St. Mary's County OPEB Trust

St. Mary's County OPEB Trust

St. Mary's County established its OPEB Trust to pre-fund healthcare obligations for retired county employees, separating these liabilities from the general pension system. County Administrator David Weiskopf chairs the six-member board, which includes CFO Vanetta Van Cleave, HR Director Catherine Pratson, County Commissioner Scott Ostrow, community representative John Walters, and Plan Administrator Joy Sapp. The board oversees investment policy for what is formally titled the Retiree Benefit Trust Portfolio based in Leonardtown. The Trust follows a diversified mandate across multiple asset classes. While specific allocations are not publicly broken out, its membership in the Maryland Association of Counties (MACo) Pooled OPEB Trust indicates a commingled approach with other Maryland jurisdictions. The MACo pool aggregates capital from participating counties to access institutional managers and spread investment costs — a structure common among mid-sized municipal plans that lack the scale to run standalone sophisticated portfolios. The St. Mary's County Metropolitan Commission also participates in this MACo vehicle. Governance sits entirely with appointed county officials and one community trustee, making this a self-administered public trust rather than an outsourced OCIO arrangement. The County Administrator serves as Board Chair, the CFO and HR Director sit as trustees, and a County Commissioner holds a board seat — embedding the Trust directly within county government rather than at arm's length. No external investment consultant or discretionary manager is named in public records. The MACo pooled structure is the dominant differentiating feature. Most municipal OPEB trusts in the United States are either pay-as-you-go or managed individually by a single consultant. Pooled OPEB trusts remain uncommon, with MACo's vehicle among a small group nationally that aggregates retiree healthcare assets for multiple public employers. This architecture gives St. Mary's access to institutional pricing and manager selection that a standalone $100-million-range trust could not negotiate alone.