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HomeMy WebLinkAbout08-08-2007 Minutes Minutes of the Regular Meeting of the CITY OF OCOEE GENERAL EMPLOYEES’ PENSION BOARD Held on August 8, 2007 At 150 N. Lakeshore Drive Ocoee, FL 34761 AGENDA ITEM I. CALL TO ORDER – Vice Chairman Reed A.Vice Chairman Terry Reed called the meeting to order at 10:23 a.m. in the Commission Chambers in City Hall. The roll was called and a quorum declared present. Present were Trustees Terry Reed, Tom Hendrix and Jean Grafton. Absent were Trustees Russ Wagner & Wendy West. Also present were H. Lee Dehner, Attorney; Jim Carnicella, Human Resources Director/Plan Administrator (arrived at 10:37); Larry Cole, Monitor, Merrill Lynch; and Doug Lozen, Actuary, Foster & Foster. B.Approval of Minutes from Regular Session dated May 9, 2007. Vice Chairman Reedcalled for review of the Minutes as stated. There being no additions or on motion made by Trustee Grafton, seconded by Trustee Hendrix, corrections, it was, unanimously RESOLVED that the Minutes of the Regular Session of the Board of Trustees of the General Employees’ Pension Board of May 9, 2007, be and are hereby approved. AGENDA ITEM II. NEW BUSINESS A.Money Manager’s Report – Michael Sebesta, Managing Director, Trusco Capital Vice Chairman Reed advised the Board that Mike Sebesta was not in attendance and moved on to the Investment Consultant Report. B.Investment Consultant Report – Larry Cole, Merrill Lynch Larry Cole went over the investment consultant reports that were handed out to the Board for the quarter ending June 30, 2007. He said the market had been pretty good and the market value of the plan was $15,467,520. Mr. Cole stated that International was up to a little over 16% now and continued to go over the handout. Larry Cole said the transfer with Alger had occurred but Transamerica was still not completed and was not sure why the money had not been moved yet. Mr. Cole reported that Dianne Garcia, the representative with SunTrust on the custody side, had retired. Attorney Dehner asked Larry Cole to get with Plan Administrator Jim Carnicella to make sure the Transamerica transaction was completed. Trustee Reed asked if Transamerica was also selected by the Police Officers’ & Firefighters’ Pension Board, to which Mr. Cole replied yes but stated that one had not been completed because of a delay concerning documents. Trustee Terry Reed then asked Larry Cole if the Board needed to do anything to see this was completed. Larry General Employees Pension Board Quarterly Meeting, August 8, 2007 Page 2 of 6 Cole advised the Board he would get with Plan Administrator Carnicella and take care of. Mr. Cole then continued to go over the report and said the good new was that the returns for the quarter were 5% and that the plan, for the fiscal year to date, was up 12.7%. He reported that Trusco Large Cap Value had an excellent quarter, even though longer term numbers needed to be better they had a great come back, which pulled some of the long term numbers up. Mr. Cole said he had some manager information that was requested at the last meeting but did not bring it in pending other discussions and where the Board goes with other items on the Agenda. He then continued to go over the handout. Larry Cole said Trusco lost custodian contact, Dianne Garcia, and that he would continue to tell the Board to take a look at some of the other assets that Trusco has because there were a lot of changes going on in that firm, which has caused some concerns. He reported that the market has been extremely volatile but thinks fundamentally stocks are still in pretty good shape. Trustee Reed asked the Board if there were any further questions of Mr. Cole. Trustee Grafton asked the other Board Members about showing Larry Cole a document the Board had received and it was given to Mr. Cole to review. C.Actuary Report – Brad Heinrichs, Foster & Foster Doug Lozen with Foster & Foster reported that he was in attendance because he was here for the Police Officers’ & Firefighters’ Pension Board meeting but was prepared to answer any questions the General Employees’ Pension Board may have. Trustee Grafton advised that there were some items on the agenda being discussed later that the Board might need him for and asked that he stay for the meeting. D.Changes to the Pension Plan (i.e., summary plan description, elections, buy back, drop decision, windows, dropping/continued contributions after 27 years of service) – Jim Carnicella, Plan Administrator Trustee Reed suggested the Board may want to move to another item on the agenda since Plan Administrator Carnicella had not yet arrived. The Board agreed and Trustee Grafton spoke briefly about Dianne Garcia leaving SunTrust and advised that the new contact person was Linda McCallister. Plan Administrator Jim Carnicella arrived at 10:37. Jim Carnicella stated that Attorney Lee Dehner had provided the Board some options concerning changes in the Pension Plan, which were included in the packet. Jim Carnicella asked Attorney Dehner about eliminating the window for the DROP since it was something the Board had discussed at an earlier meeting. Attorney Dehner said the window could be eliminated but was not addressed on the information he provided in the packet and advised the Board that it was something they could elect to do. Attorney Dehner stated that the majority of DROP plans do not have a window and went on to explain. Plan Administrator Carnicella stated that Foster & Foster was working on the actuarial impact for the options being presented. Mr. Carnicella stated the only one of the options being presented that concerned him was the BAC DROP and briefly explained why. Attorney Dehner stated that there is still a minority of plans that have the BAC DROP and the ones that do, problems do come up, and stated that they were more difficult from an administrative standpoint. Attorney Lee Dehner asked Mr. Carnicella if it was his recommendation that the Board not include the BAC DROP at this point, to which Mr. Carnicella stated that was correct. Attorney Dehner then asked Mr. Carnicella about the “Air General Employees Pension Board Quarterly Meeting, August 8, 2007 Page 3 of 6 Time” provision and mentioned that it just came into law under the Pension Protection Act. Attorney Dehner spoke about the 81% Cap and went on to explain the options to the Board. Plan Administrator Carnicella asked the Board if they would consider letting the Member decide the option to either continue contributions and their benefit would increase through salary or to stop contributing and freeze their benefit. Mr. Carnicella then asked Attorney Dehner if once the member reached 27 years of service, along with the options of contributing or not, could the Board allow the member to DROP at the same time. Discussions ensued. Attorney Dehner said that the DROP may be entered at early retirement age but is something the Board would need to decide. Doug Lozen with Foster & Foster stated that most of the items would not cost the plan more but said that there would be an impact to allow the DROP at early retirement since it may change the assumption. Mr. Lozen went on to explain more about the assumption and advised the Board that they may even have to tweak the assumption in the future if they allow the member to enter the DROP at early retirement. Attorney Dehner stated that at this point he needed direction from the Board regarding the optional plan provisions. Mr. Carnicella stated that Attorney Dehner and Foster & Foster would need some direction from the Board concerning the matters that were discussed. Attorney Dehner reviewed what his understanding was in going forward with the items presented in the packet and said he would summarize it based on the letter; Item #1 (Member Contributions can be amended to provide an election to stop Member Contributions and freeze benefits after 81% of Average Final Compensation) the member would be able to make a one time irrevocable election to continue to make contributions or elect to stop contributing and freeze the benefit at that time. Trustee Grafton asked if stopping the contributions meant that the City’s contributions to the Plan would also stop, to which Attorney Dehner stated that it would not. Attorney Dehner went on and explained briefly about item #2 (Optional Forms of Benefits can be amended to provide Retirees a partial lump sum option or PLOP in increments from 5% to 20% with the balance paid as per the normal form of benefit) and #3 (The Deferred Retirement Option Plan or DROP can be amended to allow DROP participation at Early Retirement. Additionally, the DROP participation period can be increased from 5 to 7 years) and said that he would add language concerning eliminating the window. Attorney Dehner stated it was agreed that the Board was not going to do item #4 concerning BAC DROP and moved on to item #5 concerning the Air Time buyback opportunity (An “Air Time” provision can be added to allow Members to buy credited service for time they did not work). Trustee Grafton asked Attorney Dehner to explain buying “Air Time” and asked if they would be charged the interest the money would have earned. Attorney Dehner said Foster & Foster would have to figure that when they did the actuarial calculations but there would be no expense to the fund. Trustee Reed asked if there was a motion to proceed. Trustee Grafton asked Attorney Dehner to clarify that if this was an “election”, it meant the Member has a choice and the Member would have to elect to stop their contributions. Attorney Dehner replied yes. Trustee Grafton asked who would be obligated to let the employees (Members) know about their election choices. Plan Administrator Carnicella said Human Resources would bring the Members together to go over their options and possibly put the information in a newsletter. Trustee Grafton asked if there could be a handbook or something explaining the options to the Members. Mr. Carnicella agreed this could be done and recommended that it be made easy to understand. Attorney Dehner asked whether or not the Board wanted to allow Members to make the irrevocable election at any time, to which Plan Administrator Carnicella said he would recommend there not be a window. Attorney Dehner stated plans that have windows usually end up amending the window to eliminate it. General Employees Pension Board Quarterly Meeting, August 8, 2007 Page 4 of 6 On motion made by Trustee Grafton, seconded by Trustee Hendrix, unanimously RESOLVED to have Attorney Dehner draw up the ordinance concerning Plan Amendments for review by the complete Board to present to the City Commission as discussed. Trustee Reed asked the Board if there were any further questions or comments. Trustee Grafton asked if the audience had any questions regarding the issues discussed. There being none, Trustee Grafton asked Doug Lozen to explain the PLOP in more detail. Mr. Lozen went on to explain. AGENDA ITEM III. OTHER BUSINESS A. Payment of Invoices On Trustee Grafton stated that there were invoices in the packet for the Board to approve. motion made by Trustee Grafton, seconded by Trustee Hendrix, unanimously RESOLVED to approve that the bills and other charges and fees be and are hereby approved for payment as presented. B. Reports and Correspondence – Jean Grafton, Trustee/Secretary Trustee Grafton said there was something in her mail box concerning Alger and asked Larry Cole about the document she gave him earlier in the meeting to review. Mr. Cole stated he would like to review the document, get with Attorney Dehner, and to speak with American Funds but said it was an SCC required form and looked like our plan would be exempt. CDevelop date to review Investment Consultant RFP’s . Trustee Reed asked the Board about setting a date to review the Investment Consultant RFP’s. Plan Administrator Carnicella said it may be difficult to set a date without the other two Board Members present but suggested the Board look at a few dates and he would see if the other Members could be available. Trustee Reed asked if the Board should set a tentative date. Plan Administrator Carnicella asked Attorney Dehner if he needed to be at the meeting to review the RFP’s. Lee Dehner replied that he does not have to be present at the meeting to develop a short list but would need to be in attendance when the selected Investment Consultants were interviewed. Attorney Dehner told the Board that if there were any questions to contact him. After brief discussion, it was agreed the meeting be tentatively scheduled for August 29, 2007 at 9:00 a.m. and Plan Administrator Carnicella would check with Trustee Wagner and Trustee West regarding their availability. Jim Carnicella asked Attorney Dehner if the meeting needed to be advertised. Attorney Dehner stated yes and said it should be held as a Special Meeting, as opposed to a Workshop. Jim Carnicella stated that the meeting could be held in the Human Resources’ Conference Room if the Board wished to do so, it was agreed. General Employees Pension Board Quarterly Meeting, August 8, 2007 Page 5 of 6 AGENDA ITEM IV. ATTORNEY COMMENTS – H. Lee Dehner, Esq. Attorney Lee Dehner said he was working on a new Summary Plan Description and would have it for review at the next Board Meeting. Attorney Dehner said that since there were many amendments, he would recommend the Board consolidate the plan so that everything was in one document but not finalize the document until after the ordinance for this last change had passed, which the Board agreed. Attorney Dehner said he had something of interest he wanted to mention to the Board that may be coming down the pike concerning provisions that became st effective January 1 of this year regarding normal service retirees and disability service retirees being able to have up to $3,000 deducted, pre-taxed, to pay for health and long-term care insurance premiums under Police & Fire Pensions and went on to explain that General Employees could benefit from this as well if legislation was passed. Trustee Grafton asked if the Board would have to adopt it, to which Attorney Dehner said he believed the language for Police & Fire was “permission”, so the Board could do it but would not be required to. Discussions ensued. Attorney Dehner reminded the Board to file their Financial Disclosures and to make sure the supervisor has a record that it was filed and went on to explain why. Trustee Reed suggested that maybe next year the Board could file it together. Trustee Grafton asked Attorney Dehner if she could check with the supervisor to see if they received the entire Board’s Financial Disclosures. Attorney Dehner said Trustee Grafton should be able to do so and suggested that it might be listed on the internet. Trustee Reed asked again about the funding for Transamerica. Plan Administrator Carnicella said he was not aware of any problem and Larry Cole stated that he did not know what the hold up was. After further discussions, Mr. Cole said that he and Mr. Carnicella would get together to make sure this was completed. Doug Lozen with Foster & Foster requested that if the Board still had holdings with American Funds, a copy of the statements be sent to their office. Larry Cole asked Doug Lozen if he wanted a copy of what his firm receives, to which Doug Lozen answered yes. AGENDA ITEM V. PLAN ADMNISTRATOR COMMENTS – Jim Carnicella Jim Carnicella recommended the Board take action to pay someone to do the Minutes of the Board Meetings. Trustee Grafton said the Board use to pay an agency. Attorney Dehner asked if the person could send him a list of the things they would be doing, including the rate of pay, so that a contract could be drawn up. Jim Carnicella stated that it would just be for the production of the Minutes. Trustee Grafton advised that the person would need to submit an invoice in order to be paid for their services. Attorney Dehner asked Plan Administrator Carnicella for clarification as to what the contract would include. Jim Carnicella said the agreement would be to pay Debbie Bertling just for the transcription of the Minutes since the City is paying for her On motion time to help administer the plan and advised the rate would be $20.00 per hour. made by Trustee Grafton, seconded by Trustee Hendrix, unanimously RESOLVED to have Attorney Dehner draw up a contract for review by the Board to pay Debbie Bertling $20.00 an hour for services provided regarding the transcription of the Minutes of the General Employees’ Pension Board Meetings. General Employees Pension Board Quarterly Meeting, August 8, 2007 Page 6 of 6 AGENDA ITEM VI. COMMENTS FROM TRUSTEES Trustee Grafton said she wanted the audience to be aware that the Board attended conferences and training sessions and stated for the last year there has been talk about the Defined Benefit type Pension Plans being in jeopardy because of the cost and explained further. Plan Administrator Carnicella agreed that type of plan was in jeopardy but said as long as he and City Manager Rob Frank were employed by the City of Ocoee they probably did not have anything to worry about. Mr. Carnicella went on to explain. A. Audit of the Pension Plan Trustee Reed stated the Board had discussed the audit of the Pension Plan in January and asked On motion made if Attorney Dehner had to send out RFP’s. Attorney Lee Dehner replied yes. by Trustee Grafton, seconded by Trustee Hendrix, unanimously RESOLVED to have Attorney Dehner send out Auditing Firm RFP’s in order to have an audit conducted of the General Employees’ Pension Plan. AGENDA ITEM VII. SET AGENDA FOR NEXT MEETING Trustee Grafton asked about setting the agenda for the next meeting. Plan Administrator Carnicella said Attorney Dehner would have a draft of the Summary Plan Description and a draft of the Ordinance concerning the Pension Plan changes that were suggested, along with the normal agenda items. Trustee Grafton inquired as to when the meeting for the Investment Consultant RFP interviews would be conducted. Plan Administrator Carnicella recommended thth the Board have a separate meeting held between August 29 and November 7 for the Investment Consultant RFP presentations, possibly as a Workshop, to which it was agreed upon but no specific date was set at that time. AGENDA ITEM VIII. ADJOURN There being no other business, the meeting was adjourned at 11:41 p.m. Respectfully submitted by Approved by: Debbie Bertling ______________________________ HR Analyst Terry Reed, Vice Chairman