05-10-07 vCITY OF ATLANTIC BEACH
BOARD OF TRUSTEES OF THE ATLANTIC BEACH PENSION FUND
GENERAL EMPLOYEES PENSION BOARD MEETING
May 10, 2007
1. The City of Atlantic Beach General Employee Pension~Board meeting was called to order at
6:03 P.M. Those members in attendance were Trustees, Tim Townsend, Tony Downing and
Malcolm Clemons. Richard Downes and Harry McNally were absent. Also in attendance were
Nelson Van Liere, Plan Administrator and Michael Calloway of Merrill Lynch. Georgia Horn
joined the meeting for the discussion related to her disability retirement application.
2. -The General Pension Board again selected Harry McNally to serve another four year term
that expired March 27, 2007. The new term will be from May 10, 2007 until May 9, 201 1. The
motion was made by Tim Townsend and seconded by Malcolm Clemons. The selection was
unapimously approved.
3. Approval of the minutes from the Febraary 8"', 2007, General Employees Pension Board
Meeting:
The motion was made by Tim Townsend and seconded by Malcolm Clemons. The minutes were
unanunously approved.
4. Meeting Calendar Established
The board established August 9~` 2007 as the date for the next regular board meeting with the time of
the meeting being 6:OOp.m.
5. Merrill Lynch investment Consulting Report: -Second Quarter -Fiscal Year
Discussion related to the financial presentations given by Michael Callaway. Results for the quarter
were very good and Mike expressed that so far the changes made in the portfolio have proven to be
good for the plan.
The overall fiscal year to date return for the General Pension Plan is 06.6%. Domestic stocks
are up 8.4%, Foreign investments up 11.8% and the Fined Income investments were at 2.7%.
6. The Plan Administrator also made the board aware of a Sta#e Division of Retirement fetter
indicating two issues to resolve fn our state report. .
The first issue was a comment concerning the relationship of Mone~Managgrs listed and
Merrill Lynch. Mr. Calloway drafted a letter explaining the relationship and sent it to the Plan
Administrator. The letter clarifies that Merrill Lynch only provides performance measurement and
consulting services and does not manage the assets themselves. The board agreed that they fully
understand the relationship and that no conflict of interest exists.
The second issue is that the State Division of Retirement deemed our Dron PIan Assets to
beplam assets instead of employee assets. The City's drop plan only allows deposit to the I.C.M.A.,
a plan sponsor selected by the City. Because they have been deemed plan assets, we need to split the
Police and General plan investments into separate accounts. The board directed the administrator to
proceed with the necessary paperwork.
8. Finabcial Expenditures:
The board was provided a detailed listing of expenditures through the fiscal year second quarter.
Malcolm Clemons made a motion to accept and Tim Townsend seconded; the vote was unanimous
in favor.
9. FTTP Upcoming Events calendar provided, no issues discussed.
10. The Plan administrator reviewed the annual actuarial report and informed the board
members that the report was provided to the City Commission. The only concern discussed by
the City Commission was the funding levels. The administrator directed them to page D-3. This
indicated that the General Plan funding status improved from 69.3% to 72.4% from the previous
year. It is hopeful that this is the turning point in the trend we have been waiting for.
11. The Plan administrator reviewed the opinion of the General Pension Board's attorney Robert
Sugarman, of Sugarman and Susslund to deny the disability benefft applied for, based on the
information provided, pursuant to section 2-279 a of the Atlantic Beach Code. This letter was also
sent to the applicant whereby the applicant forwarded additional information to the Plan
administrator. The Plan administrator informed the board that he had forwarded all of the additional
information to Ken Harrison, the attorney working on this application for Robert Sugarman and that
he had received the information, and had determined that it did not change his opinion and that a
letter to that affect would follow but would not be ready in time for this meeting,
The plan administrator also explained, as it was explained to him by Ken Harrison, that
Section 2-286 Subrogation rights would come into play if a disability benefit were determined to be
justified. This would allow the pension board to be reimbursed for the cost to the plan for providing
the benefit that was the result of an act of a third party. The plan administrator explained that that
would mean the boazd has a claim on the applicant's award in the amount of the disability benefit.
Board members Tim Townsend, Tony Downing, Malcolm Clemons along with Georgia Horn
discussed various points of the case including her eligibility to apply based on the definition of
disability, dates and other information establishing a timeline of events, the decision of social
security as it relates to the disability and the selection of a doctor to evaluate for the purposes of
determining a disability, A letter from the City Manager's administrative assistant who supervised
the applicant was discussed as well as the subrogation rights of the board to have a claim On the
applicants court award.
The applicant claimed that she was in fact disabled at the time of employment termination and that
she had medical documentation using the word disability in them.
She also claimed that the City failed to give guidance to her when she terminated because staff did
not tell her to put in her resignation letter that she was leaving because she was no longer able to
perform her duties.
She also claimed that her award was between her and ABC and that had nothing to do with the City
of Atlantic Beach and therefore she does not agree that the city has subrogation rights to her award.
Tony Downing expressed that vt%e are not making a motion here at this meeting, but simply giving
direction to the plan administrator that after hearing from the attorney, Ken Harrison, for Georgia to
work with Nelson to obtain any further information necessary to reach a decision on this case. All
agreed.
12. The Forms Packet provided was approved, Tony Downing made the motion, Tim Townsend
seconded it and the motion was unanimously approved.
13. Adjourn - Motion by Tim Townsend at 7:34pm
~~
Tim Tow nd
Boazd Chairperson
Tony Downing
Boazd Secretary
Minutes taken ead prepared by Nelson Van Liere, Pension Board Administrative Manager, 247-5807
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