H.B. 61 Navajo Trust Fund Amendments: transcript

Thank you. Appreciate that Chair. And, uh, committee members. This is, uh, a bill that was brought, uh, by Marlow Oaks, our State Treasurer. It's, um, kind of a cleanup bill that updates the Utah Navajo Trust Fund statute to align with statewide, uh, investment confidentiality laws and longstanding reporting practices. And so it preserves transparency while protecting the fund and, uh, it, its investment strategies and its beneficiaries. The current statute could be in a, um, interpreted to require reporting on e each individual investment, which violates investment confidentiality. I didn't say that. Right. Compete that word agreements and exposes strategies that could harm the funds returns other parts of the Utah code already exempt this investment level information from grandma and public meetings to protect the fund and the bill updates the, uh, um, fund the statute to match these existing protections. So there's no confusion, uh, surrounding the legal reporting, uh, obligations. Uh, the trust is already re always reported by investment category, which provides clear performance measures without revealing sensitive details or constraining investment options. It also adjusts the meeting frequency. Uh, the way it has been is they were to meet monthly. He has changed it. They wanna meet quarterly, but this does not preclude that if they need to meet that they, uh, could certainly do that. Uh, again, it's a simple but important cleanup. Bill, and I hope you don't ask me a lot of questions. Thank you. Conclude your presentation. Yes, it does.

Uh, Thank you Mr. Chairman. I would just make a motion that we pass out House bill 61 Navajo Trust Fund amendments with the favorable recommendation.

Thank you. It, it is just bringing the fund up to where it should be, so

Thank you Mr. Speaker. Um, this bill was brought to me by our state treasurer, Marlow Oaks, who is the chair of the Board of the Utah Navajo Trust Fund. And, uh, this is a simple but important cleanup bill that updates the Navajo Utah Navajo Trust Fund statute to align with statewide investment confidentiality laws and longstanding reporting practice. So it does, uh, preserve transparency while protecting the fund. Uh, its investment strategies and its beneficiaries. So current statute could be interpreted to require reporting on each individual investment, which violates investment confidentiality agreements and exposes strategies that could harm the funds returns. And we already have other parts of Utah Code that exempt this investment level information from Grandma and public meetings to protect the fund. It also up updates the Utah na na Navajo Trust Fund statute to match these existing protections. So there's no confusion surrounding the legal reporting. The trust fund has always been, is always reported by, uh, by investment category, which provides clear performance measures without revealing sensitive details or constraining investment options. It also adjusts the frequency of when they meet. Right now it says they want it, it they should meet monthly, which they don't need to do. So it changes so that it requires a quarterly meeting, but if something comes up, they can always e meet, uh, more frequent than that. It is, uh, a simple but cleanup bill and very important, uh, for the Utah Navajo Trust Fund. And, um, uh, I'm open to any questions Mr. Speaker?

Thank you. Appreciate your vote.

Thank you. Uh, this bill is recommended by the, um, state treasurer. He happens to be the chairman of the fund. This is the Navajo Trust Fund and out of need to make it more, uh, efficient and to preserve the fund. It, we'll call it a cleanup bill, but, uh, what it does first off is they have monthly required meetings. They want to change that to quarterly. Just to have a meeting. To have a meeting doesn't make sense. The other thing, it, it will preserve the transparency while protecting the fund. Its investment strategies for the beneficiaries. The current statute could be interpreted to require reporting on each individual investment, which violates the investment confidential confidentiality agreements and exposes those strategies that could harm the funds, uh, returns. And then it also addresses other parts of the Utah Code already exempt in this investment level. Information from the grandma and public records, uh, to protect the fund, uh, the bill updates, uh, the Navajo Trust, um, commission and board, uh, and puts it where they will hear the updates from the expenditures of the fund so that there's oversight, which now is not happening, which, you know, greater transparency. Um, and so that's, uh, the extent of what's in the bill. Thank you. We have discussion of the bill.

Okay. I'll call the question then.

Yes. Thank you. Senator Vickers. This bill comes from our

This one is dealing with a Navajo Trust Fund. Simple, um, cleanup bill. The bill preserves the transparency while protecting the fund and the investment strategies along with the bi beneficiaries. Uh, the bill also adjusts the board meeting frequency. The current requirement is at least every month, it does not reflect the practice or the need. So it's updating the statute to at least quarterly and that is the amount of the bill.