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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2001-01-25 Minutes• MINUTES OF A MEETING OF THE FAYETTEVILLE FIRE PENSION AND RELIEF FUND BOARD JANUARY 25, 2001 A meeting of the Fayetteville Fire Pension and Relief Fund Board was held on January 25, 2001 at 11:00 a m in Room 313 of the City Administration Building located at 113 West Mountain Street, Fayetteville, Arkansas. PRESENT: Mayor Coody, Marion Doss, Ronnie Wood, Danny Farrar, Mickey Jackson, John Maguire and City Clerk Heather Woodruff. MINUTES Mr. Doss moved to approve the minutes. Mr. Wood seconded the motion. Upon roll call the motion carried unanimously. PENSION LIST Mr. Doss moved to approve the pension list. Mr. Wood seconded the motion. Upon roll call the motion carried unanimously. INVESTMENT REPORT • Mr. Richard Yada presented a report through the end of 2000. About two-thirds of all the stock lost about 30%. There were six hikes in interest rates. One of the things that dropped the market was that there was a lot of foreign money left the states during the election. They have had a ten- year low in investment confidence. He felt the economy was slowing. The Dow Jones was down 6.20%, without dividends reinvested. With dividends reinvested it was 4.72%. It was down 9% for the year. The NASDQ was down 39.4%, the worst year that they had ever had since they started in 1971. Mid -cap had stayed on top, but it was only up 8.3% for the year. Small -cap was down 3% for the year Large -cap value were up 7% for the year. Large -cap growth was down 22.42% for the year. At the end of September it was only down 1.4%. The fourth quarter was not good for Large -cap growth. That was where the foreign money was invested. The S&P 500 was down 10% for the year. International was down 14.6% for the year. The Merrill Lynch Private Investment Group, a domestic portfolio, 2.5 million dollars was down 3.10% for the year. The Mercury, $2,027,000, was down 9.65%. They did not take over that portfolio until May 15, 2000. The Income Account was up 8.86%. Ashland was down 10%. Overall for the year they were down one-quarter of one percent. Ashland Management had 19% of the money. Merrill Lynch Private Portfolio was at 21%. Mercury was 16%. Income Account was at 44%. For the total portfolio, Equity stock was at 52%. Fixed Income was at 45%. Cash was 2%. He stated they would probably have a lowering of interest rates again toward the end of this month. When there was a decrease in interest rates, like they were having now, the market • would usually reacted very well. 1 •BENEFIT INCREASE Ms. Woodruff stated she had received a letter from Ms. Henshaw. She was requesting another report. That report would not be ready until the end of February. They would not be able to start their calculations until the end of February or the first part of March. • LARRY PHILLIPS Mr. Doss explained Larry's wife had committed suicide. Larry had been off work for a while He had tried to come back, but had not been able to. His doctor believed he should seek a disability retirement. He has not been able to return to work, since the event on March 1. He had eighteen years at the department. Under the provisions of this pension plan, they could retire on mental disability. He would be the second one to retire on mental disability. He would be able to retire in two years He has been on sick leave since March 1, 2000. They could not hire anyone to replace him while he was on sick leave. His sick leave was about used up. He had thought he would apply for retirement before this. Ms. Woodruff stated the City Attorney had told her a second doctor's opinion was not necessary. Mr. Doss stated the pension board could request him to go to another doctor. Personally he was for approving the retirement. Chief Jackson stated they had talked with Larry several times since March 1. It was obvious that he was no long able to be a firefighter. He has applied for disability retirement effective as soon as possible. He wanted the board to know that he supported that. It was of some advantage to the department to implement that as soon as possible. They could not replace him until he had resigned or retired from the department. Whomever they hired would have to go through minimum standards at the State Fire Academy. The next class would start the last Monday in February. They needed to get them hired at least two weeks before that. They had three other openings in the department. It would facilitate everything if they could fill that opening at the same time and send all four of the new people to that class. The next class would not be until summer. He was not trying to rush Larry off, but he could see not disadvantage to him. He would collect in lump sum pay any accumulated sick leave and vacation. The alternative to that was for him to remain on the payroll until he zeroed all that out, which would occur in March of this year. Mr. Maguire stated they had given him every chance to recoup He thought Larry realized himself that he was not going to do that. There may be some other work that he could do. He felt the retirement was appropriate. Mr. Doss moved approve Larry Phillips retirement affective March 1, 2001. They had approved the pension list for February. Mr. Farrar seconded the motion. The motion carried unanimously. OTHER BUSINESS Mr. Doss stated they had a pension board election. They were to have an election the first • Monday in May. Ron Wood and John Dill's terms expire in May 2001. He thought they should go ahead and send a letter out to all the retired people or people on the drop. They were wanted • to give people time to think about running for the board. He was hoping they could get more than one person to run for the positions. They needed people who were interested. He asked Ms. Woodruff to send a letter out to the retired firemen. Meeting adjoumed at 11:30 a.m.