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HomeMy WebLinkAboutRetirement Committee - Minutes - 09/06/2001Admi&ative Services • Finance Administration City of Fort Collins GENERAL EMPLOYEES' RETIREMENT COMMITTEE SEPTEMBER 6, 2001, MEETING MINUTES Approved, as amended, on October 14, 2001 COUNCIL LIAISON: Mayor Ray Martinez COMMITTEE Terry Van Cleave, 221-6321 Susan Lehman, 221-6813 MEMBERS Michele Hays -Johnson, 416-2158 Dottie Nazarenus, 204-4429 PRESENT: Bill Switzer, 221-6713 Alan Krcmarik, 221-6788 OTHERS Julie Depperman (Finance) Greg Tempel, (City Attorney's Office) PRESENT: Vincent Pascale (Human Resources) Stephen Weinstein and Tom Rodgers (Special Legal Counsel) CALL TO ORDER: Chair Susan Lehman called the meeting to order at 1:17 p.m. PLAN MEMBER COMMENTS: A Plan Member requested an update on whether the Committee would be considering the Rule of 80 concept. He thought it would be beneficial and not overly costly. Susan responded that the Committee would likely discuss this issue after the Committee completed its work on the Plan restatement and equity issue. Susan also noted that special legal counsel was present at the meeting and that this meeting would focus on review of the restated Plan. APPROVAL OF MINUTES: Alan Krcmarik distributed the August 2, 2001, meeting minutes. Bill Switzer moved to approve the minutes, Dottie Nazarenus seconded the motion. The Committee approved the minutes unanimously, 6-0. DISCUSSION TOPICS 1. PLAN RESTATEMENT Stephen (Steve) Weinstein and Thomas (Tom) Rodgers from Gorsuch Kirgus LLP, attorneys that specialize in pension law were present to discuss the draft of the Plan restatement. The Committee had received the draft before the meeting. The group decided to review the restated Plan page by page. The restated Plan needs to be in effect by December 31, 2001, to comply with the federal regulations. Steve suggested that all of the amendments necessary to comply with the federal regulations be done in one action. If the Committee wanted to proceed with a change to the calculation method to address the part-time/full-time issue, it could be accomplished with an amendment. The group proceeded with page by page review 215 North Mason Street • 2nd Floor • P.O. Box 580 • Fort Collins, CO 80522-0580 • (970) 221-6788 • FAX (970) 221-6782 GeneMmployees' Retirement Committee tember 6, 2001, Meeting Minutes Page 2 of 4 Page 2. The Plan uses 7.5% for purposes of alternate benefit forms. The Retirement Committee may change this assumption. The Committee will review with the actuary. Page 3. Taxable fringes are not included in base compensation, only appropriately coded work hours. Page 4. The Committee reviewed who is included in the Plan. Staff will check status of emergency dispatch staff. Page 5. Fix wording of employees near the bottom of the page. Probably will delete all of m.(3)(d). Once a Member leaves the Plan, they are permanently out of the Plan. The Committee discussed the fact that some unclassified management employees are still in the Plan. The Committee is also concerned about employees that work less than % time. Page 8. Reviewed status of management employees in this plan Page 11. Break in service. Steve to rewrite this section to protect Members that may have to do military service. Any others that leave City employ and then come back will go into the money purchase plan. The Committee agreed that to be a classified employee, you have to be at least 0.5 full time equivalent (FTE). If below 0.5 FTE, the employee changes to hourly and is no longer in this Plan. Classified employees may be full-time or part-time, minimum of 20 hours per week. Page 12 The wording on breaks in service needs to be changed. Page 13. The Committee discussed the significance of the age of 70%. People that have to take minimum may recalculate their mortality rate each year. The federal regulations are trying to help people in this classification defer more money. Disability language at Section 4. We confirmed that the lengthy language needs to be retained. Page 14. Julie Depperman asked to have the $5,000 level language put back in. This would allow the Plan to pay out a lump sum for many of the deferred vested employees. Steve agreed to put the $5,000 limit back in. Page 15. The wording for Section 4 that had been stricken needs to be brought back. Sections about the one-time inflation adjustments were added to this portion of the Plan. Page 19. Optional form of benefits. The Committee discussed some of the optional forms of benefit. Can Member do joint and survivor with a child beneficiary? A Member can select any beneficiary for the 50% and 100% Joint and Survivor benefit options but some limitations apply. For the 100% Joint and Survivor benefit options, Section 401(a)(9) of the Internal Revenue Service Code provides limitations based on the age of the beneficiary. [This wording added at the meeting.] Page 22. The Committee changed the heading of Section 2 to Vesting Schedule. The wording regarding the $5000 limit would go best on this page under Single Lump Sum Benefit. Page 30. Take out section on re-employment. Geneamployees' Retirement Committee tember 6, 2001, Meeting Minutes Page 3 of 4 The Committee asked if there are other aspects of the Plan that could be simplified. There are many regulations to comply with and the actuary has a comfort level with the Plan. The Committee needs to be able to understand and interpret the Plan. Tom Rodgers asked if they should try to incorporate provisions from recent legislation, specifically, increasing the compensation limits. The Committee thought that this should be done. Involuntary Distributions. In plans with this type of provision, if Member does not elect to exercise the option in 60 days, the Plan Administrator may roll the amount over into an Individual Retirement Account. The Plan Administrator will be excused from liability Safe harbors have not been determined yet, but they will be. Julie will identify how many deferred vested participants may be affected by this type of wording. Under the new regulations, Members can now roll over to 457 or 403(b) plans. We will need to change the form that we send out. Staff will work with the actuary to ensure that the correct format is used. 2. POSSIBLE CHANGE IN CALCULATING THE RETIREMENT BENEFIT On full-time/part-time equity issue, Steve would like more time to research. He thought it could be accomplished in a few hours, about $400 of time. Under current regulations, a private plan probably could not do the amendment. Alan moved and Michele Hays -Johnson seconded, the expenditure of $400 to do the final legal research on this topic. The Committee approved the motion unanimously, 6-0. Steve estimated it would take two weeks to finish the research. 3. RETIREMENT PLAN PHILOSOPHY. The Committee did not discuss the Retirement Philosophy at this meeting. 4. ACTUARIAL PERFORMANCE The actuary provided notice at 3:40 p.m. on Wednesday of the inability to attend this meeting. The Committee was concerned about the late notice and the importance of the topics to be covered at the meeting. The Committee decided to draft a letter to express its concern. Michele will draft for Committee to review. ADJOURNMENT The Committee adjourned at 3:58 p.m. SCHEDULE FOR NEXT REGULAR MEETING • GeneMmployees' Retirement Committee tember 6, 2001, Meeting Minutes Page 4 of 4 The next regular meeting of the Committee will be October 11, 2001, at 1:35 p.m. in the Council Information Center of City Hall. The tentative agenda includes: Plan Member Comments Approval of the September Meeting Minutes Retirement Philosophy Plan Restatement Possible Change in Calculating Retirement Benefit Monthly Investment Update Other Business Actuary Performance GENERAL EMPLOYEES' RETIREMENT PLAN WEB PAGE: The web page is "under construction." FUTURE MEETING SCHEDULE The regular meeting time for the Committee is at 1:15 p.m. on the first Thursday of each month. The regular location is the Council Information Center in City Hall. For 2001, the Committee has scheduled the meetings as shown below. The October meeting has been switched to the 11"at 1:15 p.m. The location is Conference Room 2A of the new office building at 215 N. Mason. _.. ._. .. .. THURSDAY, October 11, 2001 THURSDAY, November 1, 2001 THURSDAY, December 6, 2001