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HomeMy WebLinkAbout05-01-2013 Minutes Minutes of the Regular Meeting of the CITY OF OCOEE GENERAL EMPLOYEES' RETIREMENT TRUST FUND BOARD OF TRUSTEES (GERB) Held on May 1, 2013 At 150 N. Lakeshore Drive Ocoee, FL 34761 CALL TO ORDER — Chairman Wagner Chairman Russ Wagner called the meeting to order at 10:00 a.m. in the Commission Chamber at City Hall. A. Roll Call Chairman Wagner called the roll. In addition to the chairman, present were Vice - Chairman David Wheeler, Secretary Jean Grafton, and Trustees, Gleason and Godek. The recording clerk declared that a quorum was present. Also present was Board Attorney Lee Dehner, Mr. Tim Nash of Bogdahn Consulting, LLC, Senior Administrative Assistant Sharon Zink, and GERB Recording Clerk Stella M B. Approval of Minutes Chairman Wagner directed the board's attention to the minutes for the regular February 6, 2013 (Exhibit #1). The chairman complimented the recording clerk for being so thorough in her taking of minutes. Trustee Grafton echoed his sentiments. A motion having been made by Trustee Godek and seconded by Trustee Grafton, and that motion having carried unanimously, the board RESOLVED to approve the February 6, 2013 regular meeting minutes. CONSENT AGENDA A. Invoices Ratification (Exhibit #2) B. Retiree List from Fifth Third Bank (Exhibit #3) Chairman Wagner directed the board's attention to the consent agenda. A motion having been made by Trustee Wheeler, and seconded by Trustee Grafton, and that motion having passed unanimously, the board General Employees Retirement Board May 1, 2013 Page 2 of 10 RESOLVED to approve the consent agenda. Quarterly Activity Report Chairman Wagner noted that Mr. Dunford elected a normal retirement as did Mr. Luedtke, who also did a PLOP; this will reduce his monthly payment over his lifetime. There were two parties who opted to withdraw their contributions. The chairman specified that the funds paid to the parties are the actual dollars that were contributed by the member. No interest is paid. NEW BUSINESS A. Performance Monitor Report — Timothy J. Nash, The Bogdahn Group Mr. Nash directed the board's attention to Bogdahn's quarterly report that contained a photograph of Trustee Gleason at Wall Street. Page 1 Mr. Nash also noted that the reports now contain contact information for himself and the Bogdahn staff. Pages 2 & 3 These pages show broad market statistics for the 2 fiscal quarter. On page 2 there is a comparison bar graph of the US stock market and the S &P which was up 10.9 %; the asset classes (Russell Mid Cap and the Russell 2000) were up 12 & 13 % respectively, in just one quarter. In international markets it was a mixed bag. The developed countries were up 5.2 %; emerging countries were down 2% for the quarter. The combination of the two (with the mix being75% developed international markets and 25% representing developing countries) showed the return to be 3.2 %. Bonds had virtually no return for the quarter. Ocoee's bond manager did slightly better for the quarter. Growth and value stocks are shown on page 3. The blue line on the graph represents value; large cap (Russell 1000) and mid cap are shown. In general, value did better than growth; but in small cap world, growth did better than value (see Russell 2000). The range of the return for growth and value stocks was up 10 - 12% for the quarter. Page 5 The top ten holdings are shown. In the blue section, Apple Computer stock is down from $700 to $400 per share, or down 16.23 %. Technology in general has not done as well some of the other sectors of the market for this reporting period. Page 12 Ocoee's investment managers are on the left hand side of the page. The fund's progress is listed by quarters along with the amounts allocated. On the left hand side, as of March 2012, Rockwood and ICC earnings are shown. On far right -hand side of the page is data for March General Employees Retirement Board May 1,2013 Page 3 of 10 of 2013. It shows a small residual balance that Fifth Third (the fund's custodian) should have moved out. At the end of March there is Brown (large cap growth manager) and GAMCO (small cap value manager), and the two new small midcap options Eaton Vance and Vanguard Extended Market index (altogether about 15% of the portfolio). Those two together will be the fund's small and midcap allocations. Trustee Wheeler asked how Rockwood managed to make $69,000 on $60,000. Mr. Nash answered that they did not earn the amount listed. There are some dividends sitting there, and based on old balance, Fifth Third put money in there from contributions, but they have been notified to stop doing that. On the ICC side there is a security in there which is deemed worthless, Chemtura. Mr. Nash said he will write a letter to them so that the security can be moved to the R & D account which will not cost the fund. If through a class action suit the security gains anything, it can always be proved that the fund owns the security. No more statements will be received by the board until the year end recap statement. Page 14 The cash flow activity is shown for the second fiscal quarter ending in March. Net transfers show that a - $3,057,000.00 came out of the ICC, and it was split between the Eaton Vance and Vanguard Emerging Markets funds. On the right hand side, the market value grew from $23million to $25,101,153. The fund's total dollar gain for the quarter equals $1,363,923.00. Page 15 This page shows the last six months. Dollar gains for the last six months (adding the dollar gain and the appreciation together equals $1,723,915. Page 16 For the quarter, there was a 5.8% rate of return (gross of fees) which is better than the benchmark of 5.7 % or the 49th percentile among the 436 pension plans across the nation. Halfway through the fiscal year, the fund is at 7.46% (gross of fees). The index was only up 6.84 %. This puts the fund in the top 30 percentile for the year so far. For the last three years, the fund is in the 75 percentile. The absolute number is 8.42 %. which says that on average for the last three years, the fund earned 8.42 % which exceeds the benchmark of 8 %. On a five -year view the fund's 6.37% rate of return is below 8 %, but no pension among the 436 pensions is still above 7% over the last five years. This return rate puts the fund in the top 18% for the five -year period. Mr. Nash remarked that a lot of the bigger pension plans that use hedge funds and private equity have not paid off as well as Ocoee's fund. For the quarter, GAMCO was up 12.5% in just one quarter, putting them in the top 25 percentile. Brown is at 9.61 %, in the top 40 The Russell 2000 was up12.85 %. Vanguard General Employees Retirement Board May 1, 2013 Page 4 of 10 was up 13.25% for the quarter, and it is in the top 8 ranked fund in the small /midcap category. Barings stubbed their toe last quarter, so they need to make up some ground. Bogdahn recommends that they remain in the fund. The Bogdahn team will be evaluating Barings to be sure that there are no issues. They will notify the board if anything changes, and will have alternatives to the money manager if needed. Chairman Wagner noted that the police pension did a lot better. He noted that their M & N overseas fund was up a lot more than the general employees fund. They were up 5.15% for the quarter and 11.12% for the fiscal year to date. He asked if the board should be looking at the M & N fund as an alternative to Barings. Mr. Nash replied that it is an alternative, but Bogdahn still likes Barings. Barings performance was lower than M & N because M & N does not have as much exposure to emerging markets; emerging markets were negative for the quarter. Barings does have exposure to emerging markets. Alternatively, another fund, American Funds — Euro Pacific Funds, the largest international fund in the country, is a fund whereby Ocoee's plan would be eligible for the R5 share class which would mean the Ocoee could get into the fund for 51 basis points. Chairman Wagner asked why be in emerging markets at all if such funds are so volatile. Mr. Nash replied that it is more volatile but this is where the growth is coming from. China's slowing growth rate is responsible for the lower performance of emerging markets. They have a GDP rate, however, of 10 %. The US GDP is barely growing at 1.5 %. US job growth is slowing. Governments all over the country have slowed their hiring as has the private sector. Chairman Wagner summarized that what Mr. Nash was saying was that the current plan funds may generate more money in the long run. Mr. Nash confirmed that this is so. Further discussion ensued. The chairman asked that Mr. Nash bring information on the other funds compared to Barings so that the board can have information in case they decide that a change is needed. Mr. Nash consented to do so. Page 17 Real estate has grown at 5% and at 10.69% for the fiscal year to date. Agincourt is doing the best that they can do given the market environment. They exceeded the index at .01% for the quarter. Mr. Nash said that adding global bonds might help (further diversification). Chairman Wagner asked what percentage of fixed income must the plan have. Mr. Nash replied that the plan cannot go lower than 30 %. The plan's policy specifies a 60/40 mix. He referred the board to page 10, asset allocation. Mr. Nash said Bogdahn recommends that they take 5% from Agincourt and add the 5% to international income. General Employees Retirement Board May 1, 2013 Page 5 of 10 Chairman Wagner asked why not add more real estate rather than international income. Mr. Nash answered that real estate can lose value. To protect the portfolio from that volatility, they want to add an asset class that 1) takes advantage of economies growing faster than the US economy and 2) that are not affected by US interest rates. Trustee Wheeler said that diversification can be good, but it can also be bad at the same time. Mr. Nash agreed and added that the vehicle with which Bogdahn would achieve diversification would be through mutual funds which allow the fund to get in and get out at will. The plan might have the ability to get better coupons (income) with such bonds since the plan would be assuming more risk. Mr. Nash referred the board to the presentation he created (Exhibit #4). Reviewing indices, he noted that US bonds have a standard deviation (that is risk) of about 3.5 %; however, there are options to diversify that would ease some of that risk. They could add developed international bonds, but their volatility is much higher. Return is lower. Junk bonds could also be added to the portfolio. Lastly, the most aggressive asset would be emerging market government bonds. There is more volatility, but much higher rates of return. The mix would be 70% US bonds, 10% emerging market 10% global bonds and 10% high yield. This makes a third of the portfolio non -US. The fund would pick up a reasonable amount of return (about 1 %), but the risk is only slightly greater. This would get the bond portfolio closer to the 4.5% to 5% yield that is needed. Another plan would be be to have one third global bonds, one third emerging bonds, and one third high yield. The returns of this portfolio are much higher, but also much riskier. Page 9 of the presentation shows the statistical proof of what Mr. Nash had just said. On page 18 of the presentation is the global bond index. Mutual funds are listed along with their performance. The Templeton Global Fund is the most conservative bond fund on the page. The fund only buys debt from developed and emerging market countries. Mr. Nash recommends Templeton because it is a safe fund to make an entrance into the global bond market. Dr. Michael Hassenstaz runs this fund, and he is brilliant. For the last eight years, he has been up 8 or 10 %. One of the risk controls of the Templeton funds is that they are allowed to buy (within Ocoee's plan parameters) US bonds that have maturities of a little less than 5 years on average. Foreign bonds have a maximum maturity rate of three years. Under Dr. Hassenstatz's management, Templeton has not owned any foreign bonds of countries in trouble while they were in trouble; no Greece, no Spain and no Ireland when their bonds dropped like a rock. The next page of the presentation shows risk and return together. The time period is January 2004 through December 2012 which is the period when all of the mutual funds had been open for the same amount of time. The index (or average rate return) for that time period General Employees Retirement Board May 1, 2013 Page 6 of 10 over 8 years was 5.3% with Templeton at 9.71%, PIMCO at 8.87% and Sales at 8.81%. Mr. Nash concluded that Templeton would produce good alpha for Ocoee's fund. Fees are on page 12. Chairman Wagner asked if the fund was an institutional one that a government plan could buy into. The share class Ocoee would be buying would be TGBAX which is an institutional share class, so there is no frontend load (fees), nor backend load, for 65 basis points per year. There are shares that an individual could buy. He continued that the returns which the board saw already had the basis points taken out. Mr. Nash added that this is a fund he personally has investment. Trustee Wheeler remarked that he thinks it is interesting that Bank of America/Merrill Lynch is the benchmark. Mr. Nash replied that Merrill Lynch is the company that owns that the index. Bank of America owns Merrill Lynch, but Merrill Lynch owns the global bond index. Chairman Wagner expressed concern that thirty percent of the fund's money is not making any money. He said if they moved 5% into the mutual fund, the board could always add more. Mr. Nash said that he does have some clients that have 10% in the mutual fund, but those clients do not have real estate in their portfolio. Chairman Wagner asked if there was any other strategy other than leaving 25% of the funds money in bonds. Trustee Wheeler asked if there was a minimum investment amount. Mr. Nash answered that the mutual fund has a $1,000,000.00 minimum, but it is waived due to the way the Ocoee fund is making its purchase. He also explained the process to adding to the amount invested. Mr. Nash continued that the hard part about US fixed income is that whenever the market gets skittish, equities go down and bonds go back up. No one knows how long the current rates will continue in the bond market. He said that they would never recommend completely abandoning US bonds because of the security they offer. Chairman Wagner said that he just wanted to know if Ocoee's plan needed to hedge into these other things and by how much; if this is a period to `dip their toe' into international bonds. The chairman concluded that the `toe dipping' that the consultant is recommending is 5 %. The chairman also concluded that the other `toe' was dipped into real estate. Mr. Nash agreed and then presented a chart in the presentation that shows what other plans are doing. Other plans have a fair amount of exposure to global bonds and real estate. The lowest percent of US bonds that any plan had was around 18 %. US bonds have proven to be safe, and they are liquid. Chairman Wagner asked if the plan went with this fund, would the plan be roughly at 25% invested in bonds. Mr. Nash confirmed this was so, and said that they could add more to real estate if they wanted. The chairman asked the board for their feedback. General Employees Retirement Board May 1, 2013 Page 7 of 10 Trustee Gleason said that she liked the proposal. She said that she was unsure about the real estate. Chairman Wagner said that they (each option) all have their risks. Trustee Wheeler proposed taking 20% away from Agincourt and placing it in foreign bonds. He further proposed taking 10% from Agincourt and placing it in real estate. Mr. Nash said that going to 15% in real estate would be assuming a bit more risk. He proposed instead that they increase the current 9% in real estate to 12.5 %. He further suggested that the board place 5% into global bonds and leave the remainder in Agincourt. The chairman proposed doing one thing at a time. He proposed that the board put 5% into foreign bonds only, given how uncertain Congress can be with the budget issues and the sequester. Further discussion ensued. Mr. Nash said if the board thinks that interest rates are going to go up at all, US bonds will be impacted by that, but not the global bonds. That is what makes them a hedge against the rising rates. This is something that the portfolio does not have at this time. Chairman Wagner said that he sees the board taking one step at a time towards the international bonds and then wait three months to see what happens. Mr. Nash said that on the real estate side, he could bring the board bring information on historic patterns that were formed in the market to give the board a better guide as to how to move forward. Chairman Wagner said that in three months they will be evaluating the international stock and will determine if changes need to be made. He said that he would prefer to move slowly rather than too quickly. Trustee Gleason echoed his sentiments about not wanting to move too quickly. Chairman Wagner asked Trustee Grafton for comments. She said that she had no comments. He asked if she had any disagreement with what they were doing. She replied that she did not. The chairman asked the board if there was a consensus to move forward. They agreed. A motion having been made by Trustee Wheeler and seconded by Chairman Wagner to move 5% of funds from Agincourt and place it into Franklyn Templeton global bonds as recommended by Bogdahn Consultant, and that motion having passed unanimously, the board RESOLVED to invest 5% of Agincourt fixed income into Franklyn Templeton global bonds. Board Attorney Dehner instructed that Mr. Nash would need to prepare a new policy statement (inaudible) stating that the change will be in effect pursuant to the statute. A policy statement will need to be filed with the Division of Retirement for the State of Florida, with the City, and the actuary for the City. The effective date of the change will be thirty -one days after it is filed with the City. General Employees Retirement Board May 1, 2013 Page 8 of 10 The chairman said that the board is heading into the summer with two quarters before the fiscal year ends. He said that maybe they will see some increase (for the plan) as opposed to last year. Further discussion ensued about economic growth versus congressional action or the lack thereof. Chairman Wagner said that due to the board having a new trustee, Trustee Godek, the bank needs an updated signatory authorization form for him. Following discussion it was determined that each trustee should complete the forms to become an authorized signatory. A motion having been made by Trustee Grafton and seconded by Trustee Godek, and that motion having passed unanimously, the board RESOLVED to have all board members complete the form to become authorized signatories for the plan's bank account. DISCUSSION ITEMS Florida Public Pension Trustees Association (FPPTA) — Upcoming events. Trustee Gleason described her experience at the New York Stock Exchange. She said that the experience gave her a very useful perspective on how things operate there. On Friday, they went to a trading house where they were given an overview of the process. They had lunch on Wall Street and had a guided tour of the trade floor. They talked with buyers and traders. They also got to go to the 9/11 Tribute Center. Their final class was on Saturday morning. The speaker was excellent as were all of the speakers. Further discussion ensued as other trustees added their experiences of visiting Wall Street. Chairman Wagner directed the board's attention to the upcoming association events. The annual conference is in June. Trustee Grafton plans to attend. Further discussion ensued. Trustees Grafton, and Gleason said that they would be attending the next event. Further discussion ensued regarding what conferences would be attended by whom. Chairman Wagner instructed Trustees Grafton and Gleason to get with Ms. Zink to complete the necessary paperwork to attend the conference. ATTORNEY COMMENTS General Employees Retirement Board May 1, 2013 Page 9 of 10 Chairman Wagner brought to the attorney's attention that some of the plan's forms are out of date due to changes in the ordinance. He asked the attorney to look through the forms, note what changes are necessary, and let him (the chairman) know. Board Attorney Dehner spoke of legislative updates and about the fact that he is working on the Internal Revenue Service Code required amendments to the plan for compliance purposes. Chairman Wagner said that he had received a request for information from Standard & Poors. Mr. Nash said that money managers are asking for information. Board Attorney Dehner said because this is a government plan, the board should not have to give the information. Mr. Nash asked how the managers would know that this is a governmental plan. The attorney replied that he could provide a letter to that affect. Board Attorney Dehner directed that solicitations for information should be forwarded to him. Chairman Wagner brought up the fact that he had been asked by finance staff to provide a signature for a form soliciting information. He confirmed with the attorney that it was okay to continue to ignore such solicitations. Attorney Dehner replied affirmatively. Chairman Wagner asked about the IRS work the attorney was doing for the board. Board Attorney Dehner said it is putting language into the plan which will not affect the substantive plan provisions, but which will provide certain limits within which the provisions must fall. Chairman Wagner said that it would have to come before the board. The attorney confirmed that it would. The attorney reported that Tallahassee signed Senate Bill 534, and it will become effective on July 1 It will add administrative expenses to the plan. Further discussion ensued. Chairman Wagner asked if the State could actually mandate that the local governments no longer have defined benefit plans. The attorney said that because of `home rule' the bill did not enjoy much support. The State could attempt to make arguments against defined benefit plans, the attorney added. Chairman Wagner said that even if the state were successful in such an endeavor, it still would not relieve the cities of their prior obligations. Board Attorney Dehner confirmed that this was true. The attorney reminded the trustees of their obligation to submit their financial disclosure forms in a timely fashion. Chairman Wagner said that he thinks the city clerk takes steps to remind board members of their need to file the form. Board Attorney Dehner added that accuracy is important as it relates to the disclosure form. General Employees Retirement Board May 1, 2013 Page l0 of 10 COMMENTS FROM TRUSTEES / CITY LIAISON None. AGENDA FOR NEXT MEETING Bogdahn's report about international bonds, etc. Trustee Wheeler asked if the report could be sent to the board prior to the meeting as well as the quarterly statement. Mr. Nash replied that a full thirty days is needed to complete the date. Given that the meeting date is July 31, 2013, Mr. Nash stated that he may use the March data to be sure to have the report in time. Chairman Wagner said the mayor had asked for a report regarding the two pension funds. The finance department ended up doing the report. There were few questions. Trustee Wheeler said that with respect to the pension being a stand -alone plan, it would take about $150 million dollars in the plan to accomplish such an aim. COMMENTS FROM PUBLIC None. ADJOURNMENT There being no other business, the meeting was adjourned at 12:01 a.m. Re a ectfully submitte S S by: AN N o ed by, 4 �� / ,.. / 1 / �� r Stella McLeod, Municipal R- Coo •' - : or Ru sell B. Wagner, G RB Chairman GERB Recording Clerk