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HomeMy WebLinkAboutMinutes_Pension Joint_06/15/2010 JOINT MEETING OF TEQUESTA PUBLIC SAFETY OFFICERS' AND GENERAL EMPLOYEES' PENSION TRUST FUND BOARDS June 15, 2010 f. Call To Order And Rotl Call The Tequesta General Employees Pension Trust Fund Board of Trustees and the Tequesta Public Safety Officers Pension Trust Fund Board of Trustees held a joint meeting at the Tequesta Village Hall, 345 Tequesta Drive, Tequesta, Florida, on Tuesday, June 15, 2010. The meeting was called to order at 8:30 a.m. A roll call was taken by Recording Secretary Betly Laur. General Employees' Pension Board Members in attendance at the meeting were: Secretary Carl Hansen, Board Member Deanna Mayo, and Board Member Michelle Gload. Chair Michael Rhodes and Board Member John Terzakis were absent from the meeting. Public Safety Officers' Pension Board Members in attendance at the meeting were: Chair Ed Sabin, Secretary Frank D'Ambra, Board Member Ray Giblin, Board Member David Cooper, and Board Member Robert Young. Also in attendance were Attorney Bonni Jensen, Daniel Johnson with Bogdahn Consulting LLC, Pension Coordinator Lori McWilliams, Finance Director Joann Forsythe, and Recording Secretary Betty Laur. 11. Approval of Agenda Motion was made by Secretary Carl Hansen to approve the agenda as amended by addition of discussion and action regarding a third party administrator; addition at the Finance Director's request of discussion and action on opening a local bank account; and correcting the Secretary of the Public Safety Officers' pension baard to be Frank D'Ambra. Motion was seconded by Board Member Giblin, to approve the agenda as amended. Motion carried by unanimous vote of both Boards. III. Discussion and Action Regarding Third Party Administrator Secretary D'Ambra reported Pension Resource Center had been asked for the names of six plans for references, three with which they had good relations and three with which there had been issues, to see how those had been resolved. Secretary D'Ambra had spoken with City of Riviera Beach, St. Lucie County Fire District, and City of Daytona Beach. He had left messages for the representative at St. Lucie County Fire District but had received no response. The City of Riviera Beach representative was very happy with their 1 �-year relationship with Pension Resource Center, advised they had been helpful in resolving issues that came up, and had nothing derogatory to report. Two representatives with the City of Daytona Beach reported they had had a 10-11 Tequesta Public Safety Officers' Pension Board and General Employees' Pension Board Trust Funds Joint meeting Minutes June 15, 2010 2 year relationship and issues early on had been quickly resolved, and they were very happy. The value of the website had been discussed, which had alleviated many of their previous problems. They were very satisfied and highly endorsed PRS. A summary of Board Member Terzakis' contacts was provided, which indicated they were also very satisfied and recommended Pension Resource Center. Finance Director Forsythe advised by keeping the financial information with the Village that would reduce auditing fees, and there might be a modest decrease in fees. Secretary D'Ambra expressed his opinion that it might be wise not to decrease the fees so that if something extra came up the Board would not be uncomfortable asking them to include those items in their normal fee. Finance Director Forsythe reported Boca Raton, a client of Pension Resource Center, had not been provided information timely for their auditors, which would not be a problem with the financial portion staying with the Village. Secretary D'Ambra commented that had been a little murky, with Pension Resource Center implying the auditor had not been timely with his request. Pension Resource Center had clients for which they did everything, and others who were doing it like Tequesta planned to do. Board Member Mayo asked if it was important for Pension Resource Center to take everything. Attorney Jensen advised the majority of clients she worked with who used Pension Resource Center did use them for everything. Transition issues usually came from the municipality since they were used to real time information and the municipality no longer had control. Finance Director Forsythe reported when she had visited the office of Pension Resource Center it all seemed to be administrative; they had said they had just added one accountant, so possibly they were growing in that area. Secretary D'Ambra commented he was very comfortable keeping the financial portion with the Village, based on the input provided by Finance Director Forsythe, but it might make sense for Pension Resource Center to do everything at some point in the future. Secretary Hansen asked if there were larger companies who might be interested in the Village account; the response was the funds were not large enough at this point for larger companies to be interested, and there was a tremendous advantage to having a local office nearby where an employee could go to talk with them. Ghair Sabin asked if the Village could arrange for Nick Sheets to be the Village's representative and asked about limiting the amount of money in a checking account for them to pay bills. Secretary D'Ambra advised the City of Daytona Beach had internal safeguards, limited the amount in a checking account, and had a surety bond to guard against someone writing checks. Finance Director Forsythe commented Salem Trust could continue to write checks or the Boards could authorize checks to be written from a checking account, and Pension Resource Center would be advising them on that. Attorney Jensen advised Pension Resource Center would use facsimile signatures to pay bills. Secretary D'Ambra noted they could pay throughout the quarter and then bring to the meeting for Board approval. Attorney Jensen noted checks could be brought to the meeting for actual signatures if the Board Tequesta Pubfic Safety Officers' Pension Board and General Employees' Pension Board Trust Funds Joint meeting Minutes June 15, 20i0 3 liked, but that would be more cumbersome. Chair Sabin discussed cost. Secretary Hansen wanted to be sure the Village employees were comfortable working with this company. Finance Director commented it would be a change and there would be a lot of initial issues, such as whether the Boards would authorize them to transfer a set amount, such as $10,000 into a checking account monthly. Finance Director Forsythe recommended starting out doing it the way it was currently done, then perhaps later turning over the checking account to Pension Resource Center. Secretary D'Ambra commented they were already working with 60+ clients and if the Village was really looking at off- loading the work, that was why they were being hired, and he was inclined to give them the keys so long as Finance Director Forsythe was comfortable with the safeguards. Director Forsythe asked if the Boards would want to continue to have the same procedure in place regarding paying bills and having them ratified at the next meeting. Secretary D'Ambra suggested meeting with Pension Resource Center to see how they recommended initially putting procedures in place and then see if the Village was comfortable with their recommendations. Board Member Mayo commented she had thought from the beginning it was the goal to give the third party administrator everything so there was no issue over who was doing what. Finance Director Forsythe responded there was a problem with turning over the financial piece, and it was only a small part of the Finance Department's work and not a burden for them, and it was a burden for Pension Coordinator McWilliams. It would be a problem if they did not receive information back timely for financial reporting. She wanted to know if the Boards wanted to keep the investments as they were but give Pension Resource Center a checking account. Secretary D'Ambra again commented he felt Pension Resource Center should be given the keys with adequate safeguard built in. Board Member Mayo commented she thought the goal was to move everything and not to have a piece here and a piece there; she questioned why not move everything and if there was a problem with something then pull that part back. Finance Director Forsythe responded that would be okay for the administrative side, but the finance side was more complicated. Board Member Mayo commented she was sure it was, however since the original goal had been to hand everything over and not have it broken up, she thought the broken up part had been the issue. Director Forsythe advised the issue expressed by the Village Manager was the time spent by Village staff, and she had explained to him it wasn't taking very much time from Finance, plus timing affected her. She was also concerned about the safety, commenting it was one thing if minutes were late or they lost something on the administrative side; it was different turning money and investments over. Secretary D'Ambra commented he did not see that any investments would be turned over, in his opinion the process of making payments was what woufd be turned over or kept as it was. Attorney Jensen advised the Village could still do financial statements, receive the information and create mirrored statements; it did not have to be that the Village did not have any access to the information. The question should be whether the Board wanted Tequesta Public Safety Officers' Pension Board and General Employees' Pension Board Trust Funds Joint meeting Minutes June 15, 2010 4 financial statements to be created here in the Village or at Pension Resource Center. Board Member Mayo commented the original quote had been for everything to be turned over. Chair Sabin commented it seemed the investment activity was being separated from the administrative expense activity. Dan Johnson of Bogdahn Consulting, LLC, described the procedure used by another municipality which he and Attorney worked with, who used Pension Resource Center as their administrator. Attorney Jensen advised the Boards they did not have to give Pension Resource Center the authority to move funds around without the Board members' signatures. Discussion ensued. Secretary D'Ambra noted Pension Resource Center would bring all transactions to the Boards each quarter for approval, and if something needed to be changed or had been missed, it could be dealt with at that time. Attorney Jensen advised that the procedure now was to make some payments in between meetings and then ratify them at the next quarterly meeting; however, the Boards could require all payments to be brought to the meeting each quarter for actual signatures if desired. Chair Sabin expressed his opinion it would make sense for Pension Coordinator McWilliams and Finance Director Forsythe to meet with Pension Resource Center for a game plan of how they should work together. If the Boards decided to approve the third party administrator at today's meeting, one of the first things to be sorted out was who was going to do what. He felt the Boards needed to see more specifics on how the Administration and Finance departments would work with the third party administrator, and they could meet and work out details until they were comfortable with the process, then report back to the Boards. Secretary D'Ambra felt the boards should move forward and give the Pension Coordinator and Finance Director authority to meet with Pension Resource Center to work out procedures. MOTION Secretary Frank D'Ambra made a motion to move forward and approve Pension Resource Center as Third Party Administrator and delegate responsibility to Finance Director Forsythe and Pension Coordinator McWilliams, with any assistance from the Boards, to set up a proper process and procedures with Pension Resource Center; when they are comfortable then the Chair and Secretary of the respective Boards are authorized to sign to execute the contract for their plan and move forward. Board Member Ray Giblin seconded the motion. During discussion of the motion, Finance Director Forsythe asked what Pension Coordinator McWilliams' duties would be in administration. Response was that she would be out of it after migration and transition. Chair Sabin asked if a participant had a beef with the third party administrator, who in the Village they would go to. Finance Director Forsythe indicated she would have no problem fulfilling that role. Following discussion, consensus was the participant would go to their Board representative. If a Board member had Tequesta Pubiic Safety Officers' Pension Board and General Employees' Pension Board Trust Funds Joint meeting Minutes June 15, 2010 5 a question or a problem, they would contact the Pension Resource Center representative. Pension Coordinator McWilliams clarified that the Village Manager did not want the Village Clerk's office to have any role with the pensions. Human Resources Director Reid commented Human Resources would be happy to pass along any employee questions they received to the third party administrator. Secretary D'Ambra agreed that the Boards should not be involved in day-to-day matters, but the Board representatives should be contacted if there was a problem. Participants would have information provided by the third party administrator and the website, which would be helpful in answering their questions. Attorney Jensen indicated she could send a letter to the participants introducing the third party administrator and providing website information and contact information. Secretary Hansen expressed concern that the Village Manager's intent to get rid of the pension functions might not be met by still having participant contact with Village staff. Human Resources Director Reid explained there must be some coordination between a Village staff person with the third party administrator. Chair Sabin indicated things could be changed as time went on. Board Member Giblin indicated one of the big reasons he favored hiring the third party administrator at this time was one employee was ready to enter the DROP program and there had been a lot of questions regarding that. Board Member Gload expressed her opinion employees should contact the third party administrator with their questions because now they were sent from one place to another. Secretary D'Ambra clarified they would only go to Human Resources if there were a problem. Pension Coordinator McWilliams advised the Clerk's office had never sent an employee on to another department unless they could not provide an answer, and requested that Human Resources Director Reid also be involved in the meetings with Pension Resource Center. Secretary D'Ambra amended his motion to include Human Resources Director Reid; Board Member Giblin seconded the amendment. Pension Coordinator McWilliams asked if the motion included having Attorney Jensen write a contract. Secretary D'Ambra responded he believed Pension Resource Center would provide a contract. Discussion ensued regarding when the contract would be signed. Motion carried by unanimous 5-0 vote of the Public Safety Officers' pension board. MOTION Board Member Gload made the same motion as above for the General Employees' Pension Board: to move forward and approve Pension Resource Center as Third Party Administrator and delegate responsibility to Finance Director Forsythe and Pension Coordinator McWilliams and Human Resources Director Reid, with any assistance from the Boards, to set up a proper process and procedures with Pension Resource Center; when they are comfortable then the Chair and Secretary of the respective Tequesta Public Safety Officers' Pension Board and General Employees' Pension Board Trust Funds Joint meeting Minutes June 15, 2010 6 Boards are authorized to sign to execute the contract for their plan and move forward. Board Member Mayo seconded the motion, which carried by unanimous 3-0 vote. Chair Sabin commented it would be nice to have a contract in place or ready to be signed at the August 2, 2010 meeting. Secretary Hansen suggested a letter of intent to Pension Resource Center to notify them staff members wou{d be working with them. Attorney Jensen noted a letter also needed to be sent to the other presenter, Benefits USA, that Pension Resource Center had been selected. These notifications were to be sent out by the Pension Coordinator. Chair Sabin requested a copy of a draft contract be sent out early on. Attorney Jensen noted they had a standard 30-day termination, but suggested they should have a longer termination period on their side. Chair Sabin expressed hope this could be completed during July. IV. Discussion and Action On Opening A Local Bank Account Consensus was to hold off on this item since Pension Resource Center had banks they worked with. V. Any Other Matters Attorney Jensen reminded everyone to file their Form 1. Secretary Hansen asked if the contract would be three way between the Boards and Pension Resource Center. Attorney Jensen advised there would be two separate contracts, with a separate one between each Board and Pension Resource Center. VI. Adjourn Chair Sabin announced since there was no further business the meeting was adjourned at 9:42 a.m. Respecifully Submitted, Betty La r Recording Secretary