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Pension10-16-12Min BOARD OF TRUSTEES Florida Municipal Trust Fund Retirement Plan and Trust for the Firefighters and Police Officers Longwood City Commission Chambers 175 West Warren Avenue Longwood, Florida REGULAR MEETING MINUTES Present: Robert Redditt, Chair Peter Katauskas, Vice Chair Marc McLarnon, Member Derek Chenoweth, Member Scott Christiansen, Board Attorney Paul Shamoun, Florida League of Cities Pamela Barclay, Director of Financial Services Sarah M. Mirus, Recording Secretary Absent: Chris Kempf, Secretary October 16, 2012 7:00 p.m. 1. Call to Order. Chair Redditt called the meeting to order at 7:00 p.m. 2. Pledge of Allegiance. Chair Redditt led in the Pledge of Allegiance. 3. Approval of Minutes: July 17, 2012 Regular Meeting. Vice Chair Katauskas moved to accept the Minutes as presented. Seconded by Member McLarnon and carried by a unanimous roll call vote with Secretary Kempf absent. 4. Review of Agenda Packet Material. A. Plan Account Statements (July 2012, August 2012 and September 2012). Chair Redditt noted that the Quarterly Plan Account Statement that was dated April 1, 2012 to June 30, 2012 had a Beginning Balance of $8,168,606.62, the Contributions were $50,640.50, the Earnings /(Losses) were ($137,805.33), the Distributions were ($1,399.84), the Fees and Expenses were ($12,204) and the Ending Balance was $8,067,837.95. The Plan Account Statements for July 2012, August 2012 and the Preliminary Draft for September 2012 were reviewed by the Board. Pension 10 -16 -12/1 Chair Redditt noted that the Plan Account Statement that was dated July 1, 2012 to July 31, 2012 had a Beginning Balance of'$8,067,837.95, the Contributions were $24,011.93, the Earnings /(Losses) were $77,653.84, the Distributions were $0, the Fees and Expenses were ($3,775.44) and the Ending Balance was $8,165,728.28. Chair Redditt noted that the Plan Account Statement that was dated August 1, 2012 to August 31, 2012 had a Beginning Balance of $8,165,728.28, the Contributions were $17,742.01, the Earnings /(Losses) were $1.30,973.84,_ the Distribution were $0, the Fees and Expenses were $0 and the Ending Balance was $8,314,444.13. Chair Redditt noted that the Preliminary Account Statement that was dated September 1, 2012 to September 30, 201 -2 had,a Beginning Balance of $8,314,444.13, the Contributions were $248,134.41, the Earnings /(Losses) were $0, the Distributions were $0, the Fees and Expenses were ($6,710.53) and the Ending Balance was $8,555,868.01. He said to keep in mind this was a Preliminary Draft, so these figures may or may not be final. Member McLarnon said regarding the July 1 St to July 31S Statement and inquired about the City's Contribution of $21,807.98 because there were three (3) pay periods in that timeframe. Ms. Barclay said she would assume that was correct because it looked like it would run about $7,000. Chair Redditt said for the month of September, he noticed the Contributions were $248,134.41 and inquired what that was. Vice Chair Katauskas stated it was the State money. Member McLarnon moved to accept as presented. Seconded by Vice Chair Katauskas and carried by a unanimous roll call vote with Secretary Kempf absent. B. Quarterly Performance Review (April 1, 2012 to June 30, 2012). The Board reviewed the Quarterly Performance for the period beginning on April 1, 2012 . and ending in June 30, 2012 prior to reviewing the Plan Account Statements. C. Invoices. a. Christiansen & Dehner, P.A. (June 2012, July 2012 and August 2012). Pension 10 -16 -12/2 The Board reviewed the invoices for Christiansen & Deliner, P.A. for June 2012, July 2012 and August 2012. Member McLamon moved to approve payment. Seconded by Vice Chair Katauskas and carried by a unanimous roll call vote with Secretary Kempf absent. Mr. Shamoun said the reports they have were the June reports. He noted they do not have the September 30"' reports. He stated through the first half of the year from September through March, the Fund was doing tremendously well. He said the markets were up, and they had a really bad September last year, but October and November were fantastic and December was good too. He said it kept on going right through until March where they were up substantially to a little over fourteen (1.4 %) percent. He said for the quarter they just went over, they were down almost $135,000 for the quarter ending in June. He said that translates to about a 1.7% loss. He stated the good news was the September return was positive, and the other two (2) were $77,000 positive and $130,000 positive. He said the $135,000 negative for the previous quarter was about a two (2 %) percent loss, so even with that they were at 12.7% for the first three (3) quarters of the year. He said he was guessing they were going to end somewhere in the fifteen (15 %) percent positive range for this total fiscal year, which was an excellent position compared to where they have been in previous September's, going back at least four(4) or five (5) years. He stated producing that type of return number should produce some easing in the contribution rate as quickly as the rates go up because of the losses in the market, more or less doubling their investment assumption should help to bring that down in a pretty dramatic. way. He said they will see when they get the next valuation. He said thankfully they did not have the September they had the last few years. He said last year, they were up over ten (10 %) percent at September I", and ended up about a positive two (2) for the fiscal year, so they lost about eight (8 %) percent in the month of September alone. He said this year, the numbers all stayed up through September, and they posted a really good annual return September Member McLarnon asked Mr. Shamoun when he thought they would do a recalculation on the contribution numbers based on the performance of the fund. Mr. Shamoun said they will gather all the data for the year end such as, the salaries, etc., and start the valuation process again and that number will determine the 2013/2014 Fiscal Year. He said the valuation they will be talking about tonight sets the 2012/2013 Fiscal Year number. He stated the valuation they do in January sets the 2013/2014 Fiscal Year number. Mr. Shamoun said the above information was the highlights. He said the Pension 10 -16 -12/3 other 3 ood news was the three year number was going to be or should g ()Y g g be, above eleven (11). He said the ten (10) year number was going above 5 1 /4. He said it was not too long ago when that ten (10) year number was at negative, so in the last three (3) years, they have made up a tremendous amount of ground. He said the markets continue to do well, and today was another good day in all the exchanges. He stated one really bright spot was that they terminated the International. Manager about eighteen (18) months ago, and since that point, the International Manager has a little over a one (1 %) percent out performance to the benchmark, so they were very encouraged by that switching. He said primarily what helped was that the new Manager has a little more emerging market. He stated the old one was more established in international markets, whereas this one goes into Brazil and some of the other areas and was able to pick up more return than ,the index. He said that was very encouraging. He said other than that, they do not plan to change anything. Member McLarnon said so the target number they established was around seven (7) percent. He said it was seven and one half (7' /z %) percent for the assumption, and they have been running for the last three (3) years on an average of a little over ten (10 %) percent annual return. Vice Chair Katauskas stated that most of the time there was an earning or a loss. He noted in September of this year, it was neither and asked if the market was flat. Mr. Shamoun said that was why the report said Preliminary Report and they had not posted the Earnings. He said he does not know what the September report number was right now and it has not been posted as the final with all the Earnings. He said the Earnings were positive in September. Chair Redditt asked Mr. Shamoun about the slowdown in Europe and the fiscal cliff. He stated based on his experience with all this looming out there, how does his company feel about that going into next year. Mr. Shamoun said there were a lot of theories about what may or may not happen, and he thinks the longer they drag out the discussion, the more volatile the market will get in both directions. He said they could start to see those 500 point movement days in both directions again, as they saw the last time they went through all of this. He said the equities continue -to perform well. He said if inflation does come as a result of all the spending and relaxing of monetary policies, then the equities will continue to rise with that. He said the bond funds were short to their benchmarks in a defensive position. He said they have certain maturities and durations they have to maintain in order to maintain the long bond fund. But they will have difficulty keeping up if that was the situation they get into. He said that was from a theoretical standpoint right now. He said, will the Pension 10 -16 -12/4 fact that the majority of the fixed income that they hold that was backed by the Federal government insulate them in some way from some of that, maybe. He said some people went short in the fixed income markets three (3) or four (4) years ago and missed out on very large returns in those longer, broad markets. He said they tend to take the long term perspective on these things. The bond funds returned ten (10 %) percent in 2008 and have had very good returns since then, but their run has probably come, and as things change, they will probably produce coupon rate, which means the bonds will go to four (4 %) percent or five (5 %) percent at the most. He said if they were in Treasuries, the bond fund would be returning two (2 %) percent, if they were lucky. He said they do a lot of agencies, home loans backed by Fannie and Freddie, car loans, credit card receivables, things like that that were highly rated as instruments to help keep some diversification in the bond portfolio, and also produce some return that was greater than the Treasury, which was the alternative. If they were to factor in a two (2 %) percent fixed income return into their calculations to look at what their portfolio should produce, that would almost necessitate dropping their investment rate assumption and their actuarial valuation a good one (1 %) percent to two (2 0 /6) percent, which was not something that any City's budget could stomach. He said in 1996, they would have started you at seven and one half percent (7'/z %). He said the three (3) year returns does not say that that number has to be changed, neither does the current year number say that. He said the Asset Allocation Study shows the 60 -40 should produce the seven and one half (7' /z %) percent return over the next ten (10) years, because the equities were going to be the out performer. Over the last ten (10) years, what helped them was the fixed income side. He said what should help in the next ten (10) years was the equities side. He said the fiscal cliff presents greater issues for the market than the Presidential election does and will create more volatility. D. Proposed 2013 Pension Board Meeting bates. It was the consensus of the Board to accept the proposecl Pension Board Meeting Dates. E. Memorandum regarding: Ex- Spouses as Beneficiary or Joint Pensioner. Mr. Christiansen said this has to do with a change in some legislation that was adopted in the last Legislative Session. He stated there were no pension bills that were adopted. He said a lot were proposed, but none got adopted. He said there was a piece of Legislation that was adopted and it was not strictly a pension bill, but it does have an impact on pension plans. He said it basically represents an Amendment to Section 732.703 of the Florida Statutes. He said it became effective July 1 St , and it affects not only Pension Plans, but it affects insurance contracts and virtually any Pension 1046 -12/5 vehicle that has a beneficiary setup where they can designate beneficiaries. He said regarding the pension plan, when they retire from the pension plan, they have a number of different optional forms of benefits. One of their optional forms of benefits was a ten (10) year certain life benefit. He said when they retire, they can select that form of benefit, and they will get paid an amount for life, but if they die before they.get ten (10) years' worth of payments, their named beneficiary will get the remainder of that ten (10) years' worth of payments. He said so they select the ten (10) year certain life benefit and put his wife's name on the beneficiary form. He said then they retire and draw benefits for a couple of years and get divorced. He said then they draw benefits for a few more years, and then die, but you have not drawn ten (10) years' worth of payments, gets the remainder of the ten (10) years' worth of payments; the ex -wife does. If you have not changed the beneficiary form, the ex -wife gets it. He said this Legislation changes that. In the same situation where there was an ex- spouse as a Beneficiary, the ex- spouse will be deemed to have pre- deceased them. He stated then their benefits for the remainder of the ten (10) years were going to go to children or will go to their estate. He said he does not think it was constitutional. He said all the lawyers he talked with think it was unconstitutional because they have a piece of Legislation that was changing an existing contract. He said there was an agreement between parties, and the Legislature was saying they do not care about that, and they were going to change all of that. He stated he did not want his clients to be the test case and to potentially have to spend money on attorney's fees to defend a piece of legislation that they may not agree with or believe in. He said what they have done was they sent out the paperwork they have in front of them and have been given the two (2) Memos and forms from Ms. Mirus. What they were proposing was that the second Memo be designed to be sent out to all three (3) potential groups: all retirees, any terminated invested people they have, and to all the current members of the current pension plan (people still active), because this problem can occur within any of these three (3) groups. The ex- spouse can be provided for, but the only way to do it if they have gotten divorced was to come in after the divorce and confirm or re- confirm that they want that ex- spouse to get that benefit. He said they were just trying to avoid any litigation that might arise out of this situation. He said the retiree could voluntarily make a Beneficiary change. He said that can happen as many times as they want. So he said he wants this Memorandum sent out to all retirees and all active people. Discussion ensued regarding the Memorandum. Ms. Mirus said she had forwarded the Memorandum to the Human Resource Manager, and she will distribute it to all retirees, terminated . invested people and all active people. Mr. Christiansen noted this same law was in effect for wills and estate Pension 10 -16 -12/6 planning, but wills were not contracts, so the estate law can trump a will, but cannot trump a contract. F. Actuarial Valuation as of October 1, 2011 for the City of Longwood's Firefighters' & Police Officers' Pension Plan. Mr. Shamoun reviewed the Actuarial Valuation in detail, and as he reviewed the Actuarial Valuation, he answered questions from the Members of the Pension Board throughout his review. Member Chenoweth moved to accept the Actuarial Valuation as presented. Seconded by Member McLarnon and carried by a unanimous roll call vote with Secretary Kempf absent. Mr. Christiansen stated that they needed to declare an expected rate of investment return for the next year, the next several years and the long - term thereafter. Mr. Shamoun said they just had this discussion a few minutes ago about what their return was and the asset allocation study and having the probability of producing that seven and one half (7%2 %) percent return. He said if they were at eight (8), they would be having a different discussion about some of the pressure the Division Retirement was putting on the plans that were using eight (8) and wanting them to lower that number, but seven and one half (7'/2 %) percent was a more than-reasonable assumption. He stated it was the same assumption they had eighteen (18) years ago when they started the Plan in 1996, and given the inforination in front of them with three (3) year returns above eleven (11) and expected the next ten years above seven and one half (7'/2 %) percent, that remains to be a reasonable expectation. Member McLarnon moved that based upon the advice of the investment professional, that they expect to get a seven and one half (7%2 %) investment return over the next year, the next several years, and the long -term thereafter. Seconded by Vice Chair Katauskas and carried by a unanimous roll call vote. G. Summary Plan Description for the City of Longwood Police Officers' Pension Plan. Mr. Christiansen said this document was a Tittle more comprehensive than the one the League has done over the years, but they were now utilizing a different plan document, so the Summary Plan Description looks a little different. He said this was brand new, but they did not change anything. He said on the front was a reminder about their Beneficiary Form being current if they have divorced or someone has passed away. He said it does represent all the benefits that they have in the Plan and describes each of Pension 10 -16 -12/7 them. He said they need Exhibit B, an evaluation to be attached to this, and then a copy needs to be distributed to each active member of the Plan. Vice Chair Katauskas moved to approve the Summary Plan Description and authorize the distribution to the membership. Seconded by Member Mclarnon and carried by a unanimous roll call vote with Secretary Kempf absent. Mr. Christiansen said Exhibit B has to come from the Actuary to be attached to this before it is distributed. 5. Other Business., Chair Redditt said he wanted to remind everyone they were required to take a Trustee Member School Session. Ms. Mirus stated that Secretary Kempf had also expressed an interest in attending a future conference for continuing education. Chair Redditt moved to approve the three (3) of them to attend the January Florida Public Pension Trustees Association (FPPTA) Meeting and cover the expenses for it. Seconded by Member McLamon and carried by a unanimous roll call vote with Secretary Kempf absent. 6. Board Attorney Report. Mr. Christiansen said in Chapter 112 there was a requirement that periodically they make a report of their investment listing of their Assets, as well as their performance. He said they have to formally make a report to the governing body of the City Commission. He said they needed to do a letter to the City Commission providing them with a listing of all the assets that they own, as well as the performance. He said typically, they do this on a fiscal year basis, per the Operating Rules. He, said they have a Pension Letter Number 2 form letter that does all of that. He said they may be able to use the fiscal year end of the year report that lists all of the investments and the experience. So, he said a copy of that report, along with that letter addressed to the City Commission meets that requirement. Mr. Christiansen said he sent a Memorandum regarding the Fiduciary Insurance and the Waiver of Recourse Rider to the Fiduciary Insurance. He asked if they were already getting back from the City the payment for the Waiver of Recourse on the fiduciary liability insurance. Ms. Mirus said she would refer that to the Finance Director. Ms. Barclay said she did not know about this. Pension 10 -16 -12/8 Mr. Christiansen explained they have a Fiduciary Liability Insurance Policy, and that Policy covers the Plan. He said basically, if the Trustees were to do something that resulted in a breach of fiduciary responsibility that caused a loss of the Plan, they could actually make a claim against the Fiduciary Liability Insurance to make that Plan whole for the breach of fiduciary responsibility. But, when an insurance company pays a claim, the first thing they do was figure out who was responsible for them having to pay that claim, and they have a right of recourse back against the person(s) who were responsible for them having to pay the claim. He said in the case he just described, it would be the individual Trustees. He noted if they had a loss, the Plan gets made whole, but the insurance company was going back against the individual Trustees to collect back the cost of the claim they had to pay. He said the Fiduciary Liability Insurance Policies have a provision or rider that was attached to the Policy which was called a Waiver of Recourse Rider. He said what that was, was for a small additional premium, and in their Plan it was $125 a year to Waive the Recourse. He said that Waiver says, by virtue of attachment of that Rider, the insurance company gives up their right of recourse back against the original Trustees. But, that Waiver of Recourse does not work if that $125 was paid for out of the plan assets. He said as a result, they would ask the City to pay or refund to the plan the $125 that represents the payment for that Waiver of Recourse. Ms. Mirus said she distributed that Memorandum to the Board on September 24 Discussion was held regarding Directors and Officers Liability and how it would not apply. Mr. Christiansen said the next issue has to do with forms. He said they just finished the complete re- statement of the Pension Plan. He said they now Have a whole new Pension Plan on the books, and they now have a Summary Plan Description that reflects any changes they did in that Plan document. He said they also suggest and recommend that they prepare a set of forms that deal with all the potential issues that might come up with respect to the administration of the plan. He stated the League has some forms, but they do not have all the forms that they need, such as some of the form letters he has talked about, applications for disability and retirement, but for the most part, the forms that he prepares were designed to be used with the new plan document that they have in place. He said he was recommending that the Board authorize the expense of preparing those forms. He said his forms can be used to do the whole job. Member McLarnon moved to authorize the expense to purchase the forms from the Attorney's office relating to the new documents. Seconded by Member Chenoweth and carried by a unanimous roll call vote with Secretary Kempf absent. Mr. Christiansen said back in 1999 there was a significant change in Chapters 175 and 185, changing the rules with respect to the use of the State money. He stated Pension 10 -16 -12/9 what they provided in that Legislation was that with regard to the use of the State money, whatever amount they got in 1999, the City was allowed to use that amount to fund the Plan that was currently in existence. He said that amount became the "frozen amount." He said from that point forward, any additional money that they received as State money over and above the amount received in 1999, that additional amount had to be set aside and used for additional benefits for the police officers and firefighters. That same legislation also said, while it was possible to reduce benefits in a Pension Plan, they could never reduce the benefits below the levels they had in place in 1999, To do so, they would not be meeting the minimum requirements in Chapters 175 or 185. He said they have been playing by those rules for the last twelve (12) or thirteen (13) years. He said most recently, however, the State has made a significant change in their position.. He said it occurred as a result of a situation that happened in the City of Naples. He said the Police Officer's Union entered into a contract with the City, a Collective Bargaining Agreement, both of them agreed to. He said the Agreement essentially provided that they were going to reduce benefits for police officers there below the level that they had in 1999, and below the minimum required benefits that are described in Chapter 185. He said they sent that Agreement to Tallahassee and asked if they were going to continue to get their State money, and the State said "no" they were not. He stated the Mayor of the City of Naples found out they were not going to get their State money anymore, so he decided to write a letter to Governor Rick Scott. The Governor was from the Naples area. The Mayor said in the letter the money they were keeping was money their taxpayers have paid and will continue to pay. He listed all the reasons" why the money should come to the City of Naples, regardless of the fact they were not meeting the requirement in the State law to not go below the 1999 levels and not go below the minimum requirements of Chapter 185. He received a letter back from the State that basically said the State had been inaccurately interpreting the requirements of Chapter 185 all these years, and it looked like the City of Naples was still going to be able to get their State money, despite not meeting requirements. He said this was coming to be called the "Naples Letter ". He noted since that time, they have had a number of additional letters that have been written. All the letters were almost identical in what they said in that they have been inaccurately interpreting the plan. He said the next letter came from Hollywood, and in Hollywood the City and the Union tried to negotiate benefit reductions, and they did not agree. So it went to impasse. He said what that means was it goes to a mediator who tries to work out something between the parties, and if they cannot work it out, it goes back to the City and the City has the authority to say, they went through the whole process, so they were doing this anyway. So after impasse, the City imposed the benefit reductions on the membership of that plan, and there was no agreement. He said that scenario went to the State, and based on this new position the State took regarding the "inaccuracy in their interpretation of the Statute ", they said the City of Hollywood was going to get their money too. He said his client of Winter Park was also going to get their money, and the City of Melbourne was going to get theirs also, along with several other cities. He said he thinks there has been some political pressure placed on the Division of Retirement, and as a result, they were not Pension 10 -16 -12/10 following the requirements of the Statute, in his view. He wanted to make the Board aware of this, and said it may well come into play here, depending on what their funding status was and how much additional State money they have. Discussion ensued regarding the new interpretation to Chapters 175 and 185 of the Florida Statutes. Mr. Christiansen stated the status was brought up about former Officer John Zeh and whether there had been any additional correspondence from him. He said not since they sent him a letter confirming they were going to wait until he got out of jail. It was noted that the Police Department can let them know when he gets out. He said if the facts in this case meet the requirements for forfeiture, then they have to forfeit. He stated if Mr. Zeh decides not to challenge the forfeiture, he will get back his own money. 7. Member Comments. None. 8. Public Participation. None. 9. Adjournment. Chair Redditt adjourned the meeting at 8:46 p.m. Robert Redditt, Chair ATTEST: Sarah M. Mirus, MMC, MBA, Recording Secretary Pension 10 -16 -12/11 This Page Left Blank Intentionally. Pension 10 -16 -12/12