Park City Councilor Bill Ciraco in late January was preparing to file a form required of elected officials listing potential conflicts of interest between their official duties and their personal finances. The annual disclosure typically outlines an elected official’s sources of income. The di sclosures are traditionally reasonably vague, noting the person’s employer, their spouse’s employer and any property that they own or in which they hold a stake. They also list investments in stocks and bonds worth at least $5,000, though the requirement does not apply if the monies are managed by another party, such as via mutual funds. Ciraco, however, provided an unusually detailed look at his investments. The first-term city councilor, as part of the disclosure, included the monthly statement from December of his Oppenheimer Co. IRA account. He opted to make public the list of investments, the value at the time the statement was generated, the value at the time of purchase and other standard elements of a brokerage statement. The account at the end of December, as Ciraco was drafting the disclosure, was valued at a little less than $763,000. The Ciraco filing offers insight at a granular level that the other current elected officials either did not disclose or indicated did not apply to them based on either the $5,000 benchmark or a lack of holdings of stocks or bonds. It shows a diversified investment strategy involving some of the most recognizable names in their individual industries. It also spotlights the financial thinking of a onetime Wall Street professional whose career coincided with periods of market upheaval. “In a public role, transparency is the best practice. I don’t want any surprise,” he said about the decision to list the individual investments, adding that if he had not done so, it would be easy for someone to attempt to cast him as a “Wall Street blah, blah, blah.” Ciraco was a partner in an investment fund during his Wall Street career and was working in the industry during the 2000s dot-com bust and the 1990s currency crisis in Asia. His time on Wall Street also stretched through the 2008 financial crisis. That background was influential in his personal investment strategy, describing that financial markets are designed to be rational but can become irrational anyway. He said he prefers investing in firms with solid business plans and top-tier management teams. He makes decisions with the idea of holding an investment for 10 years or longer. The IRA is the only brokerage account of his own. It was opened with funds rolled over from a 401(k) account amassed while working for a former employer. Some of the investments at the time of the filing: Nvidia Corporation, accounting for 7.34% of the portfolio’s value Cloudflare Inc., accounting for 5.17% of the portfolio’s value Tesla Inc., accounting for 4.72% of the portfolio’s value Apple Inc., accounting for 4.28% of the portfolio’s value Starbucks Corporation, accounting for 2.76% of the portfolio’s value Ford Motor Co., accounting for 2.75% of the portfolio’s value Abbott Laboratories, accounting for 2.46% of the portfolio’s value The Walt Disney Co., accounting for 2.24% of the portfolio’s value Pfizer Inc., accounting for 2.29% of the portfolio’s value “The trick is you’ve got to stay in the game long term,” he said. Highlights from the filings of the other elected officials: Mayor Ryan Dickey did not list any stocks or bonds with a value of $5,000 or more. He described himself as self-employed in the real estate industry. City Councilor Tana Toly listed six stocks or bonds with a value of $5,000 or more, including Nvidia Corporation and American Express. Toly listed her co-ownership of Red Banjo Inc. City Councilor Ed Parigian did not list any stocks or bonds with a value of $5,000 or more. He indicated he owns a business providing building maintenance to two clients. City Councilor Molly Miller not listing any stocks or bonds with a value of $5,000 or more. She outlined a contract-basis freelance writing role with the Park City Education Foundation. City Councilor Diego Zegarra did not list any stocks or bonds with a value of $5,000 or more. He noted his employment with the Park City Community Foundation and board of directors posts with three not-for-profit organizations, including the Wasatch Immigration Project. Editor’s Note: Cloudflare CEO Matthew Prince co-owns The Park Record with his wife, Tatiana Prince. The post Park City councilor, in effort toward transparency, details entire list of IRA investments appeared first on Park Record. ...read more read less