Fiduciary Duty

Ever hear of it?

• A fiduciary duty is a legal obligation where one party, known as the fiduciary, must act in the best interests of another party, called the principal or beneficiary.

The city treasurer is flirting with abandoning that legal precedent:

• City Treasurer Melissa Conyears-Ervin touched off a political firestorm Wednesday by declaring that the city’s $10 billion portfolio her office controls will no longer invest in U.S. Treasury bonds to protest what she called the “authoritarian regime” of President Donald Trump.

  “Chicagoans do not want us to bankroll the regime — the authoritarian regime — of Donald Trump where he has waged a war on our city,” said Conyears-Ervin, one of thirteen Democratic candidates and fifteen candidates overall vying to succeed retiring U.S. Rep. Danny Davis in the 7th Congressional District.

  “In the past three years, our office has held over $200 million in Treasury securities,” Conyears-Ervin said, speaking at a hearing on Mayor Brandon Johnson’s proposed 2026 budget. “Beginning today, I have directed my staff to boycott the purchase of United States Treasury securities.”

She claims that the returns on corporate bonds, money market accounts and asset-backed securities are "the same" but that is a questionable proposition at best. 

No one can predict with 100% accuracy what the markets are going to do (except Nancy Pelosi) so a unilateral move like this should be questioned by the aldercreatures. Some already are, but there ought to be more than a few eyes on this with calculators at the ready.

Budgets and pensions rely on that money.