Get out of the investment business. That's the advice town officials across the North Shore are giving the Essex Regional Retirement Board.

Selectmen in Manchester, Hamilton and Ipswich voted to ask the retirement board to transfer their investments to the state system on Monday night.

The retirement board, which oversees the pensions of employees in 19 towns, including Rockport, Essex, and Topsfield and Wenham, saw its investments nose-dive in 2008, losing 33 percent.

That was the worst performance of any retirement board in the state, but it's not the reason local leaders are giving for wanting the board to transfer its assets to the state Pension Reserves Investment Trust.

"Rockport will see a big burden in FY12 based on the underperformance this year of the Essex County Retirement Board," Rockport Town Administrator Michael Racicot told his town's selectmen Tuesday night. "A number of communities have asked to have their assets allocated to state retirement."

It's unclear if the member communities can force the retirement board to turn over its investments, or how that could be done.

"The difficulty is that retirement law is so old, I don't know whether we're looking for a simple majority or a weighted majority," Manchester Town Administrator Wayne Melville said.

"Everyone realizes 2008 was an unusual year," said Hamilton Town Administrator Candace Wheeler. "The longtime performance is what the selectmen are looking at."

They aren't alone.

In an e-mail dated June 9, the retirement board's CEO, Lilli Gilligan, asked that member communities to decide by June 29 whether they want the board to transfer its investments to the investment trust, which manages the pension investments of state employees.

Essex selectmen are discussing whether to ask the retirement board to transfer their investments to the state system, but they haven't made any final decisions as to whether or not they will do so.

"The returns of the state system have been consistently above those of the Essex Retirement Board, so it would be wise for us to consider it," said Ray Randall, a member of the Essex Board of Selectmen. "We did discuss it (during Monday's meeting), we're evaluating it as an option, but no decision has been made."

Randall said he wasn't sure when selectmen will talk about it again and will wait for more information from Town Administrator Brendhan Zubricki, who was unavailable for comment.

Middleton selectmen don't have a scheduled meeting before the June 29 deadline, but Town Administrator Ira Singer said yesterday he has no doubt they'll also request the change.

Chairman Larry Swartz said Wenham selectmen will discuss the situation at their June 23 meeting.

Gilligan could not be reached yesterday afternoon for comment.

Ipswich Town Manager Bob Markel said the mood of the selectmen was that the change should be made as soon as possible.

Wheeler said the letter Hamilton will likely draft will be a "slightly more complicated response."

The town's finance director, Deborah Nippes-Mena, raised several concerns Monday night, she noted. Among them is the fact that some of the board's investments are in real estate and will take some time to liquidate. And in the case of investment bonds, Nippes-Mena told selectmen, there may be transaction fees.

Wheeler said she's trying to organize a meeting as soon as possible between representatives of the retirement board, the Pension Reserves Investment Trust and officials from the 19 towns the retirement board serves, with the goal of addressing some of those concerns.

Rockport's Racicot said there has been talk about including a selectman and town manager or administrator on the retirement board as a way of ensuring the communities the board represents have a voice in the decision making process because recently the board has made decisions that cost communities a lot of money.

This year's poor returns aren't the only hackles the retirement board has raised recently. Its employees were given 5.8 percent raises this year, while many member communities have frozen town employees' wages.

"It's (the raises) very different than what we're experiencing at the local level," Wheeler said.

In other controversial moves, the retirement board also recently pushed to reclassify emergency dispatchers and public works employees, allowing them to retire earlier, and costing the towns more money.

The controversies swirling around the board and its executive director, Timothy Bassett, in recent weeks prompted a wry comment from Melville.

"I'm actually feeling a little empathy for Tim Bassett," he said. "I never thought I'd be saying that."

Staff writers Jonathan L'Ecuyer and Cameron Kittle contributed to this story by Steve Landwehr, who can be contacted at slandwehr@gloucestertimes.com.