PB 02/17/2009 Minutes - Laserfiche WebLink

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Police/Fi~•e Pension Board Meeting Feb~'llal y 17, 2009 Page 3 7. Attorney's 12eport -Scott Christiansen Mr, Christiansen began the report by reminding the Board that financial Disclosure forms will need to be filed by each member before July 1, 2009. He then confirmed that the Annual Report for the Pension Plan had been filed. The Board was informed about the impact._of Iegislaton_passe.d.in_the_re.cent..sessiai~that affects _ _ 1751185 plans. Pension plans are naw allowed under State law to permit the "buyback" of time serve in another police or fire service agency but it only pertains to agencies within the State of Florida. The Pension Plan could allow buy back of time served with agencies outside of the State if the City passed an ordinance to authorize it. The terms of trustees can be changed fi•om two years to four years. This is optional. Should a retiree stays enrolled in the City health plan the first $3,000 in premiums can be excluded from taxable pension benefits reported to the IRS, Legislation has expanded this feature to include premiums paid by the retiree to arty health plan. For this to apply the City must pass an ordinance. It does not apply to early retirees. It requires that the Plan deduct insurance premiums from pension benefits and the Plan must pay for the insurance directly. Payments made by the members will not count. The plan has been limited to placing no more than 10% of its investments into international securities. That threshold has been raised to 25% if an ordinance authorizes it. The plan is now prohibited from owning securities that have investments in Iran or Sudan in their portfolios. The Pension Plan has until September, 2010 to divest. Termination provisions have changed. At this time if the City was to terminate the Pension Plan all members would become 100% vested no matter how many years of service have accrued. The City is obligated to see that all members are paid out an amount equal to their accrued benefits. If plan assets are insuffrcient the Ciry is obligated to contribute sufficient funds to pay all accrued benef ts. 8. Miscellaneous. New member of the plan -Katrina Spiak, as of Apri113, 2UU9 9. Old Business The results of the third election of members on the question of whether to approve the addition of a benefit enhancement called a "Share Plan" were discussed. All eligible members returned ballots. The ballots returned were 49 -Yes and 17 ~- No. The benef t enhancement was passed by the members. It must now be forwarded to the City Commission in the form of an ordinance with the xequest that the ordinance be adopted. An ordinance has already been prepared by Mx. Christiansen for the propose of adopting a DROP plan which has already been approved by members. It would also serve to modify the plan to conform to changes within the Internal Revenue Code and Florida Statutes.