By Adam Studzinski

NORMAL – Normal’s Town Council has officially given the thumbs up to the town’s investment policy.

The council approved the policy Monday night during its meeting at the Illinois State University Alumni Center. Finance Director Andrew Huhn explained the policy has three main objectives; the most important of which is safety.

“It’s taxpayer money. We’ve got to make sure it’s always safe and secure investments,” said Huhn. “The second one is liquidity. We’re not in the business of maintaining cash for investment. We’re in the business of providing services with our cash.”

The third and least important objective is return on investment.

“We want to make sure we maximize return for the cash we have available for investing, but it’s not our primary motivation,” said Huhn. “Our primary motivation, again, is for safe and secure investing of the taxpayer dollar.”

Huhn added Normal will not make an investment lasting longer than five years as a way to maintain liquidity.

“If we go any longer than that then we’re tying up the cash for too long and it’s not our goal, again, to keep cash tied up in investment,” he said.

The policy was constructed by staff several years ago, but has not been reviewed by the council in a decade. Huhn said the plan is to bring it back to the council for review at least every three years.

Adam Studzinski can be reached at [email protected].