Police Employees Pension Board Meeting Minutes - 12-11-141
CITY OF ATLANTIC BEACH
BOARD OF TRUSTEES OF THE ATLANTIC BEACH PENSION FUND
POLICE EMPLOYEES’ PENSION BOARD MEETING
MEETING MINUTES
December 11, 2014
1. The City of Atlantic Beach Police Employees’ Pension Board meeting was called to order at
6:32 P.M. The members in attendance were trustees: Vic Gualillo, David Cameron, Bill Tomson ,
John Wolfel, and Tim Saggau. Pension Plan Administrator Nelson Van Liere, and Investment
Advisor Michael O’Shields also attended.
2. Courtesy of the floor to visitors. Chris Jorgensen gave a brief overview of family history
mentioning his Uncle Jean Viborel, Magnum Cum Laude, fluent in seven languages and the work he
did at Johnson Wax. He spoke about how much he enjoys the Pension Board meetings. He was
extremely impressed after the October 9th and October 16th meetings when Michael O’Shields
advised the Board of possible upcoming market fluctuations and facilitated the Boards plan of action
to handle these changes.
3. Approval of the Minutes for November 13, 2014, Police Employees’ board meeting. Motion to
approve was made by Vic Gualillo and seconded by David Cameron. The vote to approve was
unanimous.
4. Michael O’Shields led the discussion on investment performance as of 11/30/14 including year
to date information.
a. Michael presented a new format for the monthly portfolio review. This new report
consolidates the Police and General Pension Plans into one report. The Trustees
would like to include information comparing our plan to other similar plans to see
how we are doing. Michael will add a benchmark page and scorecard. Members
also discussed doing an expanded quarterly review like they did in the past. It was
agreed to do this and will include manager rankings and performance matrix. This
information will be based on month end results.
b. Discussion related to current allocation and rate of return. The current plan has
67.8% in Equity, 5.5% in Fixed Income and 26.7% in Cash. The ending portfolio
value of $8,219,554 represents an annualized return of 7.6% for the period
11/30/11 to 11/30/14.
c. The Board discussed further changes to the allocation of cash and the performance
of the small-value account GW Capital. David Cameron made a motion to move
$408,813 from GW Capital into Columbia Management. Bill Tomson seconded
the motion and the vote to approve was unanimous.
d. It was agreed that for the January meeting Michael will provide information
including Target / Index / Return, Comp Analysis as of December 31st, and
alternative investment opportunities including REIT’s.
5. RFP Consideration for the replacement of the current Financial Advisor.
a. Bill Tomson said he was not happy with the comments made during the last
meeting by Pension Board Attorney Scott Christiansen saying this Pension
Board is “stock picking” and Bill does not agree with this. He said they meet
and do analysis and make decisions based on performance. Michael O’Shields
agreed and said they do “Risk Reward Analysis.” Under value accounts need
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change of action and returns are achieved because of low risk. John Wolfel
said he wants to see where this plan compares to other plans. John and Tim
Saggau want to have more input from Michael since he is the expert. Vic
Gualillo asked Michael if the Board had made any wrong decisions and
Michael explained that it will take time to see the benefits of the changes made
over the last six months. Michael said that a 70% equity share will provide a
better return than a 60% share and so the changes made will do a better job.
We are making policy decisions not “stock picking.” John Wolfel spoke about
his idea of preparing an RFP for a new Financial Advisor was not to
necessarily terminate our contract with Michael O’Shields but to give other
advisors a shot. He said other cities rotate their financial planners and auditors
and they usually do three year stints. During the process we get new ideas.
Nelson gave an overview of the pros and cons with changing financial advisors
and said the main reason to continue with one would be the knowledge base.
Michael O’Shields excused himself from the meeting so the Board could
further discuss the desire to begin the RFP process. John Wolfel made a motion
to begin the RFP process and Tim Saggau seconded. John discussed the basic
process and Nelson reiterated the parts of the process as it occurred in the past.
There was more discussion regarding the Foster and Foster report previously
provided by Scott Christiansen and our ranking. Tim Saggau said this report
showed our low ranking and Bill Tomson said we don’t know if the returns
from the report include expenses and fees. John said he wants to make sure he
is doing his due diligence and Nelson said yes that is each trustee’s
responsibility. Tim Saggau asked what other ways are there to measure
Michael’s performance other than not hitting the 8% target. Nelson explained
the Board Review Committee made the effort to place Finance minded
members on the Pension Board and Michael is following the direction given by
those members. John would like more direction from Michael. Bill said each
Board Member can vote no to any of the items up for a vote but so far the
items have all been unanimously approved. Michael will do what the Board
instructs him to do. Tim Saggau would like more options from Michael. John
Wolfel withdrew his motion and Tim Saggau withdrew his second.
6. Acceptance of 2015 Quarterly Meeting Dates – 2015. The agenda included the meeting dates
for the 2015 Quarterly meetings sent by Scott Christenson.
7. New business – No new business
8. Adjournment – David Cameron made a motion to adjourn the meeting at 8:07 PM.
__________________________ ____________________________
Vic Gualillo David Cameron
Chair Secretary