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HomeMy WebLinkAboutRetirement Committee - Minutes - 01/19/1992a t- 0 0 FORT COLLINS GENERAL EMPLOYEES RETIREMENT COMMITTEE JANUARY 9, 1992 MEETING MINUTES MEMBERS PRESENT: MEMBERS ABSENT: Jerry Brown Mollie Mercer None Angelina Powell Dennis Sumner Alan Krcmarik (Member & Staff Support) COUNCIL LIAISON: Loren Maxey Sue Wilcox, (Staff support secretary) Visitors included Don Mazanec of William M. Mercer, Inc. CALL TO ORDER: Chairperson Dennis Sumner called the meeting to order at 1:20 p.m. APPROVAL OF MINUTES: There is a typographical error on page 4, first paragraph where the word "thia" should be "this". Angelina Powell moved that the minutes of the December 19, 1991 meeting be approved as corrected and Mollie Mercer seconded the motion. The motion carried. ITEMS OF NOTE: None REVIEW OF DISCUSSION TOPICS: DISCUSSION TOPICS: Open Items 1. REVIEW OF PROPOSED ADMINISTRATIVE AMENDMENTS: General Information MAIN POINTS: The schedule for implementation of the proposed administrative amendments was discussed. CONCLUSIONS/DECISIONS• January 24 - Don and Mary will have changes to the GERC members. February; 6th - GERC will make final changes and approve amendments to be sent to Council. February 13th - Final draft for agenda process and Alan to discuss with Loren Maxey. March 3 - Council to consider changes on first reading. (March 17th is the alternate date.) NEXT STEPS: Mary is working on the changes and Don will consult with her on several areas. Amendment 1. LONG-TERM DISABILITY VS WORKERS COMPENSATION QUESTIONS MAIN POINTS: (No change from December 19th minutes.) This defines temporary total disability and partial permanent disability. How does the Plan handle service credit for these disability types? -1- CONCLUSIONS/DECISIONS: In the current Plan, the question of service credit for Worker's Comp disability is not defined. For parity, the question is being addressed and recommendations will be made for restating the Plan. NEXT STEPS: Mary will move the definitions to various sections. In the area of credited service, she will remove the "under age 65" on pages 2 and 3. Don will review Article'9, Section 1 on Severance benefits and apply them to disability. Amendment 2. CLARIFICATION OF MEMBERSHIP EXCEPTIONS MAIN POINTS: (No change from December 19th minutes.) Several years ago a number of employees were moved to "unclassified" positions, but elected to remain in the GER Plan. That group of employees needs to be considered in the language when amending the Plan. CONCLUSION/DECISIONS: They need to be referenced in the plan. NEXT STEPS: Mary will draft wording to include the 18 (+ or -) employees who elected to remain in the GER Plan despite their move to "unclassified" positions. She will need a list of the individuals and Mollie Mercer in Employee Development will provide it. Mary may move this reference to another part of the plan. Amendment 3 CHANGE IN BREAK IN SERVICE MAIN POINTS: The Committee is considering whether to recommend that employees with a term of prior City employment of less than five years should be given credit for that service. Mollie has revised her list of employees with breaks in service�of less than five years to 29 people. Former City employee Gail McGaha-Miller had earlier asked to defer her decision on taking a lump -sum payment pending an offer of a full-time City position. She has since accepted a City position within the five-year limit. She is one employee who will be affected by the question. CONCLUSIONS/DECISIONS: It was decided that the one-year delay in paying lump -sum payments after a person leaves City employment would not be tied to the five-year break in service provision. NEXT STEPS: Don will calculate the financial impact before the Committee reviews the question. Don will talk with Mary about this and other administrative amendments. Depending on the Committee's review with financial impact information, the restated plan will reflect the Committee's recommendation to Council. Mollie also noted she will send information to Don for all vested employees who terminated in 1991 for calculation of their benefits. Amendment 4 PAYMENT DATE FOR MONTHLY BENEFIT MAIN POINTS: No change from October 21, 1991 minutes. -2- 0 CONCLUSIONS/DECISIONS: NEXT STEPS: Amendment 5 SPOUSAL CONSENT REQUIREMENT MAIN POINTS: No change from October 21, 1991 minutes. CONCLUSIONS/DECISIONS• NEXT STEPS: Amendment 6 ONE-YEAR DELAY FOR LUMP -SUM PAYOFFS MAIN POINTS: No change from October 21, 1991 minutes. CONCLUSIONS/DECISIONS• NEXT STEPS: Amendment 7 ELIMINATE AUTHORITY TO ACCEPT QDRO MAIN POINTS: No change from October 21, 1991 minutes. CONCLUSIONS/DECISIONS• NEXT STEPS: Amendment 8 STATEMENT OF GOVERNMENT PLAN MAIN POINTS: The Plan does not specify that it is a government plan. This omission may create difficulties. CONCLUSIONS/DECISIONS• The fact that this is a government plan needs to be specifically stated. NEXT STEPS: Mary will include this statement. 2. 1992 WORK PLAN MAIN POINTS: Dennis presented his draft of the GERC 1992 Work Plan. Most of the changes were editorial. The advisability of having some Standing Rules for Committee operation was discussed. CONCLUSIONS/DECISIONS• Jerry Brown moved to include the following items in the 1992 Work Plan. Angelina Powell seconded the motion and the motion passed. 1. Review Plan for compliance with new non-discrimination regulations of the IRS (Mary). 2. Conduct employee education program (perhaps through an open house) -3- about the GER Plan, along with communication with employees and feedback from them about retirement questions. Individually, what options are they interested in? Would employees be willing to participate if there were a cost to them? (The Committee would like to provide information within the current budgetary constraints.) 3. Locating vested former employees. 4. Increased awareness of GERC activities and GER Plan provisions via Fort Notes and an insert about the Annual Report, Work Plan, etc. The GERC minutes can be posted as departments request distribution copies. 5. Drafting and adoption of Standing Rules for the GERC. NEXT STEPS: Dennis will make the requested changes and forward to the appropriate department for presentation to City Council. 3. PARTICIPATION IN THE 457 PLAN MAIN POINTS: Alan reported that the needed printout of the participants in the 457 (ICMA) plan was not available. CONCLUSIONS/DECISIONS: No action at this time. NEXT STEPS: This item will be deferred to the February meeting. DISCUSSION TOPICS: New Items 1. EMPLOYEE COMMENTS FROM BENEFITS OPEN HOUSE MAIN POINTS: Employee Development recently conducted an open house to explain the Cafeteria Benefits Program and to solicit comments from employees. : The comments pertaining to the 457 (ICMA) benefit were reviewed. CONCLUSIONS/DECISIONS: The comments were wide-ranging and members wondered if new employees were educated about the retirement program and/or were encouraged to join the voluntary 457 program. NEXT STEPS: To include education about the ICMA program in the Pension Education Program and encourage employee participation. 2. EMPLOYEE COMMUNICATION MAIN POINTS: Educating employees, answering questions, and receiving comments from employees about the GER Plan are considered important to the Committee. Angelina Powell expressed a strong desire to continue to support the employee education program after her term expires in July. Given her -4- department head's approval, she would like to volunteer her services and background for that item of the Work Plan. CONCLUSIONS/DECISIONS: Employee communication and education presentations about the GER Plan should occur where they work and supervisors should have separate preseptations from workers. We should work through the managers to set up the optimal meeting time. The presentation could include a video for the basic outline and handouts on how the benefits are calculated with a typical income example. We should have information on the various choices available to the retiree. An electronic survey might help. Information on deferred compensation should be included. NEXT STEPS: This will be discussed more thoroughly in February. Don Mazanec will bring a video prepared for Arvada and may bring Amy from hif office, who has experience in creating informational videos. We would like to use in-house video services when feasible. Angelina was encouraged ' to lend her expertise and experience to the education program. Her support would be most welcome. 3. STANDING RULES & DEFINITIONS OF MEMBERS MAIN POINTS: The treasury administrator, benefits coordinator in Employee Development, and the assistant city attorney who deals with pensions serve as staff support for the Committee. The need for some on -going structure to the Committee was discussed. There is a question of whether they must attend every meeting or just those meetings with agenda items in their field of expertise. CONCLUSIONS/DECISIONS: Angelina was asked to draft some standing rules for the Committee to provide some standardization of procedures and continuity of operation. NEXT STEPS: Angelina will bring a draft of standing rules to the February meeting. Also it was agreed to invite Pete Dallow, head of Administrative Services to that meeting, as these staff support people are from those departments. ITEMS FOR FUTURE DISCUSSION 1.' Pension Investment Seminar/Public Benefit Plans Workshop 2. Evaluation of competitiveness of the GER Plan, based on Total Comp Study. 3. Defined contribution study. (Refer to 10/26/89 meeting minutes.) Delayed until changes to the current plan have been studied and resolved. (Refer to 1/25/90 minutes.) 4. Possible involvement of GER Plan in the 401 (a) deferred compensation plan. -5- 5. Plan improvements to be considered. (Review in June. See October 29, 1990 letter from Don Mazanec for costs.) 6. Resolve retirement benefit questions related to employees injured during employment with the City, i.e. Sehestedt and Hattan. 7. Discussion of "equities" with Bob Eichem. 8. Rule of 80 AGENDA & SCHEDULE FOR NEXT MEETING The next meeting will be February 6th at 1:15 p.m. in the Finance Conference Room. The agenda will include: 1. Nearly -final Draft of Administrative Changes 2. Employee Communication Program 3. Third Quarter 1991 Investment Report 4. Standing Rules Draft 5. Rate of Participation in 457 Plan (ICMA). ADJOURNMENT The meeting was adjourned at 2:55 p.m.