Texas Firefighters' Pension Commission, Austin, is searching for its...

Texas Firefighters’ Pension Commission, Austin, is searching for its first core fixed-income manager to run $9 million for diversification, said Morris Sandefer, pension commissioner for the $28 million fund. No RFPs were issued; Callan Associates, the fund’s consultant, is handling all proposals. Funding for the new allocation is undetermined. A decision is expected by August. Separately, the fund hired Rice, Hall, James & Associates as its first core small-cap U.S. equity manager to run $4 million and Sanford C. Bernstein as a $6 million large-cap value U.S. equity manager to replace NWQ for performance reasons, Mr. Sandefer said. David Polak, managing director and CIO for NWQ, didn’t return phone calls by press time. Funding for both allocations will come from a terminated $11.4 million NWQ mandate. The remaining $1.4 million will be allocated to Brandes Investment Partners, an existing $3.7 million active EAFE manager.