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HomeMy WebLinkAboutRetirement Committee - Minutes - 10/05/2000Retirement Plan City of Fort Collins FORT COLLINS GENERAL EMPLOYEES RETIREMENT COMMITTEE OCTOBER 5, 2000, MEETING MINUTES COUNCIL LIAISON: Mayor Ray Martinez COMMITTEE MEMBERS Approved on November 2, 2000 PRESENT: Terry Van Cleave, 221-6321 Bill Switzer, 221-6713 Dottie Nazarenus, 204-4429 Susan Lehman, 221-6813 Alan Krcmarik, 221-6788 ABSENT: Michele Hays -Johnson, 416-2158 OTHERS PRESENT: Sue Wilcox (Staff —Clerical) Julie Depperman (Finance Staff) Deb Weedman (Human Resources) Nancy Wagner, Milliman & Robertson (the Plan's actuary) CALL TO ORDER: Chair Susan Lehman called the meeting to order at 1:20 PM. ITEMS OF NOTE: Michele Hays -Johnson had notified Susan in writing that she would be absent. Greg Tempel and Vincent Pascale did not attend due to other commitments. APPROVAL OF MINUTES: Alan Krcmarik handed out the September 7, 2000, draft meeting minutes. Nancy Wagner suggested wording changes to Item 5, the Actuarial Firm's Scope of Work. Terry Van Cleave moved to approve the minutes as revised. Dottie Nazarenus seconded the motion. The Committee approved the minutes unanimously (5-0). DISCUSSION TOPICS: 1. PLAN MEMBER COMMENTS: No comments. 2. REPORT ON COLORADO PUBLIC PENSION CONFERENCE MAIN POINTS: Greg, Julie Depperman, and Deb Weedman attended the Colorado Public Pension Conference in September. Greg attended a session involving a change in the state law regarding investment restrictions. He wrote a memo with an article to the Committee and staff suggesting a review of the Plan's Investment Policy. Deb reported that a main discussion item was related to Self -Directed Brokerage accounts. This option allows employees to invest their defined contribution and deferred compensation money in stocks, options and other investments not offered in most plans. The ICMA Retirement Corporation offers this program. Deb also noted that many of the entities at the meeting have member -boards for their 401 plans. Deb said there was a lot of emphasis on providing employees with educational opportunities related to pensions and retirement planning. One entity pays for a 1-2 hour session with a Filename: Gmin1005R 300 LaPorte Avenue • P.O. Box 580 • Fort Collins, CO 80522-0580 • (970) 221-6788 • FAX (970) 221-6782 GERC Meeting Minutes October 5, 2000 Page 2 of 4 financial planner for the retiring members of its defined benefit plan. She suggested that the Committee might want to look at this idea. Julie attended a presentation on retiree health benefits. A benefits administrator from Westminster described how employees could designate a portion of their defined contribution plan to be used for medical coverage when they retire. The downsides to the designation are portability and city administration of the medical benefits. CONCLUSION AND NEXT STEPS: If there are questions about the information in the memo or article, please contact Greg. 3. DISCUSSION OF STANDING RULES MAIN POINTS: Susan distributed copies of the Standing Rules for the Retirement Committee. After review, the Committee agreed to make the positions listed in the staff support section more general. As Committee member terms now begin in January, the Committee agreed to move the election of GERC officers and the review of the standing rules to February of each year. CONCLUSION AND NEXT STEPS: Alan moved to approve the revisions to the Standing Rules outlined above and Susan seconded the motion. The Committee approved the motion unanimously (5-0). Copies of the revised Standing Rules will be distributed at the next meeting. 4. DISCUSSION OF RETIREMENT PHILOSOPHY Alan asked that this item be moved to the next meeting's agenda. 5. DISCUSSION OF ACTUARIAL FIRM'S SCOPE OF GERC WORK & ACTUARIAL ASSUMPTIONS Nancy requested this item be moved to the November meeting. 6. GERC WORK PLAN — 2001 MAIN POINTS: The Committee is required to submit a Work Plan for next year to the City Clerk's office for Council review. Susan presented a list of items for the Committee's 2001 Work Plan. The new items include adopting and implementing Plan changes related to the Full- time -- Part-time issue, restating the Plan to meet IRS guidelines, and working with the actuary on revising the Retirement Philosophy. Deb suggested the Plan handbook be revised because of changes that are not in the 1996 edition. Deb also reported that the salary data has been entered in the new benefit computation program for the current members and she is working on the position status changes and salary data for the deferred vested members. She asked if, as part of the 2001 Work Plan, the same data should be entered for current retirees. Alan stated that only data since the end of William M. Mercer's term as actuary was being verified. Nancy noted that there have been a number of new retirees since 1994. It was suggested that the data be compared on a sampling of members who retired since 1994, to see if there is any variation. A decision on whether to include retirees and beneficiaries in the database can be made at that time. • • GERC Meeting Minutes October 5, 2000 Page 3 of 4 CONCLUSION AND NEXT STEPS: The Committee concurred with including the Work Plan items mentioned above in the 2001 Work Plan. Susan will revise the list and bring it to the November meeting for final consideration and approval for submission to the City Clerk's office by the November 30 deadline. 7. FOLLOW-UP ON FULL-TIME EMPLOYEE — PART-TIME EMPLOYEE EQUITY EDUCATION PROGRAM CONCERNS MAIN POINTS: The Committee members briefly reviewed discussions with the members who had requested they be contacted about the part-time —full-time issue. Alan reported that he had not yet met with the Transport employees about their concerns, but he hoped to within 10 days. CONCLUSION AND NEXT STEPS: A draft of the questions raised by members about the Part-time — Full-time Issue Paper and the Committee responses from the last GERC meeting is being reviewed. It will be distributed to all Plan members as soon as it is finalized. The next steps for implementation include drafting the wording of the Plan changes for Committee consideration and approval before submission to City Council. 8. PROCEDURES TO CALCULATE BENEFITS MAIN POINTS: Deb reported that all data for current employees has been entered in the database of salary history and she is entering data on deferred vested employees from their files. Much of the data for deferred vested members involves changes in status, that is, to classified from hourly or contractual. Julie reported that the forms provided by Milliman and Robertson for terminated employees or those who have requested retirement benefits have been revised for clarity and relevance. Different forms are needed to cover different situations: (A) A terminated employee who has earned a benefit at retirement of less than $100, (B) A member wanting to begin receiving retirement benefits, or (C) A member requesting a single -sum payment upon termination. The new information and election forms for each situation should allow staff to catch up on requests received for benefit calculations. CONCLUSION AND NEXT STEPS: Deb will continue to enter all the classification changes and will calculate salaries in cases that involved mid -year changes in salaries. Julie will have sample benefit election forms at the next meeting. Staff will continue creating and testing a report that will extract the necessary year-end information from the JD Edwards payroll system. 9. MONTHLY INVESTMENT UPDATE MAIN POINTS: Julie reported that as of September 15, all shares of IAI Regional were converted to the Federated Capital Appreciation Fund. Alan recommended continuation of sales of this fund because it is a large -cap growth fund and the Plan already holds enough assets in this category. Staff plans to liquidate the investments in this fund by the end of the year. Alan noted that the person who directed investment at Janus funds resigned earlier this year, and the new managers appear to be competent and capable. Also, the chief financial officer at Janus recently left, so staff will continue to watch these funds closely to see what the leadership changes might mean for the Plan's investments in Janus funds. GERC Meeting Minutes October 5, 2000 Page 4 of 4 CONCLUSION AND NEXT STEPS: Julie will have the full third-quarter report at the next meeting. SCHEDULE FOR NEXT REGULAR MEETING The next regular meeting will be Thursday, November 2, 2000, at 1:15 PM in the Council Information Center (CIC) of City Hall West. The tentative agenda includes: 1. Citizen Participation and Plan Member Comments 2. Consideration of the October 5, 2000 Minutes 3. Retirement Philosophy Discussion 4. Discussion of Actuarial Functions 5. Consider Plan Change in Calculating Part-time Service Credit 6. Progress on Benefit Calculation Database & Election Forms 7. Consider approving the 2001 Work Plan 8. 31d Quarter and Year-to-date Investment Report 9. Other Business ADJOURNMENT: Susan adjourned the meeting at 2:17 PM. GERC AND GERP WEB PAGE ADDRESS: htt://www.ci.fort-collins.co.us/CITY HALL/BOARDS COMMISSIONS/RETIREMENT/index.htm FUTURE MEETING SCHEDULE: The Committee normally meets at 1:15 p.m. on the first Thursday of each month in the Council Information Center, City Hall West. The next scheduled meeting will be Thursday, November 2, 2000, at 1:15 PM. The Committee will hold remaining meetings for 2000 as shown below: It e 2001 CALENDAR THURSDAY, JANUARY 4, 2001 THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 1, 2001 THURSDAY, MARCH 1, 2001 THURSDAY, APRIL 5, 2001 THURSDAY, MAY 3, 2001 THURSDAY, JUNE 7, 2001 OF THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 2, 2000 THURSDAY, DECEMBER 7, 2000 THURSDAY, JULY 5, 2001 THURSDAY, AUGUST 2, 2001 THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 6, 2001 THURSDAY, OCTOBER 4, 2001 THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 1, 2001 THURSDAY, DECEMBER 6, 2001