Tag: Samantha Begovich

Disagreements Get Personal At San Diego Pension Board Meeting; One Trustee: “I Am Very Concerned For My Safety”

board room chair

Until now, the major points of contention among trustees of San Diego County’s pension fund have been matters of investment policy.

[Pension360 has covered some of the drama surrounding the fund’s outsourced CIO and its investment strategy.]

But things are getting personal among the fund’s board members. An email exchange obtained by U-T San Diego reveals the extent of the personal issues, particularly between trustees David Myers and Samantha Begovich:

The ongoing divide about investment strategies on the county pension board has spilled over into personal allegations of sexual harassment and racial discrimination, with threats of a potential lawsuit between board members and one trustee saying she fears for her personal safety.

[…]

According to the emails, Begovich told pension system CEO Brian White earlier this month that Myers has harassed and ridiculed her in public and private, and she is afraid he may lose his composure and commit violence against her.

“I am very concerned for my safety now,” Begovich wrote to White on the evening of Feb. 4, the night before a pension board meeting. “I wonder if we can have him not bring his gun to meetings.”

White responded 21 minutes later, telling Begovich he did not understand her statement about fearing for her safety at meetings of the San Diego County Employees Retirement Association.

“Are you saying that you are concerned that Dave Myers might shoot you?” replied White, who shared her private correspondence with the entire board without seeking Begovich’s approval. “I cannot give that any credence. I once again ask if you would like me to arrange a change in your seat with another board member.”

Begovich wrote back in five minutes: “Yes. That is what I am concerned about given his behavior to date and your unilateral decision to release a privileged document with my private conclusions relayed to you.”

More of the surreal email exchange can be read here.

San Diego County Pension Trustee Decries Investment Strategy, CIO in Newspaper

megaphone

Samantha Begovich, a trustee for the San Diego County Employees Retirement Association (SDCERA), has penned a column in an area newspaper decrying the fund’s outsourced CIO, Salient Partners, and its investment strategy.

The fund voted last year to move on from Salient Partners and hire an in-house CIO after critics called Salient’s investment strategy too risky. But the process has been slow, and Salient could retain asset management duties until November 2015.

The public nature of Begovich’s complaints is unprecedented for a trustee of a fund that, until late last year, didn’t allow its board members to talk to the media at all.

From the column, published in the San Diego Union-Tribune:

I have repeatedly asked that Salient be sent a 30-day termination letter. CalPERS and CalSTRS posted 19 percent returns for 2014. SDCERA? 9 percent. The fund will be short $700 million of its Salient moonshot this fiscal year. How did this happen?

[…]

Critics allege one-sided staging in support of Salient. In August, realists took the mic. Expert after expert said our fund was at-risk. They said it is conflicted and imprudent having one subcontractor direct all $10 billion. They erupted at the irrationality of this adviser investing 50 percent of our money in his product line. If speech bubbles were above the experts, they would’ve said, “Say what?”

Imagine dealing with someone both clergy and salesperson to you. A word picture: Your rabbi/priest/cleric says, “It would be wise and virtuous for you to invest $2 billion in Advanced Manufacturing in the CaliBaja Mega Region. I have no track record, but you should invest in my CaliBaja Advanced Manufacturing firm.” See the tension? Asked why we weren’t in rival funds with stellar track records, Salient’s Lee Partridge said: “I don’t want to talk about my competition.”

Kudos to University of California Chief Investment Officer Jagdeep Singh Baccher, manager of $91 billion, for not laughing when I asked: What do you think of our investment strategy wherein 25 percent of our portfolio puts total value at risk of loss? He paused in disbelief and sagely said: “Well, I think you have your answer, don’t you?”

The fund’s board voted 8-1 last November to move CIO duties in-house and thus cut ties with Salient Partners.

 

Photo by  Gene Han via Flickr CC License