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HomeMy WebLinkAbout02-12-2003 Minutes General Employees Pension Board Meeting of February 12,2003 Page 1 L Minutes of the Quarterly Meeting of the CITY OF OCOEE GENERAL EMPLOYEES PENSION BOARD Held on February 12, 2003 At 150 N. Lakeview Drive Ocoee, FL 34761 Chairperson Tom Ison called the meeting to order at 10:12 a.m. He then called the roll. Those present were Chairperson Tom Ison, Trustee John Vogt, Trustee Ed Bishop,Trustee Patricia Cornell and Trustee Mike Miller. With all Trustees in attendance, it was determined that a quorum was present. Attending the meeting by invitation were Attorney H. Lee Dehner, Diane Garcia representing TRUSCO Capital Management, Larry Cole representing Merrill Lynch, Ward Foster representing Foster& Foster, Inc., and Jo Ann Lacey, Recording Secretary of the Meeting. Four General Employee Members were also present. Chairperson Ison advised that he had been informed that Tim Nash, TRUSCO Capital Management, would be arriving late, therefore he asked the Board if they would be in favor of reversing the order of the Agenda items since Mr. Nash was schedule to present the first report. All were in agreement with this change so Chairperson Ison called upon Ward Foster for presentation of the Actuarial Valuation Report. Trustee Vogt asked to be recognized first as he had been asked to advise everyone in attendance that Human Resources had dedicated a box in the mail drop room for Pension Board business, so the addresses should be changed effective immediately for anything that is to be sent to the Board. The address is: City of Ocoee, Attention: General Employees' Pension Board, 150 N. Lakeshore Drive, Ocoee, FL 34761. Chairperson Ison then called on Mr. Foster again. Mr. Foster provided the individual member's statements to be distributed to the members. He then gave copies of the Actuarial Valuation Report as of October 1, 2002, to the Board Members for their review. This report addressed contributions applicable to the City's Fiscal Year Ending September 30, 2004. He called attention to the fact that the funding rate had gone up from 17.5% to 18.7%. He advised that as much as 1% of this increase was due to underperformance in investments. The balance of the increase was due to an increase in the level of non-investment related expenses and membership turnover. He added that the average member age had increased slightly. He explained the "smoothing technique" used helped the poor investment experience make a minimal impact, despite S&P negative returns for the past three years in a row. He added that even though there had been a less than favorable investment experience, TRUSCO was a good investment manager, they had done a good job. He reminded that the fund has a long way to go when looking at the assets versus the plan liabilities, but stated that this was a soundly funded retirement program and is actuarially sound. General Employees Pension Board Meeting of February 12,2003 Page 2 L Chairperson Ison asked if this increase had been or should be given to the City. Trustee Vogt answered that he would give Donald Carter a copy of the report, as he had already asked for it. Mr. Foster advised that, historically, the City had funded the exact dollar amount shown on the Report. After a brief discussion it was, on motion made by Trustee Cornell and seconded by Trustee Bishop, unanimously RESOLVED, that the City of Ocoee Municipal General Employees' Retirement Trust Fund Actuarial Valuation Report as of October 1, 2002, reporting Contributions Applicable To The City's Fiscal Year Ending September 30, 2004, as presented by Foster & Foster, Inc., be and is hereby approved as presented. Trustee Vogt advised Mr. Foster that the November Meeting for the Board was scheduled for November 12, 2003. He then asked Mr. Foster for a time frame for getting information to him in order to have this report and members' statements available for that meeting. Mr. Foster stated that it covered the City's fiscal year ending September 30, 2003, and that, if the information could be provided by the second week in October, the information could be available for the November meeting. He added that the information could be faxed or emailed in an effort to get it to him as quickly as it became available. (1160, Trustee Vogt then asked Mr. Foster if the benefit cost analysis, which had been requested at the August 2002 meeting, had been updated. Mr. Foster answered that there had been a number of studies done and stated that he had the one dated September 18, 2002 with him. A poll of the Board Members indicated that they did not have that particular report available. Mr. Foster indicated that the September 18 update showed the cost of post retirement COLAs that would apply only to future retirees as opposed to current retirees and beneficiaries. Mr. Foster stated that he would get copies made immediately for the Board. He went on to say that there would not be a significant difference in the incremental additional costs associated with implementing any of these options based on the more current numbers. Further discussion was tabled until later in the meeting in order to have time to get copies of the September 18 analysis to the Board Members. Chairperson Ison asked Trustee Vogt about the workshop facilitator. Trustee Vogt said that facilitator could now be selected since the Board would be narrowing down the list of options once the list was copied and distributed to the Board. He referred to an email correspondence he had sent to HR Director Fran Diedrich as of November 21, 2002 in which it showed the ten-step process that would be required to effect the changes to the plan. The first step was the September actuarial analysis, the second would be narrowing the options, which would be done later in this meeting, and the third would be to conduct workshops, which is what the facilitator would be needed for. The facilitator (se would be someone to educate the employees on what the options are and how much it General Employees Pension Board Meeting of February 12,2003 Page 3 (ire will cost them and what benefits they will receive. He asked if anyone would like handle that position. HR Director Fran Diedrich, who had recently joined the meeting, asked for an explanation of what would be expected from the facilitator. Trustee Vogt stated that it • would basically be to conduct education programs to let the employees know what the options were. Ms. Diedrich indicated that that could be done out of Human Resources. Trustee Vogt asked if a Board Member would want to work with HR. He indicated that he would be willing to do so. Trustees Cornell and Bishop also volunteered. Chairperson Ison asked Attorney Denner if it would have to be noticed as a meeting if more than one Trustee worked with HR. Attorney Denner recommended that it be noticed as a Board Meeting, following Sunshine requirements, keeping minutes published if more than one Trustee would be involved. Trustee Cornell asked if that could be bypassed by using only one Trustee. Attorney Dehner said yes. After a brief discussion, it was on motion made by Trustee Ison, seconded by Trustee Vogt, unanimously RESOLVED, that Trustee Patricia Cornell would be the primary facilitator for educating General Employees' Pension Plan Members as to the new improvements, to work with Human Resources in this regard. Trustee Ed Bishop would be a backup to this position in the case of the absence of Trustee Cornell. Chairperson Ison called on Attorney Dehner for comments. Attorney Dehner asked Mr. Foster to provide an Exhibit B, a Summary Plan description, which affords the information on what they will be getting approval on. He asked that be provided to Secretary Vogt within the next two weeks for the Chairman's signature. Attorney Delmer also reminded that when an actuarial report is received, it is required by State Law to make a determination about what the total expected annual rate of return for the fund would be. He asked Mr. Foster for that rate of return. Mr. Foster answered that it would be 8%. He then advised the Board that this rate must be approved by motion and then the language of the motion should go into correspondence to be signed by the Chairman, to Charles Slavin, the State Actuary, with copies to the City and to Mr. Foster. After a brief discussion, it was on motion made by Trustee Vogt, seconded by Trustee Bishop, unanimously RESOLVED, the Board has determined, based on the recommendations of its consultants, that the total expected annual rate of return for the current year, each of the next several years, and the long term thereafter,will be 8%, net of investment related expenses. Trustee Vogt was instructed that it would be his responsibility to send the letter to Charles Slavin. Attorney Dehner stated that the letter should be done soon—there was I no specified time,but it should be done soon. General Employees Pension Board Meeting of February 12,2003 Page 4 Chairperson Ison thanked Ward Foster for his report and then called on Mr. Larry Cole, from Merrill Lynch, for the Monitor's report. Mr. Cole began with a follow up on a request that had been made at the last meeting in which Attorney Dehner had requested information regarding any of the names of stocks which were in the news which might be held in the portfolios, and for the monitors to review whether any transactions regarding those stocks were handled in a prudent manner, even if money may have been lost. Adelphia was the particular name, which had been questioned, and Mr. Cole indicated that there had been correspondence regarding that stock. He provided a copy of that letter for the Board's files. Trustee Vogt asked Mr. Cole to have sent to the Board a copy of the previous report as all of the copies had been mistakenly sent to Trustee Miller's address. Following a brief discussion, it was decided and Mr. Cole was so informed that future reports should now be sent to the drop box instead of the individual addresses. Mr. Cole then began his report for the Fourth Quarter of 2002, the First Quarter of the Plan's fiscal year. He indicated that the Fund had actually made some money and it had been quite a while since that had been seen. He went on to say that the bad news was that, since December 31, most of that had been given back. He said Mr. Nash would cover that in his report. So, going back to the December 31, 2002 numbers, he stated that the Plan made a little over$208,000 for the quarter. He said that this is a growing plan, more is coming in than is going out. He said that was a good start to the new fiscal year. Describing asset allocation, he pointed out that 57.7%was in equities and stock and the rest was in bonds and cash. Relative to other public pension funds across the country, this Fund appears to be a little more aggressive because of the money in stocks, with the median fund being 52%. He explained that the median fund is not as well diversified as this plan so this does not necessarily translate into increased risk. Mr. Cole continued by saying that TRUSCO had a bad quarter, their equity funds did not keep up well with the market. Their return was 2.8% for the quarter, in the 94th percentile. He said that even though the Plan made money, it did not keep up with the target index and underperformed for the quarter. He said that this was a stock selection issue. They did not have any telecommunication stocks, which had come roaring back for the quarter, and they did have some healthcare stocks, which did not perform well. He called attention to the one-year column, which in the 42nd percentile was still above average for the year relative to other public funds. Going out for the two-year period and beyond, every period still was above the target index. Mr. Cole said that, even with the bad quarter, it was Merrill Lynch's recommendation to stay the course at this point and not make any changes to the investment policy. He added that this was also the advice of Mr. Foster when he covered all of the numbers and the investment earnings in his report. He said that the equity market now is as cheap as it has been dating back to the 1920s and that relative to bonds, (.r stocks are extremely cheap. Because of this, the expectation is to see some cash flow General Employees Pension Board Meeting of February 12,2003 Page 5 going into the stock market even though most everything is on hold until the uncertainty about Iraq is over. He went on to say that capital spending by corporations is way overdue, they have been holding back for the last couple of years and if and when they start to see any sort of light at the end of the tunnel in terms of earnings improvement and cash flow improvement in their own companies, there should be a rush to spend some money and get upgraded in technology and other equipment. He said it is believe that there is a pent up demand out that that could move the market rather quickly. He said a there should be a return premium for taking a risk in stock and over the long term that should be seen. Trustee Vogt asked why the target index is at a rate of return of 6.25% or 6.5% when the actuarial assumption rate is 8%. Mr. Cole answered that these are actual numbers, not what is expected but actual returns. He said that they are shooting for 8% and the managers have been asked to beat the target in a given period, which is one of their goals. He added, however, that it is hard to expect a manager to get 8%when the market is down 20, however, the managers are expected to outperform the market and give a valid reason for paying them a fee. Mr. Cole went on with his report and reminded the Board that Merrill Lynch looks at every security that TRUSCO is holding in the Fund to make sure that it is in compliance with the guidelines and policies, checking quality ratings and trying to spot the Adelphia's of the world, to locate problems. He indicated that there is still only a (" 3.3% investment in International when, up to 10%by policy of the assets, can go into �r International. He added that he had mentioned this to Mr. Nash in most of the last several meetings and he would let him address, again, why the decision has not been made to increase the International exposure. Mr. Cole stated that TRUSCO has done a good job protecting the assets of the Fund over the last few years despite the poor quarter they just had. He then called attention to the Florida Fund list, which shows the 87 public pension funds monitored by Merrill Lynch in the State of Florida on which it was indicated that this Fund was just about in the middle. Chairperson Ison called for any questions or comments from the Board. There being none, it was on motion made by Trustee Cornell, seconded by Trustee Bishop, unanimously RESOLVED to approve the Merrill Lynch Monitors Report as presented by Mr. Larry Cole. Chairperson Ison thanked Mr. Cole for his report and then called on Mr. Tim Nash, representing TRUSCO Capital Management for the Money Manager's report. Mr. Nash had just arrived at the meeting. He apologized for being late and thanked the Board for switching their Agenda around for him. He went on to say that the first fiscal quarter had been a good one for the equity markets and it had been nice to see some gains even though they had evaporated in January and February because of the impending war with Iraq. He stated that his firm has a bias toward stocks as they look General Employees Pension Board Meeting of February 12,2003 Page 6 out to the calendar for 2003 and 2004. They think the economy is going to improve after we have sifted through this tenuous time period with the war with Iraq and the potential for interest rates to rise. He said they would be shifting toward the minimum exposure in bonds and the maximum exposure, within policy limits, to equities. He stated that in the first week in December 2002, 3% of the portfolio was shifted back from bonds into the equity side. He said that the best performers during the quarter were technology, which this Fund has good exposure to in its growth fund, however, there was zero exposure to telecom which was the second best performer. He said that there are two telecom companies owned in the value fund portfolios, but in general, TRUSCO thinks that the earning trends for the telecom sector are not good. They were the best performers and they did impact performance, however, there is no intention to buy them in the growth fund going forward. It is thought that over the next 12 to 24 months, they are not going to perform. Mr. Nash said that they are certainly concerned about the war with Iraq and they think there will be a lot of volatility out of the market because of the uncertainty related to that over the next couple of months. He said their investment committee thinks that the war should be a very short initial conflict and that, as long as it is not elongated,we could expect to see the market improve as we look toward the latter two quarters of 2003. With that in mind, they have a bias to equities and the target is about 10-1/2%. That is in line with the target back in 1995,1996, and 1997. kreMr. Nash continued on, stating that the fund closed out with$7,782,024 at the end of the first fiscal quarter, with a gain of about $208,000. In percentage terms, the total return for the Plan for the quarter was 2.83%. The main impacts to the quarter were due to the zero exposure to telecom and an issue with some of the HMO's in the healthcare sector. He explained that Tenant Healthcare had impacted the performance during the quarter. The problem with Tenant was that initially they found a couple of doctors out in California who were allegedly performing heart transplants and bypass surgeries that were unnecessary and subsequently billing Medicare, so there is an investigation going on. He said the S&P 500 was also looking at Tenant and that during the quarter its value fell essentially in half. TRUSCO subsequently sold out of Tenant because the picture was different from the original investment analysis. He advised that there are two other HMO's in the Fund. He said they were pulled down a bit during the quarter because they are in the same industry, but he said they would hold on to those because they do look good going forward. Mr. Nash explained that TRUSCO is light on energy. He said there is a lot in the news about oil companies doing very well. He said that crude is trading at $33 a barrel now,which is very high, with the $26-28 range being a little bit more normal. He said that prices are very expensive at the pump because of supply fears related to the issue with Iraq, that we will have a limited supply, and because of a big strike going on in Venezuela, which is the fifth largest producer of oil. The TRUSCO investment thesis is that after the Iraq crisis is passed, OPEC is probably going to pick up production to compensate from the lack of oil coming out of Iraq. Also Venezuela, once back on line, is going to ramp up production to try to make up for the lost production while the strike General Employees Pension Board Meeting of February 12,2003 Page 7 has been going on, so TRUSCO anticipates a glut of oil to hit the market mid-summer and therefore prices will go back down again. They now have a market weight, not overweight in energy, even though there is a lot of talk about energy supply and energy companies. He added that TRUSCO is still monitoring International and had still not made the decision to increase exposure at present. Attorney Dehner asked Mr. Nash why the limited cap fund so significantly underperformed for the quarter and the year? Mr. Nash answered that it was up a little less than one-half a percent for the quarter compared to the indices, which were up in the 6%range. He said that one of the problems within the fund was security selection. He said that there are about 120 holdings in an attempt to diversify, but on the technology side there was an overweight on the technology side and that sector did not perform well for the quarter. He said they were also overweighted on the consumer discretionary sector and retailers had the worst holiday season that has been seen in the past five years, so several of the retailing names did not do well in the portfolio. He stated again that this was due to poor security selection. Attorney Dehner asked what was being done to turn the trend around. Mr. Nash answered that they have redone the technology stocks being purchased. He stated that the firm has a significant mandate that they have a target in the investment disciplines to be in the top one-third, ranked among other managers in their class. He said their upper management was looking at this significantly to discern what the problems are in the fund and get them fixed. He indicated that the two-year number was an issue as well and that their research analysts were working on it. Mr. Cole interjected that the market will come back and when it comes back it will tend to outperform just as it has underperformed. He said it just doesn't stay anywhere around the index. Mr. Nash asked if there were any additional questions. Chairperson Ison said there were two other items on the Agenda. One was whether there were any corporate fraud items to bring up other than those already mentioned. Mr. Nash said no. Chairperson Ison then asked if there were any stocks with greater than 20%change. Mr. Nash said that Tenant Healthcare would have had greater than 20% change, but there was nothing else of significance to be alarmed about. Attorney Dehner asked to go back to the limited cap fund again. He said that he noticed each of the fund's managers had a quarterly perspective except that one and he asked if there is a quarterly perspective on a limited cap fund. Mr. Nash answered that there should be one and he did not know why it was not there. He said that he had the written perspective and he read it to the Board: L General Employees Pension Board Meeting of February 12,2003 Page 8 cor "A trying year as investors face challenges including worries about validity of financial statements, morality of corporate managements, and sustainability of economic recovery. Fears of war and terrorism further clouded the picture. Partial resolution of these problems and optimism about continued economic expansion in 2003 did help the market rebound during the fourth quarter but there was significant difficulty through the first three quarters. The fund's consumer staples and technology positions negatively impacted the fund during the quarter. There were two main forces contributing to the underperformance of these sectors. First, the fourth quarter rebound in mid-cap stocks was led by very low- quality companies and unprofitable companies. Our portfolio tended to head toward the higher-quality companies and this served as the fund's quality bias. Secondly, the funds had exposure to significant technology names that were negative performers such as the interactive entertainment industry, i.e., gaming companies, and they had a very difficult quarter. Video game sales were off significantly during the Christmas season and the expectations fell down rather dramatically. In general, lower quality stock outperformed higher quality during the quarter and our fund tended to have higher quality names in each of the sectors of the portfolio." Chairperson Ison asked Attorney Dehner if there was something going on with this that he might know about. Attorney Delmer responded that he had just wondered why the performance was so poor and then there was no commentary to explain. Mr. Nash said that it was just a technology fluke. He said there is a significant issue and that at the next quarterly meeting, there may be more information to discuss abut the limited cap fund. He said it was being evaluated at the present time. Trustee Vogt asked Attorney Dehner about the proxy policy guideline discussion that had been held at the last meeting. Attorney Dehner responded that TRUSCO was to provide for the Trustees, Mr. Cole, and himself, the proxy guidelines and that it was his understanding that they were in the process of amending those. He asked Mr. Nash if that was still the status. Mr. Nash answered that the new proxy policies were not yet out, that they were continuing to operate under the old proxy policy guidelines. He advised that they, as do most money managers,hire a service to broadly vote their proxies based on overall guidelines. He said that they use ISI, which is a nationally recognized firm to vote their proxies. He said that would remain in place but they were tailoring the guidelines and once completed,he would forward them as requested. Trustee Vogt asked if he should carry that item over to the next meeting. Chairperson Ison answered yes and then asked Diane Garcia for her report. Ms. Garcia said she would like to make the Board aware of some of the changes that had been taking place in their retirement services area in Orlando. She said that in November 2002, a mailing went out advising that they had developed a Shared Resource General Employees Pension Board Meeting of February 12,2003 Page 9 thW Center in Atlanta. She said directions were given at that time to start mailing everything to Atlanta, including contribution checks,retirement setups, etc. She said the goal was to be able to set up a toll-free number to make it available to current retirees or anyone who is receiving distribution checks or if there were any problems with receiving tax forms. She said a notification went out to advise that center has been set up where participants can call to find out if there is a problem with the mailing of their checks, to request a duplicate 1099, to make a change in address, if there has been a death of one of the retirees, etc., and that all of that kind of information can now be funneled directly to the toll-free number to make it easier on the participants so they have a place to go to get immediate attention. The toll-free number is being relayed to the participants. If they are receiving a check, the number would be indicated on the stub of their check. If they are having an automatic deposit of their benefit, the toll-free number would be indicated on the confirmation receipt they receive each month. That toll-free number is 1-866-855- 6738. Ms. Garcia went on to say that the far-reaching goal of all of this was to enable SunTrust to set up a computer program that would be directly accessed by members here at the City, to have access right on line to a program that will let you know if a transaction has posted or not. That is the ultimate goal and the hope is to have that up and running during the 2003 year. Chairperson Ison thanked Ms. Garcia for her report. He then entertained a motion to approve the Money Manager's report. It was, on motion made by Trustee Cornell, seconded by Trustee Bishop, unanimously RESOLVED to approve the TRUSCO Capital Management Investment Review for the Fourth Quarter 2002 as presented by Timothy J. Nash. Chairperson Ison then directed the Board's attention back to the Agenda and went to Item 1.B., approval of the minutes of the meeting of November 19, 2002. The minutes had previously been distributed for the Board's review. There being no additions or corrections, it was, on motion made by Trustee Vogt and seconded by Trustee Bishop, unanimously, RESOLVED to accept the Minutes of the Quarterly Meeting of the City of Ocoee General Employees Pension Board, held on November 19, 2002, as written. Chairperson Ison then called on HR Director Fran Diedrich, for some items she wanted to discuss. Ms. Diedrich stated that she needed an approval from the Board to purchase a buy-back grid from Foster&Foster, Inc. She said this grid would allow her to make an estimate to provide to the members of what it may possibly cost by way of a ballpark figure, not a perfect figure. The reason for this is because, to make a particular request, a member has to pay$100 so they ask for some direction to see if they even feel like making the request. The cost from Foster&Foster is $125.00. General Employees Pension Board Meeting of February 12,2003 Page 10 There was a brief discussion among the Board and Trustee Cornell asked if this grid is something that would need to be updated on a regular basis or if it is something that has to be done annually. Ms. Diedrich asked Mr. Foster for an answer. Mr. Foster said the grid would be good as long as the current benefit provisions are in effect, so if the benefits are not changed, it will be good indefinitely. Trustee Vogt said he understood there would be two different grids, one for a male and one for a female. Mr. Foster said that was correct, the $125.00 charge would be for both grids. After another brief discussion, it was on motion made by Trustee Vogt, seconded by Trustee Miller, unanimously RESOLVED,that the Board authorize Foster & Foster, Inc. to prepare a buy-back grid for the total cost of$125.00, to be provided to HR Director Fran Diedrich for use in assisting members considering taking the buy-back option. Chairperson Ison asked Ms. Diedrich to continue with her next request, the Spousal Consent Form. Ms. Diedrich said that when she offered to work with employees getting ready to retire, she was informed by Trustee Cornell that when she wanted to make any changes in forms or requested additional information, she would need to come to the Board to request their approval. She said that the forms currently being used, which had been supplied by Attorney Delmer, were better than others she had seen, however, there was not a Spousal Consent Form included and she thought it would be helpful and was requesting that it be added to the packet, citing its use in the Florida retirement system. Attorney Denner recommended that the Board not use this form. He said this is required in the private sector and was adopted under the provisions of the 1984 Retirement Equity Act for the Florida retirement system. He said this particular legislation does not apply to public plans and it is not in the best interest of the members to adopt it into the Plan. He reminded that the member has a right to choose any option as a member of the Plan, without the consent of his or her spouse. A lengthy discussion ensued which covered the aspects of possible moral obligations to the spouses of the members and the concerns of the Board about whether those moral obligations were being met. Attorney Dehner reminded the Board that it has a legal responsibility, not a moral responsibility, that it does not have a duty to the spouse. He said he was more concerned about the Board's fiduciary responsibility to the Plan members; that their responsibility is to the Plan members and,because the 1984 Retirement Equity Act does not apply to this Plan,what a member chooses to do with respect to his or her spouse is up to the member, not the Board. Ms. Diedrich said she would withdraw her suggestion regarding the form,based on Attorney Dehner's recommendation. Discussion continued. Trustee Miller asked if it would be reasonable to add something into the text that would make it clear that there is no extended benefit to the spouse if that particular option is selected. Attorney Denner General Employees Pension Board Meeting of February 12,2003 Page 11 advised that the form being used lays all of that out. He said that each option is on the form along with the amounts of money that are computed by Foster &Foster and all of that makes it evident on that form. Chairperson Ison suggested that the Board take Attorney Dehner's suggestion and Ms. Diedrich's withdrawal of the request and not use the form. Trustee Vogt said that he was in favor of using the form and made a motion to accept it. Trustee Miller seconded the motion. Chairperson Ison thanked the Trustees for their concern. Trustee Vogt said he felt the obligation was to represent the members and he felt they would want to go with the moral high road and they would feel that their recommendation for notifying the spouse was a good one. Ms. Diedrich answered that the attorney had advised of the legal liability and, even though the moral obligation was understood, the instructions now leave it to the member to seek competent assistance from a financial person. Chairperson Ison interjected that it has been his experience that you cannot legislate morality. Attorney Dehner said that the moral decision should be up to the Plan member and the advice to give these individuals to seek personal input as to the best decision for them to make is done prior to time for them to make the decision. Trustee Miller withdrew his second for the motion currently on the floor. Trustee Vogt then withdrew the motion. Chairperson Ison called upon Ms. Diedrich to discuss having an educational session, perhaps in front of the Commission meeting,where some of the key benefits of working for the City and some of the key benefits of the Pension Plan could be explained or displayed. Ms. Diedrich stated that in the last couple of Commission meetings there had been questions from members of the Commission regarding certain aspects of benefit enhancements and that she feels there should be more communication. Chairperson Ison said that one of the things he wanted to do was to ask the Board Members if they would like to attend a co-meeting with the City Manager and the Commission, to be on their regular agenda, where each of the Board Members could be presented to the Commission, and at that time answer whatever questions they might have. He advised the Board that he would get back to that prior to adjourning the meeting. He then thanked Ms. Diedrich for attending this Board meeting. He told her that this was an improvement to have a HR member at the Pension Board meetings on a regular basis and that it was certainly appreciated. The other Board Members also expressed their thanks to Ms. Diedrich. Chairperson Ison then called on Trustee Vogt to address items of other business. Trustee Vogt addressed Attorney Denner to advise that HR had been notified with issues about the plan and rehiring concerns according to his direction at the last meeting. He also advised that the City Clerk had been notified to be sure that Trustee Cornell was approved by the Commission, that the meeting did happen and that Trustee Cornell had been approved. He then said that there was correspondence from the City Manager asking questions which were coming from the Commission and suggested that Chairperson Ison address the possibility of attending a meeting as he had mentioned earlier. General Employees Pension Board Meeting of February 12,2003 Page 12 Chairperson Ison said he would like to proceed with the proposed attendance of this Board at a regular Commission meeting and asked that the Secretary Vogt work to establish the meeting. He stated that, in May, the City would be going through the budget process and since the report from Foster&Foster indicates that more of the City's money would be needed to make contributions to this Plan,perhaps the Board's presence at one of those May meetings may be appropriate. He suggested that Secretary Vogt see the City Manager to determine which meeting would be best. Attorney Denner recommended that if more than one Trustee would be attending, since it would be hard to anticipate what would come up for discussion, that it be noticed as a Board meeting and a summary of the minutes be kept. Chairperson Ison said that he would defer on answering any legal questions so the Commission would know that the Board defers to its attorney. He then asked the Board Members if they would like the Attorney to be in attendance also. They indicated his presence would be appreciated so Chairperson Ison said that Attorney Dehner would be advised as soon as the date had been determined. Trustee Vogt then called the Board's attention to the September 18, 2002 analysis of improvement options, which Mr. Foster had just given them. He said that they had talked about looking at the entire list and narrowing it down to two or three and then presenting those to the membership for their information purposes. He suggested that one of those options would be to stay the same. He then asked for suggestions as to which options could be eliminated. fir► A lengthy discussion followed with the Trustees concentrating on options which would keep the members contribution rate no higher than around 10%. Mr. Foster advised that he could update the numbers on this option list. He said that the member contributions would go up maybe 2/10's of a percent at most,based on the current actuarial data. Chairperson Ison called attention to the fact that the City contribution appeared to remain nearly the same, the increase would be in the members contributions. The Board continued the discussion with the focus on getting this information to the members as soon as possible. Trustee Cornell and Ms. Diedrich assured the Board that they could present the information to the membership soon after the options were selected. Chairperson Ison reminded that the information to the membership must also stress that the proposed improvement would not be automatic, the process would be for the Board to recommend it to the Commission and the Commission would make the final decision. He mentioned that this was another of the reasons it would be beneficial to have the education session and presentation of the proposal to the Commission with the Board Members in attendance at the meeting. It was, on motion from Trustee Vogt, seconded by Trustee Bishop, unanimously RESOLVED, that Trustee Patricia Cornell, with the assistance of HR Director, Fran Diedrich,be directed to conduct a survey ensuring that the membership is aware that the options presented are potential options, General Employees Pension Board Meeting of February 12,2003 Page 13 specifying the four options of: 1.) No change; 2.) Option D; 3.) Option E.,4) Option H, as are indicated on the actuarial analysis of benefit improvements dated September 18,2002. Mr. Ward Foster of Foster & Foster, Inc. was directed to update the numbers on these specific options. Results of the survey should be available for Board review by the regularly scheduled May meeting of the Board. Chairperson Ison then called on Secretary Vogt for any other business that needed to be concluded. Secretary Vogt advised the Board that HR had noticed the members of the Plan revisions. He thanked Fran Diedrich for handling that notice. He confirmed to Ms Diedrich that he had requested a digital copy of the Summary Plan Description from Attorney Dehner per her request and that Attorney Denner had agreed to supply that copy. Secretary Vogt advised that the insurance company had sent a policyholder notice of terrorist insurance coverage. There was no increase in premium, the notice was sent in compliance with Federal government regulations. The next item he brought up was the possibility of someone from this Board attending the Police & Fire Board Meeting to be held later this same day as they had an Agenda item which indicated they would be having a discussion of additional benefit improvements. Mr. Foster advised that discussion would probably be tabled because his firm had not completed the study— they had completed the valuation but not the complete study. Chairperson Ison asked Attorney Dehner about the legality of one or more of these Board Members attending the Police & Fire Meeting and whether it would be necessary to notice the meeting. Attorney Dehner advised that if only one Trustee attended there would be no problem; if two or more attended, they should not communicate, they should just go to the meeting and listen. Chairperson Ison then called upon Attorney Dehner for any comments. Attorney Dehner discussed the Summary Plan Description which each of the Board Members were given a copy. He advised that it was current through the Ordinance buy- backs of November 19, 2002. He asked that each of the Trustees look over the Ordinance and if there were any comments, to contact either himself or Recording Secretary Jo Ann Lacey prior to March 1. He said if none were received, he would then finalize and return it to Secretary Vogt for the Chairman's signature and date. He reminded that Mr. Foster would be providing a Schedule B which is the Summary of Actuarial Value as requested earlier in the meeting. He mentioned that he did know of one change that he was going to make with respect to the buy-backs on Pages 5 and 6, Paragraph B in each case. He said he would be putting the effective date of the Ordinance,November 19, 2002, in there so it will make it clear that it is for eighteen (18) months from that date. Trustee Miller advised that the number of his address was incorrect and should be changed to 1305. Chairperson Ison addressed Secretary Vogt regarding setting the Agenda for the next meeting, reminding that the TRUSCO Proxy Guidelines and the presentation of the Members' survey results should be on the Agenda. General Employees Pension Board Meeting of February 12,2003 Page 14 L Chairperson Ison then asked the Board if there were any additional questions or comments. There being none, the meeting was adjourned at 12:43 p.m. Respectfully submitted Jo Ann Lacey Recording Secretary of the Meeting Approved By: Tom Is , hairperson L L