TOWN OF PONCE INLET
FIREFIGHTER’S PENSION BOARD OF TRUSTEES
MEETING MINUTES
MONDAY COUNCIL CHAMBERS
February 14, 2011 5:30 PM
Call to Order: Mr. Raia called the meeting to order at 5:00 pm with the Pledge of Allegiance.
Pension Board Members Present:
Tony Raia, Chairman
Ken Nunnelley
Vic McClellan
Pension Board Members Absent:
Brad Jarvis
Staff Present:
Dan Scales, Fire Chief
Emily Kroeger, Town Finance Director
Jeni Trepasso, Board Secretary
Addition, Corrections or Deletions to the Agenda: None
Treasurers report:
Mr. Nunnelley states that the checking account made $11.07 interest year-to-date. The checking account currently has and ending balance of $72,420.56. Mr. Christiansen asked if this was with Ameriprise or in the checking account and Mr. Nunnelley stated that these funds were in the checking account and that the other Sun Trust checking account showed $3,735.92. Ms. Kroeger explained that one of the accounts is a checking account and the other account is savings. Ameriprise is $100, 017.36 per Mr. Nunnelley. The only outstanding invoice is for the Board Attorney in the amount of $1008.32.
New Business:
Mr. McClellan made the motion to accept the minutes from December 13, 2010 which was seconded by Mr. Nunnelley.
Mr. Raia states that according to the Board Attorney, the Board has to appoint a fifth member because Mr. Flagg and Ms. Epps are not active members of the volunteer association and the Board has to right to appoint a fifth member. Mr. Christiansen stated that Mr. McClellan and Mr. Jarvis are the volunteer firefighter representatives, Mr. Raia and Mr. Nunnelley are the two Town appointees and the that fifth member is selected by the other four. He stated that the fifth member can be anybody; it doesn’t have to be a Town resident, firefighter, etc. Mr. McClellan stated that he was going to go on the basis of interest and because Mr. Flagg was the only one who submitted an application, he would nominate Mr. Flagg for the position and Mr. Nunnelley seconded the motion. All in favor 3-0 voice votes.
Mr. Christiansen stated that a Secretary-Treasurer needs to be selected because apparently there is not a formal Secretary-Treasurer. Mr. Raia said that Mr. Nunnelley was the Treasurer and Mr. Christiansen stated that the position in the plan is Secretary-Treasurer and that obviously, Ms. Trepasso does most of the documentation but the Board needs to have someone in the position of Secretary-Treasurer. Mr. McClellan nominated Mr. Nunnelley and Mr. Raia seconded the motion. Mr. Raia wanted the Treasurer to leave some signed blank checks with the administrator and wanted to know if that was legal due to the fact that Mr. Nunnelley’s work schedule. Mr. Christiansen stated that is wasn’t so much a legal issue but more of a safety issue but it would be a Board decision. Ms. Trepasso
stated that she did not have a secure location for signed blank checks.
Correspondence from board attorney consisted of the Records Management Liaison Officer. Mr. Christiansen said that State Law requires all government agencies in Florida appoint a Records Management Liaison Officer. This is a person who safeguards the records of the agency and is also the liaison with the State for any public records issues. There is also the requirement of the selection of a Records Retention Schedule and he recommends designating Schedule GS1-SL, which is the State and local government records retention schedule. Basically, that document designates for any type of public record amount of time that the Board has to be maintained. Mr. McClellan recommended that Ms. Trepasso by appointed and made the motion to approve Resolution 2011-01 and adopt the
Records Retention Schedule. Mr. Nunnelley seconded this motion. Mr. Christiansen will revise the memo to have it signed.
Old Business
Mr. Christiansen stated that the ordinance was written was in 2006 and that it needed to be revised and updated. The proposed ordinance makes the necessary changes to update the plan to the current IRS tax codes. The Board need to recommend that the Town Council approve it for adoption. Mr. McClellan had a question about a paragraph on page four which was about the definition of a firefighter. Mr. Christiansen stated that this was an issue that the Board wanted to discuss. Mr. McClellan read that the definition in the proposed ordinance states, “to extinguish fire, to protect life and to protect property” and Mr. Christiansen stated that this is the definition of a firefighter in the State Statute but it also continues on to say “any person
whose name is carried on the active membership role of the Ponce Inlet Fire Department as a volunteer firefighter and whose duty it is to extinguish fire, to protect life and to protect property”. That is to be in the Plan and then there is the requirement in order to get a year of credited service, a person has to meet certain participation requirements. Mr. McClellan stated that his only concern was that it doesn’t cover, as he reads it, the support volunteers. Mr. Christiansen stated that it doesn’t cover anyone who is not carried on the active roles as a volunteer firefighter. Mr. McClellan stated that support volunteers are carried on the roles but their duties are not to fight fires because they are not certified as firefighters. Mr. Christiansen stated that if they are carried on the roles as a volunteer firefighter then they meet that requirement and the Fire Chief makes the decision as to who is carried on the roles.
Mr. Christiansen stated that there needs to be a list of everyone who is in the Plan or thought they were in the Plan and then try to determine how much service these various people have. The other issue, the Fire Chief brought up, is that other volunteer plans have similar requirements including participation requirements and even though a person may be carried on the roles in a given year, if the person does not meet the participation requirements the person does not get credited service for that year. For instance, if a person was carried on the roles for six years or dropped from the roles and they were vested, and then they want to get a benefit. Theoretically, if they are not on the roles at the time that they apply for a benefit, they don’t get a benefit. So the question is, do those people have to come back and do a year, six months, three months or two weeks of service before they can qualify to get a benefit. Mr. McClellan wanted
to know who sets that requirement. Mr. Christiansen states that if someone is vested, they have a right to a benefit at some point in the future and they do not have to come back to work even for in an active plan where there are full-time firefighters. If someone is vested and they did the time then whenever they are eligible under early or normal retirement, they would be able to apply and get that benefit. However, this would only be for the people that we know are vested and have that service. Therefore, it is important to get a complete list of every potential person and indicate the amount of service that they have. This should not have an impact on the language in the Plan. Mr. Christiansen asked if the support people are meeting the participation requirements. Mr. McClellan answered not fully and the only one being carried as support is himself and he is not worried about the retirement benefit. Mr. Christiansen read “a volunteer
firefighter shall not receive credited service for any purpose including vesting for any plan year during which he is a member if he does not respond to at least 25% of fire alarms or work an average of 24 hours per month and attend 50% of the fire drills during the plan year.” and asked if a support person would attend fire drills, respond to at least 25% of fire alarms or work an average of 24 hours per month so if a person does one or the other of these, they would credited service for that year. Mr. McClellan said yes. Mr. Christiansen stated that if this could be applied, we will be able to come up with the service for everybody. Mr. Nunnelley, referring to page two of the ordinance and page nine of the operating rules, asked about member contributions and if that language was really necessary. Mr. Christiansen stated that when this was initially done, there was a part-time person who was getting paid and did not know if that
possibility had been eliminated or not and Chief Scales stated that this language could be removed because all paid fire personnel are in FRS. Mr. Nunnelley wanted clarification from Chief Scales that this plan would not need to ever include a part-time person and Chief Scales stated that he cannot say they could never utilize this and asked the Board Attorney is leaving this language in the plan would “hurt” anything. It was decided to leave this language about contributions in the plan. Mr. Nunnelley made the motion for the Board Attorney to send the proposed ordinance to the Town Council for consideration/ adoption. Mr. McClellan seconded the motion. Three voice votes in favor.
Paul Shimone, Account Executive from the Florida League of Cities and in his role, he oversees the Florida Municipal Pension Trust Fund made a presentation about managing a pension fund. Actuarial services are included in their services through Southern Actuarial Services in Atlanta but are billed through the actuarial service itself. So it is in addition to the FLC fees. However, if the Board is wishes to continue with Foster & Foster, the FLC can work with them. The Board can choose which allocation that they want and he listed three options. FLC does its own trust accounting and each month, the Board would receive reports on any activities within the fund, earnings, etc. The cost to start in this plan is $1,050 annual fee based on 20 basis points. Investments fees are based on 50 basis points,
approximately, depending on which asset allocation the Board chooses. Mr. Christiansen states the FLC would have all of the money and that there would be no accounts kept locally because FLC will pay all bills. Mr. Nunnelley wanted to know how long it would take to get the “up and running” and Mr. Shimone stated it can be done as soon as the money is transferred into their account. The Board would have to pass two resolutions; one to join the trust Fund and another to adopt FLC Investment Policy. Mr. McClellan made the motion for the Board to join this fund and to take the complete package including the actuarial and Mr. Nunnelley seconded it. Mr. Christiansen asked if this included the Chairman and Secretary to sign all documents to allow FLC to do this. Mr. McClellan amended his motion. Mr. McClellan made the motion to go with the 60/40 allocation and this was seconded by Mr. Nunnelley. 3-0 voice votes in favor.
Ms. Kroeger will transfer the money in the savings account to the checking account. The FLC will do the Annual Report. Mr. Christiansen states that there should be an item on the agenda regarding approval of expenses because the Pension Board is responsible for the money in the plan and money that leaves the plan, and he recommends any expenses should be approved at the meetings. Mr. Christiansen asked if Foster & Foster has done the 2010 valuation and Mr. Raia responded that they have not. Mr. Christiansen suggested that the Board may want to give the information to Southern Actuarial
Old Business:
Operating Rules and Procedures: Mr. Christiansen states that this policy is adopted by Board of Trustees and does not go to the Council for adoption; essentially, it is the day-to-day operations on how the Board runs the Plan. It also meets the requirements for internal controls for the State. The Board needs to check on the election process and Mr. McClellan states that this should be verified with the Town Manager and that the re-election terms should be varied. Mr. Christiansen states that the Operating Rules does provide that the terms will be varied. When the terms come up next year, the Board will assign one Town Appointee and one Volunteer Firefighter on a one-time basis for a one-year term. Mr. McClellan thought that the document was great and had no questions. Mr. Raia likes the section regarding
that the Board is required to attend conferences (page 3). Mr. Christiansen states that continuing education for the Trustees is required by state law. Mr. Nunnelley would like to see the Town’s policy. Mr. Raia wanted to know if the Board could send and pay Ms. Trepasso to a conference. Mr. Nunnelley made the motion to accept the Operation Rules and Procedures which was seconded by Mr. McClellan.
For Discussion:
Mr. Nunnelley asked the Attorney is the Board has to give Ms. Trepasso a 1099 form and he stated that it was not necessary.
Ms. Kroeger asked Mr. Christiansen if the Board needed to have their own tax identification number and he stated that most Boards use the employer’s number.
Adjournment: Mr. Nunnelley made the motion to adjourn the meeting at 6:15 pm. The motion was seconded by Mr. McClellan.
Respectfully submitted,
Jeni Trepasso, Board Secretary
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