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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2006-04-27 MinutesFiremen's Pension and Relief Fund Board of Trustees Meeting Minutes April 27, 2006 Page l of 5 Firemen's Pension and Relief Fund Meeting Minutes April 27, 2006 A meeting of the Fayetteville Firemen's Pension and Relief Fund was held at 11:00 AM on April 27, 2006 in Room 326 of the City Administration Building Mayor Coody called the meeting to order Present: Mayor Coody, Marion Doss, Dennis Ledbetter, Pete Reagan, Ronnie Woods, City Clerk Sondra Smith, City Attorney Kit Williams, Trish Leach, Accounting. Absent: Teddy O'Neal Approval of the March 30, 2006 Meeting Minutes: Dennis Ledbetter moved to approve the March 30, 2006 meeting minutes. Ronnie Wood seconded the motion. Upon roll call the motion passed 6-0. Teddy O'Neal was absent. Approval of the May, 2006 Pension List: Sondra Smith: We have moved Danny Farrar and Glen Shackleford from DROP to the pension list. Dwayne McChristian finally turned in his affidavit so his back pay is on the May, 2006 Pension List. Pete Reagan moved to approve the May, 2006 pension list. Dennis Ledbetter seconded the motion. Upon roll call the motion passed 6-0. Teddy O'Neal was absent. New Business: Glen Shackelford Retirement from DROP Pete Reagan moved to approve the retirement of Glen Shackelford. Marion Doss seconded the motion. Upon roll call the motion passed 6-0. Teddy O'Neal was absent. Danny Farrar Retirement from DROP Pete Reagan moved to approve the retirement of Danny Farrar. Marion Doss seconded the motion. Upon roll call the motion passed 6-0. Teddy O'Neal was absent. Firemen's Pension and Relief Fund Board of Trustees Meeting Minutes April 27, 2006 Page 2 of 5 Sondra Smith: Due to Danny retiring he is no longer on the Board as the highest ranking member of the Fire Department. The next person that is the highest ranking member of the Fire Department, that is a member of this pension plan, is Teddy O'Neal. I spoke to Teddy, he was not able to come to this meeting, but he is willing to serve. Therefore, Teddy will become a Board member due to being the highest ranking member of the Fire Department. We only have three people left on DROP once those three people retire the Board will consist of retired members with the exception of the Mayor and myself. Trish Leach: Sondra put in the packet the DROP payout for Glen Shackleford and the projected DROP payout for Danny Farrar. If you approve that we will go ahead and cut those checks. I wanted to point that out to make sure there is no doubt that was approved. Dennis Ledbetter: Do we need to make a motion? Sondra Smith: You made a motion to approve the retirement for both of them so if you are approving their retirement you are approving the amount they will draw that was in your packet. Jim Rose Statement — TIF Lawsuit Sondra Smith: I put a copy of the statement from Jim Rose regarding attorney fees relating to the TIF lawsuit. The amount was $2,050 for both the Policemen's and Firemen's Pension Board, each Board will pay half of that cost. I had Accounting process a check in the amount of $1,025 from the Firemen's Pension fund. I did not think we needed to vote to approve the payment because you had already approved hiring him. I wanted you to know that has been taken care. Mr. Rose stated that this will not be the only bill that you will receive. Mr. Rose does not think the next bill will be as large as this bill was. You will get another bill when the TIF lawsuit is rapped up. Kit may have some insight as to when that might be. Kit Williams: I talked to the court reporter that is doing the record that we have ordered; you will not have to pay for that, the City will be paying for the record. She is about finished, probably in a week or two, I will go over the record with her and the attorney from the library to make sure that we have everything in the record and then it will be sent to the State. I will then have to file an abstract and a brief. I still think it is possible that we can get this resolved before the end of the year. Mr. Rose will have to file a brief on your behalf but it is basically the same as what the library will be arguing so it will not be a difficult brief. I don't think that he will think that he will need to go to Little Rock and argue because there are too many lawyers and they will force the defendants to only have one or two lawyers argue for the group. I don't think that Mr. Rose will go to Little Rock therefore that will hold your cost down. Dennis Ledbetter: Could they select him to be the one to argue? Kit Williams: Possibly but keep in mind when it comes to a millage point of view you have the smallest bit of everybody so you have the least money at stake. Some of the issues do not apply to you all. There are only one or two issues that apply to you. The big issue is the 25 mils, is Firemen's Pension and Relief Fund Board of Trustees Meeting Minutes April 27, 2006 Page 3 of 5 only the Department of Finance and Administration that is the largest amount of money in dispute, and then the schools would be next with at least 4.50 mils that we are disagreeing about. Those are the two major ones. I think that they will allow or make sure that your issue is covered by whoever does argue. It will certainly be covered in the briefs and probably also in the oral arguments. It is basically the same argument that the library has; the new law gets you out. So if we did a new TIF now you would specifically be exempt just like the library. It wasn't that way when this TIF District was formed and so the argument is that they should look at the new law and use it to help them understand the old law and keep you all from having to pay. That didn't work at the Circuit Court level; I don't know if it will work at the Supreme Court level. Dennis Ledbetter: But if they select a lawyer to argue could he in turn bill us? Kit Williams: No, I don't think so. If it is the Department of Finance and Administration they are like me we don't bill anyone that is just part of our job. I don't think that would be the case at all. I think they would be responsible for paying their own attorney and he would get the benefit of being able to argue for his client so he would be under an obligation to go ahead and mention the arguments for you. It would be to his client's benefit that he would be getting to argue so I could not see him billing you. Pete Reagan moved to approve the payment to Attorney Jim Rose in the amount of $1,025. Marion Doss seconded the motion. Upon roll call the motion passed 6-0. Teddy O'Neal was absent. Old Business: Elections — Nominations — Pete Reagan and Marion Doss Sondra Smith: We sent out nomination forms and the only nominations that we received back were for Marion Doss and Pete Reagan. They were nominated to both Position 1 and Position 2. Pete received more nominations for Position 2 and Marion received more nominations for Position 1. I guess we can put Marion in Position 1 and Pete in Position 2. I would not think there would be any reason to send the nominations back out for a vote since we only received the two nominations but that is up to the Board. Mayor Coody: That works for me. Dennis Ledbetter: The deadline for getting the nominations in has passed? Sondra Smith: Yes, the nomination deadline was April 15, 2006. Kit Williams: The statue doesn't require a vote? Marion Doss: I don't know that is up to you. Firemen's Pension and Relief Fund Board of Trustees Meeting Minutes April 27, 2006 Page 4 of 5 Kit Williams: If the statue required voting even though we only have two people you would be safer to have them vote on the nominees. We need to make sure we follow statutory procedure. Sondra Smith: I will look at the statue and see what it says. Kit Williams: I will get with Sondra and see if there has to be a vote. If not then I think you can make a motion to go ahead and accept Marion and Pete as Board members unless an election is required by the statue. Dennis Ledbetter moved to accept Marion Doss and Pete Reagan as Board members unless the statue requires a vote. Ronnie Wood seconded the motion. Upon roll call the motion passed 6-0. Teddy O'Neal was absent. Marion Doss: We have done it that way in the past. We are just not sure if we did it right. We have done it that way in the past if there were no other nominations there was no point in having a vote. Dennis Ledbetter: So if it requires a vote letters will be sent out? Sondra Smith: We will have to send letters out, yes. Non -Return of Affidavit for Dwayne McChristian - Received Sondra Smith: We did receive his affidavit. Longer Investments: Revised Investment Policy — The Board Needs to Sign A copy of the revised investment policy was given to the Board for them to sign. Pete Reagan: Is this the one that we approved at the last meeting? Sondra Smith: Yes. This is the formal policy for you to sign. Page 4 (e) has been changed. It now states investments in international securities will be limited to 50% of the equity portfolio at cost. That was our motion at the last meeting so that is what has been changed in your policy, the amount that is bolded. It was 10% and we increased the amount to 50%. There are two original policies and we need both of them signed. Danny will have to sign the policy because he was on the Board at the time the motion passed. I will contact him and have him come in and sign it. Firemen's Pension and Relief Fund Board of Trustees Meeting Minutes April 27, 2006 Page 5 of 5 Email Regarding Proxy Vote Sondra Smith: A copy of the email from Kim Cooper of Longer regarding the proxy vote that Pete was concerned about. Longer View A copy of the Longer View was given to the Board. Monthly Report Investments is in your packet A copy of the Longer Investment monthly investment report was given to the Board. Sondra Smith: There is a note on top of the monthly report that the equity allocation was 55% therefore we will need to vote on the overage of 5%. We voted to allow them to go plus or minus 5% of our equity amount of 50%. We are to approve any overages. Pete Reagan moved to approve the equity overage of 5%. Ronnie Wood seconded the motion. Upon roll call the motion passed 6-0. Teddy O'Neal was absent. 0 Quarter — Quarterly Report A copy of the Longer Investment first quarter report was given to the board. Meeting Adjourned at 11:25 AM