Members of the Essex Retirement Board, which manages the town’s approximately $4.3 million pension plans presented a request to the Board of Selectman to set up a subcommittee with a more targeted focus. The selectmen are not yet sold on the idea.

The Retirement Board presented the request to set up an investment policy subcommittee (IPS) because they felt the need for the addition of a smaller committee. The role of the IPS would be to review more technical investment considerations of the various pension plan accounts and to interact more proactively with the investment manager of the plan.

Retirement Board Chair Ellen Whaley-Wexler explained that her five-member board often has a difficulty getting a quorum at meetings. She said that there would not need to be a quorum with the sub-committee, which would act as an analytical subset of the board; the subcommittee could not make any decisions, but it could make recommendations to the Retirement Board.

“We are not opposed to the creation of a subcommittee; however, the Board of Selectman wants some time to check into the plan without changing the documentation just yet,” said First Selectman Norm Needleman.

“The concern about the creation of a subcommittee is that we have amazing people on the Retirement Board today and that may not always be the case, so we don’t want to change things based on what we have today,” said Needleman. “Maybe we should change the size of the board.”

Whaley-Wexler said that she is really looking for an analytical team.

“We want to get more advice and investigate how other towns tackle this issue before we move forward,” Needleman said. “So right now, we are considering all alternatives.”