Treasurer: endowment up 7% to $13.3M; trustees to add $30,000 in advisory fees to next budget

The Fairfield Public Library’s endowment rose about 7% year to date and is valued at roughly $13.3 million, Treasurer Erin told trustees at the June 8 meeting.

Erin explained a change tied to Mercer, the library’s advisory team: after organizational changes, Mercer can no longer pull fees directly from the Vanguard accounts. Mercer has proposed a manual workaround involving wires to a local bank and issuance of invoices. The board was told this approach is the only available workaround at present.

The advisory fees amount to about $7,500 per quarter, or roughly $30,000 annually. Trustees agreed they will add that projected $30,000 expense to the trustee budget and present a revised budget for approval at next month’s meeting; Erin will obtain invoices so the board can vote on payment. Trustees said they would record the line item in the budget to ensure proper audit trails and avoid ad-hoc votes when invoices arrive.

The board also discussed taking funds from specific named special accounts for program payments (for example, a mural payment estimated at $10,000) and confirmed the process for transfers would be tracked and presented for approval.