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03-15-2010 General Employees' Pension Board of Trustees Minutes - Regular Meeting March 15,2010 Page I of4 CITY OF EDGEWATER GENERAL EMPLOYEES' PENSION BOARD Regular Meeting MINUTES Monday, March 15,2010 CALL TO ORDER! ROLL CALLIDETERMINA TION OF A QUORUM The Edgewater General Employees' Pension Board held its quarterly (regular) meeting on Monday, March 15, 2010 in the City Hall Conference Room at the City of Edgewater, Florida. Members Present: Gigi Bennington John Brackin Brenda Dewees Tyna Hilton Bobby Laramore Jonathan McKinney Tim Sopko None H. Lee Dehner Sheila Hutcheson Mike Welker, The Bogdahn Group (by telephone) Tracey Barlow, City Manager Donna Looney, Personnel Director Members Absent: Plan Attorney: Board Administrator: Consultants: City Staff: Chairman Bennington called the meeting to order at 11 :03 a.m. Members indicated their presence; there was a quorum, with all members present. APPROVAL OF MINUTES - December 14, 2009 Quarterly Meeting Member Hilton made a motion to approve the minutes of the December 14, 2009 quarterly meeting; Member McKinney seconded the motion, which passed unanimously. NEW BUSINESS Discussion regarding preparation of plan restatement/plan amendments for adoption by City Council (Pension Attorney and City Attorney) The Plan Administrator reported that she had met with City Manager Tracey Barlow and Personnel Director Donna Looney, following Mr. Barlow's extensive research on the plan ordinances and amendments. It was the City Manager's recommendation that the City Attorney and Pension Attorney assist in this regard. Member De Wees made a motion to authorize the Pension Attorney to work with the City Attorney and City staff on the ordinance to adopt the most recent plan document (October 1, 2008) and subsequent amendments to the plan document; Member Laramore seconded the motion, which passed unanimously OLD BUSINESS - None. General Employees' Pension Board of Trustees Minutes - Regular Meeting March 15,2010 Page 2 of4 REPORTS (ATTORNEY/CONSULTANTS) The Bogdahn Group, Performance Consultant Quarterly report - December 31,2009 Mr. Welker opened by reporting the plan assets as of 12/31/09: $11,695,148 (which increased from $11,562,349 on 9/30/09). Principal still manages the asset allocation and has not changed it to increase exposure in equity investments and this has hurt the performance. The return for the quarter was 2.47%; for one year, the return was 18.48%, both of which underperformed the policy. Going back to October I, 2000, the fund has underperformed consistently. Consideration of ICC proxy voting guidelines Mr. Welker discussed that this investment is individually owned, so there will be notices to vote proxies. The Board relies on ICC will vote those proxies for the Board using their best judgment. ICC uses a service called Risk Metrics in this regard, which refers to the AFL-CIO (employee oriented) philosophy. This is a consistent process and he said there is no problem with the proxy guidelines. ICC will provide proxy voting information each year. H. Lee Dehner, Plan Attorney Report on status of Principal contract termination Attorney Dehner reported that he had just received a response letter from Principal, which stated that they will not release the funds if the contract is terminated, even with releases executed by the retirees. Therefore, the next option is litigation; he has talked to two litigation firms and asked if they will review the Principal contract and advise the Board as to their basis for representation. The firms would be compensated on an hourly basis, but may consider a contingency arrangement, depending on potential and actual losses as analyzed by Actuary Brad Heinrichs in a recent study authorized by the Board. Therefore, the Board needs to decide how to proceed and an hourly rate would have to be determined. The Board then discussed the cost and time impact of litigation, and Mr. Dehner said that is unknown at this time. Mr. Welker said that he can go back to 2000 to determine the losses sustained by Principal's investment returns compared to the index for the same time period. He said he would send this analysis by the end of this week to Attorney Dehner so that the litigation attorneys could review it and then let the Board know what the basis of litigation would be, as well as the cost impact and chances for recovery/success. Mr. Dehner said there are two firms that he would consult: Beggs and Lane (Attorney Greg Miller) and Levin Papantonio. City Manager Tracey Barlow asked if there could be the potential of damages for fiduciary responsibility, etc., by Principal and if the litigation could be in conjunction with the Police plan. Attorney Dehner said the litigation attorneys would decide the best way to proceed. Mr. Dehner continued by stating that he believes that it is best not to terminate the contract at this time, which would trigger annuity purchases by Principal. He recommended that Mr. Welker prepare the historical performance information (back to 2000, as referenced above) for review/analysis by the litigation attorneys. Then, there might be a joint special meeting with the Police Board attended by the litigation attorneys once they have reviewed the information. General Employees' Pension Board of Trustees Minutes - Regular Meeting March 15,2010 Page 3 of4 Mr. Dehner also reported that he had submitted a demand for reimbursement by Principal on the issues related to Elizabeth McBride's retirement calculations; Principal has refused to pay any portion of the demand. Member Dewees said that Principal, in their response letter brought by Attorney Dehner, appears to be throwing Agent Jack Ascherl "under the bus" and not recognizing, as has always been the understanding of the Board, that he was a representative of Principal, was paid by Principal, and communicated information on Principal's behalf. Next, Attorney Dehner discussed the Health Care Enhancement for Local Public Servants bill (HELPS-2) which is the program that allows up to $3000/year of insurance premiums by public safety retirees to be on a pre-tax basis, when deducted from the pension checks. A new proposal would allow the retiree to take it off his/her income taxes even ifpaid direct (not from the pension check) and would also expand to all public sector retirees, not just public safety. If the bill passes, he will advise the Board of steps to implement the program. With respect to Rule 60T, which has been discussed at past meetings, this is still on the "back burner." The Attorney then discussed the current legislative session, which he said has the worst proposals for pension changes he has seen in his thirty+ years of practice. The Florida League of Cities is encouraging participation in defined contribution (DC) plans rather than defined benefit (DB) plans and, also, the merger of local law plans into FRS. The proposed bills are not employee-oriented or Board-friendly. Currently, Police/Fire plans must have a DB plan in order to receive State monies, and all members (other than the Chief, if the plan has an opt-out provision) have to participate. There is a proposal that would allow State monies even if the Police/Fire plans are in FRS or are DC plans. Amendments are also proposed to F.S. Chapter 112, which would increase administrative expenses to plans by requiring certain projections by the Actuary, such as an experience study mandated every five years, instead of as determined by the Board. There is a proposal to F .S. Section 112.66 that would require the Board to prepare a budget and send it to the City each year for the City's approval. This would create a concern by individual Board members as to their fiduciary responsibility to prudently administer the Plan, when it would be up to the City to decide if the Board would have the funds to do so. Underlying the proposals is an effort to prop up FRS and the impetus appears to be the thought that Boards/Cities will decide it is easier to join FRS than to deal with the new requirements, if passed. Another proposal (F .S. Section 112.64) has to do with the benefit limitation. The current ceiling is 100% of final compensation as defined in the local law plan's ordinance. The proposed bill would change the maximum benefit (for members with fewer than ten years service as of July 1,2010) to 70% of base pay (not compensation as defined by the plan). This would substantially lower the retirement benefit. There is also a bill that includes a proposal to use career average earnings instead of the three-year or five-year average earnings commonly specified in DB plans. Mr. Dehner concluded by stating that it is not likely that all of the proposed legislation will pass, but he encouraged the Board to contact legislative representatives to express opposition to the bills. He will update the Board as to the status of the legislation at the next meeting. Benefit index and Principal returns (analysis by Foster & Foster) - this report had been sent to the Board in January, 20 I O. Sheila Hutcheson, Plan Administrator Consideration/Approval of Principal Service Agreement (.July 2009) - follow up information from Tonya Niday General Employees' Pension Board of Trustees Minutes - Regular Meeting March 15,2010 Page 4 of 4 The Board's consensus was to not execute the Service Agreement and to advise Principal of this decision; the Board has more pressing issues to deal with at this time. . Foster & Foster (F&F) now has all the information from the City to complete the 2009 Valuation and the Valuation will be presented at the June 7, 2010 meeting. PROCESSED DISBURSEMENTS/RETURN OF CONTRIBUTIONSIDEPOSITS DISBURSEMENTS I. Sheila Hutcheson, plan administration fees (payments on Jan. I, Feb.l, Mar. I, 2010) - $3,300.00 ($11 OO/month); postage/mileage expense - $22.00 2. Christiansen & Dehner, professional legal fees, $203.00, $991.02; $2825.53 3. The Bogdahn Group, performance consultant fees, 4th quarter, 2009 - $2500.00 4. FPPT A membership renewal for 20 I 0 - $600.00 5. Wayne Nichols, commencement ofretirement as of March I, 2010 - lifetime option, with refund of member contribution DEPOSITS None Member Hilton made a motion to approve the processed disbursements/return of contributions and deposits; Member McKinney seconded the motion, which passed unanimously, upon a roll call vote. TRUSTEES', STAFF, EMPLOYEES', and PUBLIC REPORTS, DISCUSSION and ACTION - None. ADJOURNMENT Member McKinney made a motion to adjourn the meeting; Member Sopko seconded the motion, which passed unanimously. The Chairman adjourned the meeting at 12: 1 0 p.m. Respectfully Submitted: Approved: ~~ Sheila Hutcheson, Plan Administrator ~ ~~/~~4. Gigi Bennington, Chairman