Pool traveling as retirement system trustee

City Council Member Leslie Pool is traveling to various cities this week as part of her duties as a trustee of the City of Austin Employees’ Retirement System. She left home on Sunday and will be gone through the end of the week. Pool is one of several trustees traveling to meet applicants who responded to a request for proposals for general investment consulting services for the system. The Austin Monitor caught up with her and the executive director of the retirement system, Chris Hanson, as they were leaving a meeting in San Francisco Tuesday. Hanson and Pool explained that it is important to keep the names of the consultant applicants confidential until the committee makes a recommendation to the full board, which is expected to happen in May. Pool noted that retirement system holds about $2.4 billion in retirees’ money. Even though she is serving on the board, as a Council member she will never be able to retire from the city.