HomeMy WebLinkAbout10-21-2008 Special Session Minutes Minutes of the Special Session of the
CITY OF OCOEE GENERAL EMPLOYEES' PENSION BOARD
Held on October 21, 2008
At 150 N. Lakeshore Drive
Ocoee, FL 34761
AGENDA ITEM I. CALL TO ORDER- Chairman Wagner
A. Chairman Russ Wagner called the meeting to order at 12:06 p.m. in the Commission
Chambers in City Hall.
The roll was called and a quorum declared present.
Present were Trustees Terry Reed, Jean Grafton, Russ Wagner, Tom Hendrix and Wendy West.
Also present were Jim Carnicella, Human Resources Director/Plan Administrator and Mike
Welker, Bogdahn Consulting.
B. Count ballots of the General Employees' Pension Board Trustee Election for the seat
currently held by Terry Reed for the term beginning October 1, 2008 and ending
September 30, 2010
The ballots from the election were delivered to the Board before the meeting, still in the ballot
receptacle, which was unopened. Chairman Wagner called for an official counting of the
ballots received and so the Board opened each ballot and began counting. There were two
candidates: Terry Reed and David Wheeler. The ballots were counted and the number was
verified against the total votes cast by checking the number of initialed names on the voting list.
The total number of ballots counted and verified was 77. Chairman Wagner announced that
David Wheeler received 41 votes and Terry Reed received 36 votes. The Board then thanked
Trustee Reed for his service and congratulated David Wheeler for his election to the General
Employees' Pension Board.
C. Reorganization of the Board
Chairman Wagner asked if this reorganization was just an election of the Board Officers. After a
brief discussion, Plan Administrator Carnicella said the Board needed to first appoint the fifth
Board Member since the term for that seat, which was held by Wendy West, had expired.
Trustee Grafton asked for the Board's opinion but said she would like to nominate Wendy West.
On motion made by Trustee Grafton, seconded by Trustee Hendrix, unanimously
RESOLVED to approve the nomination and reappointment of Wendy West as the Fifth
Trustee for the General Employees' Pension Board for the term beginning October 1,
2008 and ending September 30,2010.
Trustee Grafton stated the appointment of Wendy West needed to be put on the next
Commission Agenda. Trustee Grafton then asked what Officers they were suppose to be
nominating. After a brief discussion, the Board moved on with the nominations for Officers of
the General Employees' Pension Board. On motion made by Trustee Grafton, seconded by
Trustee West, the Board unanimously appointed Russ Wagner as Chairman; on motion
made by Trustee Hendrix, seconded by Trustee Wheeler, the Board unanimously
General Employees Pension Board
Special Session,October 21,2008
Page 2 of 3
appointed Wendy West as Vice Chairman; on motion made by Trustee West, seconded by
Trustee Hendrix, the Board unanimously appointed Jean Grafton as Secretary. Trustee
Grafton asked that the new list of Officers be sent to the Attorney.
AGENDA ITEM II. NEW BUSINESS
A. Investment Consultant Report& Future Strategy—Bogdahn Consulting,LLC
Mike Welker handed out the Performance Review for the Third Quarter of 2008. He stated he
wanted to have this meeting because there have been some questions regarding the recent market
and what changes, if any, need to be made. He said from their perspective, unless we were
talking about making changes to the Policy Statement or to the portfolio prior to what happened
this quarter, they were not recommending any changes be made to our portfolio. He said the
market will bottom and then rebound and we will be able to recoup our losses. Mr. Welker stated
new money coming in to the fund is being allocated to 60% stocks and 40%bonds.
Mike Welker said Lehman was in one of the bond portfolios we held with Agincourt and brought
up the letter they sent to the Board to sign. He said he advised in an email the Board not sign
any letter and went on to explain why. He advised the Board that indirectly ICC Capital had
AIG in the portfolio but they were well diversified so it only hurt a little. Mr. Welker stated
what really drove this market was deleveraging. He said we did not have any leverage in our
portfolio so we were not exposed to that. Mr. Welker said eventually we do want to talk about
further diversification and finished by asking if there were any questions.
Trustee Wagner asked if there was some particular purpose to having this meeting other than the
market situation, to which Mike Welker stated he was already scheduled here for a Police
Officers' & Firefighters' Pension Board Meeting and just wanted to get this report to the Board
now instead of waiting until the November Meeting. He said he also wanted to answer any of
their questions face to face. Trustee Wagner asked if new money coming in to the fund was
going to any particular asset class. Mike Welker responded that at the manager levels they are
allocating it according to the percent they were allowed and went on to explain.
In reference to the Agincourt letter, Trustee Grafton said she saw Mike Welker's response and
said it was well done when he told them we would measure their worth to us by the way they got
out of this situation. Mike Welker thanked Trustee Grafton and asked if there were any
questions. He then continued going over the report. Mr. Welker spoke about what was driving
the market. He said it was all about deleveraging and went on to explain. Trustee West asked if
it meant there was a lot of margin out there, to which Mr. Welker said yes. Trustee West then
asked if he thought there would be some restrictions imposed on the margins, to which Mike
Welker answered yes and went on to explain.
Mr. Welker continued going over the report. He moved on to the performance of the fund. He
stated for the quarter our fund was down 6.44% but that the total fund benchmark was down
7.71%, so we outperformed the benchmark and it put us in the 23rd percentile. He said
unfortunately the fund was down but said under the previous managers the fund would have
probably been down around 7.2% so they preserved capital in the market much better. Mike
Welker asked if there were any questions regarding the overall portfolio.
General Employees Pension Board
Special Session,October 21,2008
Page 3 of 3
Mr. Welker then moved on to the manager's performance. He said the two Equity Managers,
ICC and Rockwood, on that part of the portfolio was down 6.48% for the quarter and went on to
explain. Discussion ensued. Mr. Welker spoke about the International Index in the portfolio and
said he believes Attorney Dehner finalized the side letter with Barings, so we will have both
Voyageur and Barings on the International side. He continued speaking about the International
Index and said as far as the International market was concerned procrastination on this has
helped the fund. He moved on to Agincourt, explaining why they underperformed but said they
still have a high quality portfolio and thinks it is a good fit for this plan going forward. Mr.
Welker finished by going over what is referred to as the smoothing technique. Discussion
ensued. Trustee Grafton said it appeared in the report that we started the year with 15 million
but was now down to 14 million, to which Mike Welker confirmed. Brief discussion ensued.
On motion made by Trustee Grafton, seconded by Trustee West, unanimously moved to
accept the Performance Review for the Third Quarter of 2008 as presented by Bogdahn.
Chairman Wagner thanked Mike Welker. The Board moved on to the next item on the agenda.
AGENDA ITEM III. OTHER BUSINESS
A. Payment of Invoices
Invoices were included in the packet for the Board to approve. Trustee Grafton asked if the bills
had been reviewed carefully. After a brief discussion Mike Welker was asked to look at the
invoices for ICC Capital and Agincourt. Mr. Welker stated the invoices were correct based on
the agreements. Brief discussion ensued. On motion made by Trustee Hendrix, seconded by
Trustee Grafton, unanimously
RESOLVED that the bills and other charges and fees be and are hereby approved
for payment as presented.
B. Meeting dates for next year
The 2009 meeting dates were provided to the Board by Attorney Dehner's office. After a brief
discussion and review of the dates presented, on motion made by Trustee Hendrix, seconded
by Trustee Grafton, unanimously
RESOLVED to approve the 2009 Quarterly Meeting dates of the General
Employees' Pension Board as presented by Attorney Dehner (February 18, 2009,
May 13, 2009,August 5, 2009 and November 4, 2009 at 10:00 a.m.)
AGENDA ITEM IV. ADJOURN
There being no other business, the meeting was adjourned at 1:21 p.m.
Respectfully submitted by A r ved b :
6,5 Debbie Bertling —
HR Analyst Russell B. Wagner, hairman