Kamenetz: Council Aware of $21M Pension Loss

County Executive Kevin Kamenetz said Sunday that he and the Baltimore County Council were briefed in 2008 on a with Merrill Lynch.

Kamenetz answered questions about the pension investment Sunday during an interview on WBAL TV.

Kamenetz said Baltimore County, "like many other jurisdictions, were misled" in a 2007 pension investment known as Mainsail II LLC.

The county lost as much as $21 million in the investment. Last week, with members of the Baltimore County Council to discuss a possible lawsuit against Merrill Lynch over the fund that was built on subprime mortgages.

Kamenetz was chairman of the County Council in January 2008 when the council was asked to that would prohibit future investments in such funds.

There are no minutes for the 2008 meeting and notes prepared by the county auditor's office, which works for the County Council, does not reference any losses.

Don Mohler, a county spokesman and chief of staff to Kamenetz, refused to answer questions last week from Patch regarding the 2008 meeting.

Kamenetz, however, did answer the question during his television interview.

"The council was informed," said Kamenetz. "We were aware of the nature of the loss and enacted changes to our bonding portfolio concept so this would not occur again. Now were investigating the opportunity to pursue a cause of action and if we can recover something it would be great."

Kamenetz did not answer questions about existing checks and balances that would have prevented the investment to be made without oversight.