EVANSTON — Topping last week’s work session agenda, Evanston Parks and Recreation District Director Jay Dee Nielson addressed the golf course discussion started during the March 28 Evanston City Council meeting.

During the March 28 work session, community member Eric Mander gave some statistics, which Nielsen said he wanted to examine further with the Council.

“Mr. Mander gave some stats that I’d like to look at closer,” he said. “Mr. Mander said the total rounds of golf played in 2016 were around 16,000 and city subsidies were $707,000.”

Nielsen explained to the council that, in fact, 21,395 rounds of golf were played during the 2016 season. Of those, 16,470 were public rounds and 4,925 were played by golf club members.

“Mr. Mander was correct in the recovery percentage,” he said. “However, actual cash subsidies from the city in 2016 were $360,000 and subsidies to the Rec Center were $433,840.”

During the March 28 meeting, Mander suggested the city privatize the golf course, saying when a business has a loss for many years, it typically shuts down.

“Regarding Mr. Mander’s comment on shutting down a business that has a loss for 15 years, the golf course and rec center are not private businesses,” said Nielsen. “They provide a service to the community and the governing officials have chosen to subsidize each for better quality of life for the city.”

Finishing his comments regarding the golf course, Nielsen said the course officially opened, but there were a few greens needing attention.

“Right now, greens 10, 11 and 14 need some repairs coming out of the hard winter,” he said. “It is going to take around four to six weeks to fix. We’re hoping they will be ready by mid-May.”

At the request of the city, Moreton Asset Management attended the work session meeting to present different options for the city’s investment portfolio.

Managing partner Jason Williams shared a brief history of the company and then jumped into the presentation addressing the city’s investment opportunities.

“If we were hired to manage your portfolio, a team of four portfolio managers would be assigned to your city account,” he said. “These four have been working together for 14 years.”

Jason Williams said they did a full review of the city’s investment policy, which had not been updated for many years, and found some outdated language and definitions.

“We suggested making the updates to the investment policy,” he said. “We would also recommend not investing in anything for over five years. We have found it is difficult for a city/county to see past five years.”

Jason Williams said Moreton has four principles for successful investing:

• Security: The company would establish an independent third-party as the custodial institution to ensure ownership and control of assets remain with the city.

• Protection: The company would develop and implement an updated investment policy, outlining goals and objectives, as well as design the portfolio and implement the plan.

• Transparency: The company would provide a reporting suite to track, quantify and verify the portfolio, ensure face-to-face interaction and ensure clear and simple fee structure.

• Expertise: the company would select an investment advisor with relevant expertise and trusted reputation; and address changing interest rate environments and economic factors.

Jason Williams asked if anyone in the room wanted to invest beyond five years.

Councilman Evan Perkes said, “Not with the interest rates increasing.”

Jason Williams said their focus would be on liquidity and provided a sample city investment plan. The sample showed how the city could possibly increase investment revenues by approximately $3,000 to $6,000 monthly.

“Our fee structure is 100 percent all inclusive,” he said. “It includes all the costs – custodial cost, trading, management and reporting fees. Based on your investment amount, our fee for the city would be 0.20 percent annually.”

He said the company doesn’t get paid until the city receives the monthly interest payment.

“We do the work and are paid 30 days in arrears,” Jason Williams said. “There are absolutely no hidden fees.”

The city will continue to review the information from Moreton Asset Management and discuss their investment strategies moving forward.

Closing out the work session meeting, Evanston City Treasurer Trudy Lym gave a brief update concerning the city’s budget.

According to Lym, the city budgeted for new vehicles for the police department, administrative department and public works. The Parks and Recreation District has also requested a new utility vehicle and capital improvement funds.

“I’ve looked at the budget and believe we’re good to buy them,” said Lym. “Revenues are more than we thought and the departments have done very well with their spending.”

Lym said the departments had only spent around 50 to 60 percent of their budgets and they are 75 percent through the budget year.

She said budget documents for the coming fiscal year were being prepared, and the city will begin to look at the 2017-18 budget soon.

As the meeting opened up to public comment, Natasha Bergen with the Southwest Beekeepers Association asked if the city had made any decisions concerning a new city code that would allow honeybee keeping within city limits.

“I know each of us on the council was going to do some research,” said Mayor Kent Williams. “I think we need to regroup and open up the discussion again.”

He said he had received some emails expressing concerns.

“How have you all done in offering education about this topic?” asked Williams.

Bergen said they had been teaching classes at BOCES twice a month, holding monthly association meetings and will start a 4H Beekeeping group soon.

Mayor Williams asked, “How many Beekeepers are in Evanston?”

Bergen said there are 54 registered bee keepers in Uinta County and of those approximately nine are from Evanston.

Kent Williams said they would discuss the matter further and decide how to proceed.