Hartford Treasurer dined with money managers for annual reviews, according to emails

Emails and scheduled meetings obtained by Inside Investigator through a Freedom of Information request show former Hartford City Treasurer Carmen Sierra scheduling numerous performance reviews of contracted investment management companies at a pricey steak and sushi restaurant in Hartford that appear to have been paid for by those money managers.

The city treasurer is responsible for reviewing money manager performance and reporting her findings to the Pension Commission to help ensure investment management companies are meeting performance expectations and helping to grow the city’s Municipal Employee Retirement Fund (MERF). 

Over the course of 2025, Sierra scheduled four annual performance reviews with investment firm representatives at Feng Chophouse in Hartford. Those performance reviews were conducted for Shenkman, which had $39.9 million of MERF funds under management that year, according to quarterly reports; PIMCO, with $2.2 million; Acadian, with $55.2 million; and lastly Prudential – known as PGIM – with $60.1 million.

A fifth review for Polen Capital was scheduled, but the meeting location had not been set within the time frame of Inside Investigator’s request.

Although pension commissioners were included on the email invites, according to Investment Program meeting minutes, staff reported to the Pension Commission that “Treasurer Sierra and staff” met with representatives of Shenkman and Acadian to be updated on “operations, personnel, performance, and Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion.”

Expenses charged to the city’s pension fund by Sierra show one expense of $1,281.51 for Feng Chophouse in 2025 for a lunch meeting between Sierra and city union leaders, raising questions as to who paid the bills for meetings in which more than a dozen people, including representatives of the investment firms, were invited to lunch to review the firm’s performance.

Under the City of Hartford’s Code of Ethics, gifts of food and drink are only allowed if the value is less than $50 “per person and consumed on a single occasion at which the person paying, directly or indirectly, for the food or beverage, or the representative of the person paying, is in attendance.” 

There are no known receipts for the annual review lunches at this point; however, the lunch meeting with city union leaders cost $58.25 per person. 

The matter of lunches being paid for by money managers came up during a December 2025 meeting of the Hartford Pension Commission, during which former Pension Commission Chairman Joshua Gottfried proposed that the “Pension Commission use their budget to cover lunch during all future investment manager annual reviews,” so as “to follow the City of Hartford’s $50 per person limit.”

According to those meeting minutes, “Treasurer Sierra confirmed the approved budget would cover the annual performance review lunches.”

Shortly after Sierra’s June 17, 2025, annual review meeting with Acadian representatives at Feng and her report to the Pension Commission that same month, she recommended an investment of up to $50 million into Acadian’s Emerging Market fund, which was approved by the Commission during their July 25, 2025, meeting, according to meeting minutes,  

Another of the investment firms that had a meeting with Sierra at Feng, PGIM, was one of numerous money managers who sponsored Sierra’s 2025 Bilingual Financial Literacy Symposium. 

Records obtained by Inside Investigator show that donations to support the Symposium were being routed through Hartford Parent University, a nonprofit where Sierra serves as treasurer, potentially violating the city’s code of ethics for a conflict of interest.

Several more of the sponsors, like Xponance, First Eagle, LM Capital Group, Walter Scott, were also reviewed by the Treasurer’s Office that year, according to Investment Program meeting minutes.

The companies were reviewed for performance, but there was also a strong focus on the companies’ DEI initiatives. There were no scheduled lunches for those reviews in the documents, and emails show Sierra’s chief administrative officer scheduling meetings with staff to review money managers’ “DEI Report Cards,” including First Eagle and Xponance.

In a February 11, 2025, review, the meeting minutes indicate that Sierra encouraged Xponance to have “more balanced representation among Latinos,” and that the firm had recently recruited an intern through the Girls Who Invest program. 

Although the meeting minutes state that Xponance Managing Director Charles L. Curry “noted that Treasurer Sierra introduced Xponance to the Girls Who Invest organization,” Xponance’s CEO and founder, Tina Byles Williams, was listed as a board member for Girls Who Invest since 2023, according to the organization’s 990 reports. Girls Who Invest is a New York-based nonprofit dedicated to increasing the number of women in portfolio management.

Sierra resigned abruptly from her position in July 2026, following a breakdown of the Pension Commission in which some commissioners, like former State Treasurer Shawn Wooden, raised concerns over how Sierra conducted business, and on the eve of an audit of the Treasurer’s Office and pension fund. Expenses from the MERF show spending on food, airfare, and hotel stays for investor conferences.

According to emails, the July 31, 2025, expense for Feng Chophouse was for a “meet & greet” between the city’s union leaders and the treasurer’s office “to learn more about the work of the City Treasurer’s Office and the Pension Commission and ask any questions you may have,” according to a July 28 email from Sierra’s chief administrative assistant Chay Iv to staff and union leaders. 

Interestingly, eighteen people in total were included on the “meet and greet” email invitation, including five from the treasurer’s office, but the receipt showed twenty-two guests. 

Union leaders included Hartford Police Union President James Rutkauski, President of the AFL-CIO Greater Hartford Labor Coalition Shellye Davis, and President of the Hartford Schools Custodians Union John Walton, among others, although it is not verified whether any of these individuals attended.

The U.S. Department of Justice has issued subpoenas for records related to Sierra’s spending, her relationship with money managers, and a $6 million federal grant that had set off alarm bells for city auditors. Sierra was escorted off city property after she returned to city offices following her resignation. Sierra, through her attorney, has denied any wrongdoing.