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HomeMy WebLinkAbout1996-02-29 MinutesMINUTES OF A MEETING OF THE FIRE PENSION BOARD A meeting of the Fayetteville Firemen's Pension and Relief Board was held on Thursday, February 29, 1996, at 11:00 a.m. in room 326 of the City Administration Building, 113 W. Mountain, Fayetteville, Arkansas. PRESENT: Mayor Fred Hanna, Ron Wood, Howard Boudrey, Darrell Judy, Pete Reagan, Marion Doss and City Clerk/Treasurer Traci Paul CALL TO ORDER Mayor Hanna called the meeting to order. MINUTES Reagan, seconded by Boudrey, made a motion to approve the minutes of the January 25, 1996, regular meeting. The motion passed unanimously PENSION LIST Paul reported there were no changes in the pension list. Reagan, seconded by Doss, made a motion to approve the March pension list. The motion passed unanimously. OLD BUSINESS Payment to Greg Jones Paul stated a check was sent to Greg Jones for $581.97 on February 1, 1996 for services on the DROP plan. DROP Rules & Regulations Paul stated a copy of the Rules and Regulations for the Fayetteville Firemen's DROP and a copy of the resolution electing participation in the DROP was sent to Cathyrn Hinshaw. Hinshaw called to report they looked good. Pension Affidavits Paul stated two affidavits are still missing, Floyd Carl's and Roger Lewis's. Their March pension checks will be held. They will be notified by letter of this action. It was noted that holding Roger Lewis's check would also affect Marvie Lewis, who has returned her affidavit. Paul stated she would send Marvie Lewis a letter explaining the situation if Roger Lewis does not submit his affidavit before the March checks go out. i NEW BUSINESS February 29, 1996 Charles Urban - Investment Suggestions Mayor Hanna stated Charles Urban has expressed interest in becoming involved in the City's financial business and asked the Board if they would like to have Urban look over the pension plan and get some ideas from him about the investments. Urban has the reputation of being an expert in this field and is appreciative of the fire departments work, which he experienced personally when his nearly completed new home caught fire not long ago. The plan seems to be doing well, but Urban may have some good ideas. Reagan suggested showing Urban the year-end report and the investment policy. DROP Applications In answer to a question from Mayor Hanna, Reagan stated the Board needs to act on the DROP applications. A vote by the Board to accept the applications will officially add the applicants to the retiree list. Reagan asked Paul to somehow designate on the retiree list who is active. Doss suggested having DROP next to their names. Reagan stated the only accounting that needs to be done is knowing how much they have in it on a separate ledger. According to the DROP rules this must be given every month. Doss stated instead of getting a check, they would get a notice every month of what has been credited to their account. Boudrey; seconded by Reagan, moved to accept the DROP applicants. The motion to accept Kenneth Miller and Thomas Warford to the DROP plan passed unanimously. Benefit Increase Discussion Marion Doss stated he'd received a call from Bill Morris after the last benefit increase was given. Morris pointed out he was getting $45 for his 20 years of service where some are getting $50 and $55. He gets $45 for his 20 years service and $5 for each year over, which gives him $60. Doss referred to a list he'd provided the Board and noted that using $55 as a base payment for every retiree with 20 years service would make it 20 more equitable; and then for pension if they spent over 25 years, $5 for each year, which would raise Morris from $60 to $70, $55 for twenty years service plus $15 for three additional years. Every volunteer with twenty years service would get $55. The Springdale fire department pays their retired volunteers $100 a month. They pay retired full -pay employees 65%. • February 29, 1996 Boudrey stated the Board needs to look into an increase for full - pay employees. It has been probably twelve years since they have received an increase other than what is mandated. In answer to a question from Mayor Hanna, Doss stated the Pension Board would have to vote on any increases. Increases would have to be sent to the Pension Review Board in Little Rock for approval, which would take awhile. The Board must first decide what it wants to do. Wood agreed that Bill Morris has a good point. Reagan commented that whenever you deal with a benefit increase, you must have an actuary done to see if the fund can handle it. This is expensive and should be done at one time for all increases under consideration, not one at a time. In answer to a question from Doss, Boudrey suggested the retirees should be at 65% across the board. The Board discussed the reasons Springdale pays their retirees 65%. There was some concern expressed regarding people retiring on disability unnecessarily. Boudrey stated it should all be sent in as discussed. Reagan stated the Board needs to turn in a dollar amount so the actuary can be figured. This could be done and ready for next month. We may need to get with Richard and have him run some figures. The request could be worded as to get a reply from the actuary telling how much could be afforded if the requested amount could not be afforded. Doss stated the request would need to be worded where every retiree draws at least 65% of his base rate at retirement. Reagan asked if it would be possible to find out when benefit increases were given. Reagan stated the Board has given three increases that were not mandated. Boudrey stated it has been 12 years since the last increase. Paul stated it would be possible to get the base rate figures. Paul asked if increases for the firemen would be handled the same as for policemen. She explained that the Police Pension Board just applied for an increase. The Police Pension Board approved a resolution requesting a certain percentage and excluding certain people. They did not get the base salaries first; they just sent in the request. The actuaries will either figure it • can be done or not. It was left to the'actuaries to make the decision. • • February 29, 1996 Doss wondered what would happen if someone would draw more than what they made when working. Paul stated it was her understanding that a person would not be eligible for any unmandated increases if making over 100%. Reagan suggested the Board write a resolution that would state a minimum of 65% excluding extra years of service, 65% of base salary. In answer to a question from Doss, Paul said she could come up with base salaries and dates of raises given in the past. Doss expressed his support for retirees. He stated it is not We've already had one actuary; say we can or cannot, for such an increase for part -paid much money and is more fair. they might just look at that and a small amount. In answer to a question from Reagan, Curtis Williams, Merrill Lynch, stated there would have to be an actuary done for a benefit increase and the rate used to be $750 to see if a proposal would work. For $1,250, they would run two or three scenarios to see what might work, but must be given the numbers to work with. Doss stated that might be worthwhile for the increase to the full paid we are talking about. But for volunteers, which amounted to a total of $70 a month for ten people, just a small amount, he wondered if they could use the last actuary done to see if this would work or would they have to do a separate one. Curtis Williams stated it would not hurt to ask them but he did not know if they had the authority to do it this way or not or even if they would if they could. They would not want the responsibility of jeopardizing the soundness of the Board and their liability. Doss stated a letter could be written requesting this increase and Cathyrn could be called and asked if this would fly without doing the actuary. If not, we could send it with the rest of it. Reagan stated it should all be on the same request. Others agreed. Curtis Williams stated if both were asked as one request, as a package, we want to grant this to these people and this to these people, then maybe we could back down and say we want to leave the $70 for these people and try $60 for these people and pay the $1,250. In answer to a question from Wood, Reagan agreed that the pension laws state we cannot pay more than 100% of a base salary. February 29, 1996 Investment Report Curtis Williams, Merrill Lynch, recapped performance. The totals of the portfolio ended the year for the first month are all up. Looking at the performance indexes, the Dow Jones Industrial Average is up 5.65%, S&P 500 up 3.47%. Long-term treasury bonds are actually down for the first month. High-grade corporate bonds are up .12%. In comparison, New Mexico Capital Management is up 1.1%, the income account is up 1.54% and Keystone is up 3.26%. Williams explained he would be speaking about international investing. He stated one analyst who runs a far east portfolio made a compelling argument for the opportunities in the Pacific Rim. Merrill Lynch has a series of portfolios based on a long- term investment strategy called beating the Dow. The concept is that you buy the top ten yielding stocks in the Dow Jones industrial average and you hold them for one year. After that you keep the ones that are still in the top ten dividend yield. The rationale is the stock's dividend yields are high because the prices are low. The dividend hasn't changed, the price of the stock has gone down making the dividend look higher. You are buying a stock when it is down and no one wants it. When it is no longer a top ten yielding stock, you sell it. It is not a managed situation from the standpoint of a mutual fund. It is cut and dried. Referring to a handout, Williams stated Merrill Lynch has found this strategy holds true in foreign indexes as well. The strategy has worked better than the markets themselves. It is a way to invest internationally without hiring an international manager. It is the essence of value management. You are buying ° stocks when they are down and selling when up with no subjective input in this at all. It works over time. Merrill Lynch offers these portfolios once per quarter. Williams explained he suggests committing a dollar amount to each of these four strategies, one U.S. and three global, which balance each other. He stated there will be dollar cost averaging in each of these markets over a one-year period of time. At the end of that year, we will take money away from the winners and give it to the losers. The dollar amounts each year will be leveled back. Looking at the returns you see good years are generally followed by mediocre or bad years. Bad years are generally followed by good years. A measurable amount of money should be invested. The optimum percentage to achieve the highest rate of return with the lowest volatility is 40%. We are not recommending 40%. We are thinking of working up to 20% to 25% over a period of years. • • February 29, 1996 Initially, we would like to put $75,000 per program per quarter. At the end of the year it would give roughly $1 million in international stocks. We would hold off at that point. That would give us roughly 10% of the portfolio in international equities. It is not enough to get the full benefit but, is enough to measure the good or bad impact. In answer to a question from Reagan, Williams stated we are over allocated at this point in the fixed income account. The $225,000 initially needed is available in the income account. He noted we cannot invest in the Hang Seng now as it is closed now and will not open until May. The remainder would come from New Mexico. As the income account grows this year, we will bring it back down. New Mexico will be told to not change the portfolio but, as it is repositioned throughout the year, to be aware that a couple hundred thousand dollars will need to be taken out per quarter. We are heavily overloaded in value. We will be maintaining the same dollar amount in a value -style investing; we are simply at this point changing management style. In answer to another question from Reagan, Curtis replied he is recommending having $1 million invested in international accounts in 12 months. If we put $75,000 program per quarter, keeping in mind $75,000 will be going back into U.S. markets and we are not counting that toward the international markets. The reason we want to do this is because these strategies balance each other very well. That $225,000 going into the other three strategies at the end of one year would give us $1 million. We can stop any time we want to, but what we'd like to do is get an amount that will be significantly measurable. As the Board becomes comfortable with the idea of global investments, we can move more into programs such as this. Williams assured Reagan this would be reported on monthly. The three foreign strategies would be tracked separately, their performance separately and overall. In answer to a question on volatility, Williams said all the international markets with the possible exception of the British market, are more volatile than ours. The level of growth is also greater. All three of these indexes over the last 50 years have outperformed our index over time. It is because of this volatility, which could be understood as risk, that 40% is the optimum recommended amount and not higher. We are talking about 10%. We are easing incremently, rather than all at once. Reagan stated it is an excellent idea but would like to track it monthly. • • February 29, 1996 Williams stated we are not only doing this for performance, we are looking for diversity of direction so we will also measure the volatility of these markets in relation to each other. We will not be able to pick up the Hang Seng until May. Reagan, seconded by Wood, made a motion to invest $75,000 per quarter per strategy, not to exceed $1 million contribution for this year for the international side. The motion passed unanimously. Williams requested having a document to New Mexico advising them to just be raising cash. There is not need for them to alter the portfolio at this point. Over the next three quarters they need to raise a few hundred thousand per quarter. We just need a broadly worded document advising them to raise cash as instructed. There does not need to be an exact dollar amount on it. Part will be taken out of fixed income, but the growth of the fixed income account will have impact on how much will have to be taken. We do not want to get out of balance. We do not want to take from Keystone as that is growth and we just established that account. So it will come from fixed income and New Mexico. The percentages will depend on how those two portfolios perform. In answer to a question from Reagan, Williams stated the document must come from the Board. Williams offered to assist Paul with the letter. Doss, seconded by Boudrey, made a motion to have Paul draft a letter to New Mexico Capital. The motion passed unanimously. There being no further business, Mayor Hanna adjourned the meeting at 12:05 p.m.