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HomeMy WebLinkAbout1994-03-24 - Agendas - Final• • • MINUTES OF A MEETING OF THE FIRE PENSION BOARD A meeting of the Fayetteville Firemen's Pension and Relief Board was held on Thursday, February 24, 1994, at 11:15 a.m. in Room 326 of the City Administration Building, 113 W. Mountain, Fayetteville, Arkansas. PRESENT: Pete Reagan and Ron Wood, Retiree Richard Baird, City Clerk Sherry Thomas, and Treasurer Glyndon Bunton ABSENT: Marion Doss, Darrell Judy, and Mayor Hanna CALL TO ORDER Pete Reagan called the meeting to order. MINUTES Baird, seconded by Wood, made a motion to approve the minutes of the January 27, 1994 meeting. The motion was approved unanimously. PENSION LIST Wood, seconded by Baird, made a motion to approve the pension lists for March 1994. There were no changes in the pension list. The motion was approved unanimously. OLD BUSINESS DROP PLAN Reagan stated there is a meeting scheduled with LOPFI, the Governor's Task Force on Pension Systems, and the old pension plan for the middle of March to discuss the Drop Plan. He hopes to have some information from this meeting for the March Fire Pension Board meeting. NEW BUSINESS INVESTMENT REPORT Richard Yada, Merrill Lynch, introduced Chuck Dumler, with New Mexico Capital Management, who was present to give the year end report. Dumler stated the portfolio balance was $4,225,468.40 as of December 31, 1993. There is 3.2% in cash, 67.7% in equities, 28.2% in bonds, and .9 percent in accrued income on the books. The 4th quarter rate of return was 5.9%, which makes the account up 20.9% for 1993. The stock market was up 10% in 1993, and the portfolio's stock accounts were up 26.7%. Dumler stated 1993 has been a great year, and he warned the returns will not always be this good. ARCHIVED • February 24, 1994 The annualized return since inception for the account is 13.3%. This is better than the bench mark indices. He stated since 1926, the stock market has gone up better than 2/3 of the time. An investor has to be willing to take a down year every now and then. New Mexico Capital only buys cheap stocks, those selling close to their value. Therefore, they make money on the stocks with less risk of them going down. A large portion of the account is invested in 20-25 stocks, and they are about the same stocks that were invested in last year. New Mexico keeps a stock investment on an average of 3-4 years. Dumler stated the cash is in a money market fund, T-bills, and in short term paper and earns 2.8%. The fixed income account is primarily government obligations, U.S. treasury bills, and fanny mae's. There is $1,081,391 invested in the fixed income account, and it earned 7.2% in 1993. Bonds move only due to changes in the stock market. For the last 10 years, the declining interest rates have made a perfect environment for bonds. However, these rates have bottomed out during the last 6 months. Alan Greenspan has increased interest rates once in order to keep inflation in check, and it is anticipated he will do so again. New Mexico Capital invests only in high quality bonds, with basically no risk. He stated they do not anticipate interest rates going any lower. Dumler stated in the equity portfolio, New Mexico has invested in capital goods stocks. One good stock in the portfolio is Boeing. They have a $90 million backlog in orders, so their stock should be good for quite some time. Other good stocks in the portfolio are Precision Castparts, Rockwell, and United Technologies. In the consumer durables market, Archer Daniels Midland, Delta Woodside, Hanson PLC, Mercantile, Russ Berrie, and Rykoff are all good stocks. The Royal Dutch stock was bought at $75 and is now selling for around $109. It is the best of the big international oil stocks. He stated New Mexico has begun buying Coors Brewery Co. stocks because they are now selling cheap. Coors has increased their market share over the past few years by spending a lot on advertising. They feel it is a good company that is managed well. There is still family money and management in Coors. Reagan asked if these figures included the Roxbury money. Yada stated it did. There was $853,233 deposited from Roxbury. Reagan stated there were six different investment companies that were interested in the $245,000 the pension board invested last month, and he appreciates the kind of returns New Mexico has shown this past year. Yada stated the 1993 actuary report should be ready in the next 3 to 4 months. • February 24, 1994 Bunton asked how the trend was running for investments according to what was needed for the fund to be actuarially sound. Yada stated they looked at this in 1987. Between 1982 and 1987, the fund was not doing very well because it was invested primarily in CD's and not earning much interest. In 1990, the fund had a full range of investments. In 1989, the fund was about $2 million short. In 1991, the fund needed about $1.4 million to be 100% funded. For 1993, the fund needs about $800,000 to be sound. So, the trend has been running toward the fund becoming actuarially sound. ADJOURNMENT The meeting adjourned at 12:04 p.m. FIRE PENSION AGENDA ITEMS FOR 3-24-94 ARCHIVED