HomeMy WebLinkAbout2005-07-21 MinutesPolicemen's Pension & Relief Fund
Board of Trustees Meeting Minutes
July 21, 2005
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Policemen's Pension and Relief Fund Board of Trustees
Meeting Minutes
July 21, 2005
A meeting of the Fayetteville Policemen's Pension and Relief Fund Board was held on July 21,
2005 at 1:30 p.m. in Room 326 of the City Administration Building located at 113 West
Mountain Street, Fayetteville, Arkansas.
Eldon Roberts called the meeting to order.
Present: Eldon Roberts, Jerry Friend, Dr Mashburn, Jerry Surles, Sondra Smith, Kit
Williams, Trish Leach, Accounting, Elaine Longer and Kim Cooper with Longer
Investments.
Absent: Mayor Coody and Tim Helder
Approval of the Minutes
Approval of the April 21, 2005 Meeting Minutes.
Eldon Roberts: Kit, did we hire an attorney to represent us in the TIF lawsuit? Can you tell us
if there has been a ruling on that?
Kit Williams: The attorney has been hired. There has not been a ruling. We had a meeting and
I am still trying to get everyone to agree on the stipulated facts so that we can keep the expenses
down. We will have a meeting next week, the Depaltment of Finance and Administration has
been brought in because they are the ones that will be asserting that the 25 mils should not go
into the TIF District. There has been a new law passed by the legislative that says it is suppose
to go in there. There are a lot of procedural issues about which law will take affect, when it will
take effect and does it affect our plan or not.
Jerry Friend: I thought at our last meeting a new law had been passed not to put the money in
there.
Kit Williams: For you all, however there was a law that was passed, that I was not aware of at
that time, that has an emergency clause so it went into effect immediately. It went into effect
before that TIF law, and it said that if you have an ordinance that was not a general and
permanent ordinance, it took effect immediately. Every time we turn around it gets more
complicated. I will let the judge figure that out, we will make our argument to the judge and let
him tell us what the law is. I hope to get the stipulated facts agreed to next week and if we can
do that then we can file a motion for summary judgment and have it start moving up through the
court system.
Eldon Roberts: Are we paying the attorney by the hour.
Kit Williams: Yes. I don't think he has much to bill at this point in time.
Policemen's Pension & Relief Fund
Board of Trustees Meeting Minutes
July 21, 2005
Page 2 of 5
Jerry Friend: Are you looking at a year or more?
Kit Williams: I think the local courts will decide fairly quickly but then we have to go to the
Supreme Court because you can not get a definite ruling on this until the Supreme Court has
spoken.
Jerry Friend moved to approve the minutes. There was no second to the motion. Upon roll
call the motion carried 5-0.
Approval of the Pension List
Approval of Mav, June and July 2005 Pension List
Sondra Smith: We had one pensioner that deceased in May which was Harold Flowers. You
will see funds paid to him on the May report but not on the June and July report.
Kit Williams: He didn't have a surviving spouse?
Sondra Smith: No, he did not.
Eldon Roberts: I have been in touch with Sondra on this. There were some people that thought
they should draw his benefits. Thank heaven for the affidavits that we send out each year, he
listed a nephew and a care giver on his affidavit but they did not qualify.
Doctor Mashburn moved to approve the Pension List for May, June and July, 2005. Eldon
Roberts seconded the motion. Upon roll call the motion passed 5-0.
Longer Investments
Investment Report
Elaine Longer: We have an update in here because so many things have changed since June
30th. Page 6 is the updated report through July 15th. On June 30th you were still showing about
$370,000 in cash and that has all been invested at this point. A number of things have happened
since June 30th, but mostly the earnings numbers are coming through real good. There was a big
question coming off the first quarter earnings whether or not the second quarter would be weak
or the outlook uncertain. In the first quarter the earnings were okay but the outlook was cloudy.
That caused the market to stay in the second quarter and we basically did nothing. The earnings
estimate on the S&P 500 had gone up to 73.50 and the ten year yield was below 4% when we
wrote the second quarter newsletter so the valuation stretch between stocks and bonds was
stretched even more. Since we closed the quarter, month to date the S&P is up over 3%, so a lot
has happened since June 30th. What we are hearing is that the outlook looks good so that is what
has brought the market backup to about 10,650 on the DOW.
You are over the 50% range in stocks, you are about 51.1%. You approved a 5% overage
amount for equities. That is real helpful because we don't have to sell something unless we
bump up against the 55%.
Policemen's Pension & Relief Fund
Board of Trustees Meeting Minutes
July 21, 2005
Page 3 of 5
Jerry Friend moved to approve the overage in equities. Jerry Surles seconded the motion.
Upon roll call the motion passed 5-0.
Elaine Longer: Page 11 shows your realized gains year to date they are about $133,000 and net
income is about $145,000. Page 12 is a summary of your bond holdings; you have a weighted
average yield to maturity of about 4.8% within a maturity range of 5.9 years. That compares to
the ten year treasury which is about 4.25% with a ten year maturity. You still have a very high
income yield within a very moderate average maturity. The number that is most important is
how many of your bonds mature within the next one to three years, this is as good as cash to us.
You are fully invested but you have 33.5% of your bonds held in the very short maturities which
we can sell and lengthen maturities and go out longer and get higher incomes as these interest
rates increase. I think with the break down that we have had in the bonds today that is a good
sign that we will be getting better yields out there in the 10 year maturities in the not too distant
future. I really like the way that we are structured right now and you still have a fairly high
income even though we've got such a short maturity structure.
Page 13 shows your largest holdings. Page 14 is your industry weighting. We are overweight
the capital goods sector, that is the area that is up the most today. Consumer cyclical's are about
even weight and we are underweight the consumer area. We think the real strength in the
economy is in the capital sector. Corporate America is very healthy compared to household
America. The household sector is so heavily indebted and cash flow needed to service that debt
is really quite stretched. On the corporate side you have balance sheets that are in the best
condition they have been in since World War II and they have very ample cash flow. That is
why we have seen dividend increases of almost 20% year to date. We are overweight in the
energy sector. The total financial sector is about equal with the S&P 500, we are a bit overweight
on healthcare and we are slightly overweight on technology. The technology sector is beginning
to deliver excellent earning surprises and several of them meet our valuation parameters which
are pretty stringent.
Page 19 shows contributions and distributions, basically there have been no contributions this
year and the distributions this year have been $585,000. Page 20 shows the returns, the bottom
line here is the year to date through June 30th. Through June 30th you were down about 1% year
to date and as of this week you have pulled into the black.
The average annual return inception to date is still well above your 6%, at 6.9%. The account
reconciliation shows $5.032 million total investment return since inception.
We had a pretty sluggish start to the year the first quarter was down in every market, bonds and
stocks, the second quarter the bond market recovered because the longer term interest rates came
down in the 5-30 year maturity, even though the Federal Government was raising the short term
rates. Now what we are seeing is a recovery in the first three weeks of July. There are more
sectors that are beginning to perform and deliver good results.
Kit Williams: Why has the financial not moved?
Elaine Longer: Typically they are hurt by rising interest rates. They borrow short term and
lend long term, as the short term rates come up their cost of money goes up faster than their loan
interest rates go up so their interest margin in the short run tends to get squeezed when interest
rates are going up in the short end.
Policemen's Pension & Relief Fund
Board of Trustees Meeting Minutes
July 21, 2005
Page 4 of 5
Old Business
Benefit Increase:
Sondra Smith: I sent a letter and a copy of the resolution to the Pension Board requesting the
benefit increase and that the actuarial study be completed. They will bill us and after they
receive our payment they will start the study. It might be after our next meeting before we hear
back from them.
Eldon Roberts: This would actually take you to 100% of salary the day you retired plus the
COLA.
Hiring of the Attorney for the TIF Lawsuit:
A copy of the filed lawsuit was given to the Board.
Income Tax Refund Letter:
Sondra Smith: Trish and Wendy in Accounting have worked hard to get the information
together. The goal is to try to have the letters out by the end of next week, there is a sample
letter in your packet. We are going to add a block that they will check if they agree with the
information that Accounting will be submitting to the State. The pensioners that do not qualify
will also receive a letter letting them know they are not eligible.
Trish Leach, Accounting: We will submit the information to the State for the retiree that
qualifies. It will take the State three to four weeks after they get the information to make the
calculations. We expect it to take about six weeks after we send the information to the State for
the pensioner to receive a check.
2005 Election Results — Tim Helder and Eldon Roberts:
Sondra Smith moved to approve the newly elected Board members, Eldon Roberts and
Tim Helder. Jerry Friend seconded the motion. Upon roll call the motion passed 5-0.
New Business
Act 386
Sondra Smith: Act 386 states the Pension Board will change from four to five retired members.
There will no longer be a physician on the Board. It also states that one of the Police Pensioner's
will serve as secretary of the Board for a period of two years or until his or her successor is
elected and qualified.
Kit Williams: Probably when this act goes into effect the physician will be replaced by a retired
pensioner. When they use words like shall, those are mandatory words.
Policemen's Pension & Relief Fund
Board of Trustees Meeting Minutes
July 21, 2005
Page 5 of 5
Jerry Friend: Maybe the idea behind this is that most Pension Boards are like us there are very
few active members and they probably thought there is no longer a need for a doctor.
Eldon Roberts: It will load the Board now more heavily with police officers.
Sondra Smith: This law does not take affect until August 12th. It will be in affect by the next
meeting.
A discussion followed on Act 386.
Jerry Surles moved to elect Eldon Roberts as secretary of the Board. Jerry Friend
seconded the motion. Upon roll call the motion passed 5-0.
A discussion followed on replacing the physician that serves on the Board. The Board decided
not to replace the physician at this time.
Wendell Johnson Affidavit:
Sondra Smith: We have not received an affidavit from this pensioner. His attorney has
contacted me and assured me that he is alive and has no minor children or spouse.
Harold Flowers — Deceased May 11, 2005:
A copy of the Harold Flowers obituary, affidavit and funeral benefit check was given to the
Board.
Other:
Eldon Roberts: Have we received our turn back check?
Sondra Smith: When they sent me the pension list they still has not received the supplement
funds or the turn back funds.
Meeting Adjourned at 2:50 PM