eyes so you don't get dizzy. I can't I get sick. I know. I'm not driving though. So here we go. Ending market value. It's a June 30th. But then is this 12434970 then 12434970. So our books match the bank which is great. Well done. I was off I was off I was off $11 when I did mine last Yes. at the middle of the month. That's not bad. I would love to be off by $11 sometimes.

I was like I was like I'm not I bet I could find the mistake and I bet it was in math because what I usually use the calculator but sometimes in the summer I'm quick and I don't. Oh, usually use the calculator to be quicker. Well, to be exact. That too. Quick and exact is the goal. um also. So then uh this one right here is the specific balances for each of the equipment reserves. So this is a breakdown of all of the am I saying capital equipment. So right each

the minus number means so these ones uh this is it's a what am I saying this this is a good thing in this case um so I figured so if we're so this is a

this is a liability account so the normal balance for a liability account is a credit and so that's where this negative comes from um if this were positive in a liability account. That would not be good. At least we owe we're in the red. So, just keep in mind that in this particular scenario, the this the minus sign is is appropriate and and good. Um, and if it were negative in the asset section above, that would not be great unless it's the net of those two accounts for cash of operating account. Then,

see, you got to love that the bait house at Seal Harbor has has still has 13, you know, thousands in it. Let's see where previously Oh, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Let's see. Yep. House reserve. Okay. So, any questions about about that? Now, we're into the beta that's only for transparency,

right? Um and then to keep in mind, uh so this is just as as of 6:30. um there for 2020 fiscal year 2026 we have done the transfers uh for that uh that this year's or 26's CIP additions. So we added another $1 million into the investments um for broken down by the capital uh equipment reserves. And do we have a major any major purchases in that ended before 6:30? Uh no. Excellent. Perfect. We are still waiting on the purchase of that fire truck. Yeah. So that would be the biggest one we have and that's encumbered. So that's that is not reflected in this balance just so you know. Good.

It's it's a internal bookkeeping. And then a fun part is our interest income for the full fiscal year. As you can see, we made it. Good job.

We made it. So even with the in I wouldn't say the the the significant uh rate cuts uh that occurred this past fall in October when we went from our ICS account from 5.25% to 3.927. Uh that was that was a big cut and we got a it we can tell that we we took a big hit in this account last year. we were uh over budgeted expectations by I think $300,000 $200 to $300,000. Now we just barely made it by 6,000. Uh so that u that was a big hit. I reflected those cuts in fiscal year 26's interest income budget. So we're we're much more conservative for this year unfortunately. And then these are earnings for the investment portfolio just an interest income. And can see the 32 right here. 26 sorry 26562. And then this is the interest that was made off of our uh capital project. So bond proceeds. And that's like I said last time it's in a separate account. So we're not making more money in interest income than we're paying in interest to the banks for these bond issues.

Right? And that that's a question if you remember Jamie that came up a few times in the war committee. Why are we bonding things? Now we have the answer. Why don't we pay it outright? It's a common question we get from the community. which smart business people understand it's worth to do the other and it it extends it extends the effect of the project over a longer period of time. So I guess the the monetary effect of doing large projects that spreads it over and so the effect on an indivi individual isn't as significant if we were to just pay it out of the operating budget in one year. That's why we bond.

But it's a common question at the wire committee. Why why are we bonding this? Well, now we have to explain it. Cuz your taxes would go up significantly, right? Literally. Oh, no. You you would go up instead of, you know, 4,800, you'd be, you know, you'd go up $800 on your taxes immediately. And especially with construction costs going up. I mean, I mean, the price of a square foot of material or, you know, some of these capital projects and what we're going to end up doing at the school at some point. Yeah. That started. Yeah. Okay. So, then here we are. uh that we don't actually uh recognize interest income for the marina fund in this uh format. We shouldn't.

Nope. Um and overall expectations or budget expectations for interest income, we exceeded them by 60,000. So not bad even in a year of of variability. And that's all I have for internal reporting. I don't have any questions.

Do you have any concerns? And do you is anything that you want to bring to our attention? You know, now we basically, you know, we're a month we're a little over a month. We're about to get all our tax payments in. Do you see any concerns or do you have any questions that you know, as far as the direction I mean sec, you know, we could already take Matt Weaver in the first. I think we got pretty confident. Any of your money, are you happy with your money markets accounts at at Barber Bank and Trust? I think I should ask. And do you have any internal, you know, concerns? I think that it's probably time to consider going out to bid for uh a better interest rate on our cash accounts

and we've had a history of that in the in this group. Both Mike and Jamie, we always try, you know, we we don't want to we don't want to rock the boat. I think Bar Harbor Bank and Trust would be willing to match, you know, the going rate, but we've every three years we've been known to go out there and find out. So we should contact you know bang our savings bataya savings the the first you know we don't want to give them everything I don't think you should ever have everything in one bank correct right so but we want them to under you know we have a little bits that we do have cash invested with them within the fund so it's it it's behooves them to look at it sure and I think I think it'd be beneficial just to do you think you could get do you think you could send that out before the next time we meet um

and you know without putting added pressure in your day-to-day I I I'm going to get back to you on that and see. I'm cleaning up the fiscal year right now. So I can but I like after September 15th let's say it's a month out. So I'm I'm go I go by listen I go by quarters in in my head. So right it would be better to do it at November 15th. It would definitely the the extent it would would be perfect. We don't we don't want to be we want to be mindful. We don't want to be a burden.

No, I know. Of course not. No, not a burden at all. Uh it's important that we're taking advantage of the best interest rates that we can es especially when we have uh the most amount of funds in the bank currently because we've just gotten taxes in. So we want to take advantage of their big balance that we have. So So I'll put that no meeting. What's instead of o let's go October 15th. We'll do before Halloween. Make it like candy for the meeting. Uh no not for meeting but for you to go start ask when are you going to start asking for bids? Once I get this bond taken care of. So, do you need 60 days? Yes.

Okay. And why don't we meet? Let's see. So, we met in August. Traditionally, we only meet a couple times a year, but we could do it. We could we meet quarterly. Quarterly. So. So, November. So, before the week before Thanksgiving, that that's back to November 15th. That'll give you a chance to get get your bond done and get some bids from some of the banks. What What interest rate are you I can't get. That's a good question. Great question. Right now we are at 3.927 and then at the first we're at 3.66. Which is very still very good. Double check.

Would it make sense to buy a seed for six month segment? That's something dip. He certainly likes that. That was a that was a Matt Weaver thing. You could you were paying attention. Matt Weaver likes CDs for that reason. And I also think I mean we have to consider just like Matt was talking about how there are cuts coming in September. Yeah. So I don't know maybe if it is a good time to go out especially if there's going to be significant cuts. Well, we want to get it before they you know if it's going to go 100 basis points you know that's a full percent. So it would be good to start earlier than later. That that's where I was going. So

why don't you after your bond comes out, you start get some numbers and we'll try. You know, I don't think you're going to see more than 25 basis points before Christmas. I don't think the Feds I think there are people that like to see a huge one and I think that it's going to be baby steps because of the tariffs. Okay. So, we already got to scheduling the next investment committee meeting. So, let's look at our calendars. So, the week before Thanksgiving would be November 21st. That would be the Friday

when we traditionally meet on Fridays. Michael, is that is that is is that a good day of the week for you all? The 23rd. That's just fine. Oh god. Oh my gosh. When the police come, this is everybody, right? I'm not getting it. North wind. What is it? Wind police coming at large and window shelter shelter. Yeah, we're not even anywhere near, but that's what happens. Good to know. Did you get that, Michael? Where's Windom? You got I don't get notified. Okay. No,

it's not a It's like wind. It's like uh sort of north and uh east of Augusta. Don't we? So, yeah. So, no, November 21th would be the Friday before Thanksgiving. Yes. And that gives you the 60 days you need to finish your bond. And I don't Yeah. Um and I don't think we'll lose more than 25 basis points in, you know, any interest type things. And

yeah, so I don't need the the 60 the bonds coming up shortly. So once I get that taken care of, that'll be in September. then I can start issuing or looking into issuing bins and then at the 15th is when we would decide on which which institution to go with but again you so you're you're still comfortable though even if even with the uncertainty going out doing this and going out for bit I think we have to okay because it only could get worse yeah yeah yeah right so let's say what you know if you have your financial planner telling you know, they they're already expecting 100 basis points. That would be a full percent

percent off of, you know, so we're 3.94 to that brings us to 294. So, we only lost, you know, a quarter of 50 basis points, as they would say, half a percent. We did well. Yeah. And it's time that we we do it. So, well, it's just it's the right thing to do. Yep. is my calendar

at 3:30 like usual. You don't want to be done. It will definitely be done. Do you want to do it? No, it's fine. We're teasing. It's like November is the worst month. It really is tough. I used to move yachts during November and April and my wife was always so mad. Why are you gone for the the worst two months of the year? Thought I had a really good gig. Get stuck. Why are you still in Bermuda? Well, don't want headwinds. It's cold in Bermuda in November. Sounds like they always look at me. Why are you swimming? Are you from Canada? I used to say close by.

The natives will never swim. This is summer down there. Oh, yeah. Okay. November 21st 2025 3:30. Uh other business, questions, comments, concerns. Um yeah, I want to I think we want to send a message to the board of selectman from the committee and we want to thank Darlan L for his service and and for you know with the investment committee and we wish him well in his retirement. If you could think of anything kinder to add, you're allowed to. Thank you, Darlin. It's been a pleasure working with you. He's not going to watch this.

I do. I will add one more thing, Michael. We'd like to find one more really good member in the community. If you ever think of somebody that would be good, you know, like I always think, would that person be good? I I've yet to find that person yet that would be that we were we're really blessed where we had, you know, we had the FE the CFO from Friends of Acadia. He was just fabulous, you know, and he's left. He was really, really good. Uh, we had John Brown also very, very good. He moved to Bar Harbor. And

so, we want to always keep an eye out to add one more person to this committee. Again, that would only be an asset. Supposed to be funny when we're dealing with investment. We want an asset. That's funny. We want to keep the balance sheet balanced. That's all. Thank you all for spending time with us. Anything else for the group? Thank you. Thank you coming in on a hot summer day and anything else. Thank you, Maywe. Of course. My pleasure. Well, we'll sign off. All right, Michael. Good luck with everything. Thank you. Where's Michael? It's over there. Megan, please. Thank you.

Bye. And the meaning for all we did