Section 97B.8A. Investment board.

  1.  Board established.  A board is established to be known as the “Investment Board of the Iowa Public Employees’ Retirement System”, referred to in this chapter as the “board”. The duties of the board are to establish policy, and review its implementation, in matters relating to the investment of the retirement fund. The board shall be the trustee of the retirement fund.

  2.  Investment review.

  a.  At least annually the board shall review the investment policies and procedures used by the board and system, and shall hold a public meeting on the investment policies and investment performance of the retirement fund. Following its review and the public meeting, the board shall, pursuant to the requirements of section 97B.7A, and in consultation with the chief investment officer and other relevant personnel of the system, establish an investment policy and goal statement that shall direct the investment activities concerning the retirement fund.

  b.  The board shall review and approve, prior to the execution of a contract with the system, the hiring of each investment manager and investment consultant outside of state government.

  c.  The board shall be involved in the performance evaluation of the chief investment officer.

  3.  Actuarial responsibilities.

  a.  The board shall select the actuary to be employed by the system as provided in section 97B.4.

  b.  The board shall, in consultation with the chief executive officer, the actuary, and other relevant personnel of the system, adopt from time to time mortality tables and all other necessary factors for use in actuarial calculations required in connection with the retirement system. The board shall also adopt the actuarial methods and assumptions to be used by the actuary for the annual valuation of assets as required by section 97B.4.

  4.  Membership.

  a.  The board shall consist of eleven members, including seven voting members and four nonvoting members.

  (1)  The voting members shall be as follows:

  (a)  Three public members, appointed by the governor, who are not members of the retirement system and who each have substantial institutional investment experience or substantial institutional financial experience.

  (b)  Three members, appointed by the governor, who are members of the retirement system. Prior to the appointment by the governor of a member of the board under this subparagraph, the benefits advisory committee shall submit a slate of at least two nominees per position to the governor for the governor’s consideration. The governor is not required to appoint a member from the slate submitted. Of the three members appointed, one shall be an active member who is an employee of a school district, area education agency, or merged area; one shall be an active member who is not an employee of a school district, area education agency, or merged area; and one shall be a retired member of the retirement system.

  (c)  The treasurer of state.

  (2)  The nonvoting members of the board shall be two state representatives, one appointed by the speaker of the house of representatives and one by the minority leader of the house, and two state senators, one appointed by the majority leader of the senate and one by the minority leader of the senate.

  b.  Four voting members of the board shall constitute a quorum.

  c.  The three members who have substantial institutional investment experience or substantial institutional financial experience, and the member who is a retired member of the retirement system, shall be paid their actual expenses incurred in the performance of their duties and shall receive a per diem as specified in section 7E.6 for each day of service not exceeding forty days per year. Legislative members shall be paid the per diem and expenses specified in section 2.10, for each day of service. The per diem and expenses of the legislative members shall be paid from funds appropriated under section 2.12. The members who are active members of the retirement system and the treasurer of state shall be paid their actual expenses incurred in the performance of their duties as members of the board and the performance of their duties as members of the board shall not affect their salaries, vacations, or leaves of absence for sickness or injury.

  d.  The appointive terms of the members appointed by the governor are for a period of six years beginning and ending as provided in section 69.19. If there is a vacancy in the membership of the board for one of the members appointed by the governor, the governor has the power of appointment. Gubernatorial appointees to this board are subject to confirmation by the senate.

  5.  Closed sessions.  In addition to the reasons provided in section 21.5, subsection 1, the board may hold a closed session pursuant to the requirements of section 21.5 of that portion of a board meeting in which financial or commercial information is provided to or discussed by the board if the board determines that disclosure of such information could result in a loss to the retirement system or to the provider of the information.

2001 Acts, ch 68, §12, 24

;

2003 Acts, ch 145, §286

;

2008 Acts, ch 1032, §201

Confirmation, see §2.32