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HomeMy WebLinkAboutRetirement Committee - Minutes - 02/08/2007General Employees Retirement Plan GENERAL EMPLOYEES RETIREMENT COMMITTEE Meeting Minutes February 8, 2007 COUNCIL LIAISON: COMMITTEE MEMBERS PRESENT: COMMITTEE MEMBERS ABSENT: TO BE APPROVED ON APRIL 12, 2007 Councilman Ben Manvel Jim O'Neill, C a' , 221-6 9 Bill Switzer, Vice Chair, 221-6713 Michele Hays -Johnson, 416-2287 Charles Seest, 221-6795 Dottie Nazarenus, 204-4429 Jim Lathrop, 226-1826 OTHERS PRESENT: Pat Kahle (Milliman) Debbie Weedman (HR) Greg Tempel (Legal) Heather Shepherd (Finance) CALL TO ORDER: Meeting called to order at 1:20 p.m. INTRODUCTION OF NEW MEMBER: New committee member is Jim Lathrop. Committee members introduced themselves to Jim. APPROVAL OF MINUTES: Correct the spelling of Michele's first name and Pat's last name. Deb Weedman made a correction regarding the Personal Retirement Planning Statements. Minutes approved as corrected. CITIZEN PARTICIPATION AND PLAN MEMBER COMMENTS: ➢ Bill had a call from a member who was concerned that the plan is going bankrupt. He assured her it is still being funded. ➢ Michele had three member comments in response to a recent newspaper article regarding City Council's reduction of contributions. ➢ Deb had around 12 calls this week also verifying how much the City is contributing. ELECT OFFICERS AND REVIEW GERC STANDING RULES IN FEBRUARY 2007: Michele nominated Jim O'Neill for the office of Chairman, and Bill seconded the motion. The motion carried and Jim O'Neill is the Committee Chairman. Jim Lathrop nominated Bill Switzer for Vice Chairman and Dottie seconded the motion. The motion carried and Bill Switzer is the Committee Vice Chairman. MONTHLY INVESTMENT REPORT: Chuck reviewed the investment report prepared by Harold Hall. As planned, the Dreyfus Emerging Fund was sold to bring the plan back in compliance. If similar earnings continue, the plan may have to sell some more to remain in compliance. For January, the return was 2.88%. For the overall portfolio there was a 2.9% return, and the total value of the GERP portfolio was at $42,567,022.24. Jim Lathrop asked who is responsible for investing and tracking the portfolio and Chuck explained that it is the City Finance Staff. Chuck also stated that a future goal for the plan is to bring all the investments into one master account. DISCUSSION ON TIMING OF A RETIREE'S FIRST PAYMENT DATE: Currently, there is up to a three month gap from the time a participant quits to when they receive their first payment. The committee discussed shortening this time by one month, and asked Deb how much time she would need to process the calculation. Deb stated two weeks would be sufficient. Jim O'Neill suggested that the plan be changed to shorten the time from termination to receiving the first payment. The Committee requested that Greg Tempel review it and draft the legal terminology. A final decision will be made at the next GERC meeting. UPDATE OF THE PERSONAL RETIREMENT PLANNING STATEMENT FOR 2007: The Committee discussed various elements of the current format for the Personal Retirement Planning Statement. Jim Lathrop asked if there has been any feedback from plan participants on the Statement. Deb stated there is some feedback, but more would be better. Generally, people like the graphs. Committee Members reviewed the statements and made edits and updates to last year's language. Pat will make the edits to the Statements and bring them to the next meeting for further review. Bill brought up the change in benefit structure due to the Retirement Health Savings (RHS) account and whether or not this should be reflected on the Statements. After discussion, Jim Lathrop suggested not doing anything with the RHS portion until next year. The Committee agreed but felt that the names of the people in the RHS should be reviewed and that additional material might be provided for them with the Personal Retirement Planning Statements. Deb will gather the names of the Retirement Health Savings participants for Committee review at the next meeting. REVIEW OF ACTUARIAL PROCEDURES: Pat discussed the actuarial assumptions in the last actuarial report. She compared the anticipated plan experience with the actual plan experience. The asset allocation was also reviewed and compared to the current investment assumption of 7.5%. Since the current plan experience is close to the assumptions, Pat recommended that there be no assumption changes for the 2007 valuation. OTHER BUSINESS: Deb handed out information on upcoming informational classes that will be held for GERP participants so that they can better understand the investments, the Planning Statement Letter, and other components of the Plan. Meeting adjourned at 3:00 p.m.