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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2017-11-14 NEERB MINUTES• • • NONEMERGENCY EMPLOYEES RETIREMENT BOARD MEETING Novembe r 14, 2017 Chairperson Wo odward called the regular meeting o f th e Englewood NonEmergency Employees Retirement Plan Board to order ar 3:30 p .m. in the Public Works Conf e rc nce Room of the Civic Center, 1000 Englewood Parkway, Engl e wood, Colorado. Members Present: Members Absent: Others Present: David Henderson, Employee Representative Scott Edwards, Employee Representative John Moore, Council Appointee (By Phone) James Phelps, Council Appointee Kathleen Rinkel, Director of Finance and Administrative Services Jim Woodward, Chairperson, Council Appointee Carol Wescoat, Recording Secretary Steven Yates, Council Member (No Notice) Wendy Dominguez, Innovest Portfolio Solutions Jerry Huggins, Innovest Portfolio Solutions Leslie Thompson, Gabriel Roeder Smith and Company Joan Weber, Benefit/Risk Manager (left 3:45 p.m. and returned at 3:52 p.m.) Maria Gonzalez, Director of Human Resources (arrived 3:33 p.m.) A quorum was present. ***** Seating of Scott Edwards, Employee Elected Board Member The Board welcomed and congratulated Mr. Edwards on his election to the Board. His term ends February 1, 2020 . Approval of Minutes MR. PHELPS MOVED TO APPROVE THE MINUTES OF THE AUGUST 8, 2017 REGULAR MEETING. MR. HENDERSON SECONDED. Ayes: Nays: Absent: The motion carried . Edwards, Henderson, Moore, Phelps, Rinkel, Woodward None Yates Gabriel Roeder Smith and Company (GRS) Ms. Thompson distributed a paper reviewing some of the pension reform proposed changes in the tax bill. She commented about some of the items that are being considered in the bill that would possibly impact the City's plans. She referred to the Application of UBIT to State and Local Government Plans on page 3 of the paper. The said this is a mechanism that could tax the NERP trust and asked Ms . Dominguez to address this for the Board. • • • Ms. Dominguez said that it relates to anything in the portfolio that re LJL i; :·~~s l ~v ern g e. She said that in the past this is a tax that pension plans have been exempt from and now are potentially luol ,in: at being taxed. She explained that this has applied to foundations for quite some time. It requires that the foundation file a tax return even if they are not for profit if they has this unrelated business income. The products in the NERP portfolio that could potentially be taxed are the real estate funds, because they use leverage on the properties that it owns. Innovest checked with the Principal and was told that the tax would be very minimal based on the amount of leverage they employ and how they bill. The investment that could be is Master Limited Partnerships (MLPs), however the investment product that the NERP uses is in another corporation and that type of corporation is called a blocker. The other corporation actually pays all the taxes for the investment. Regardless of how the tax bill comes out, Innovest does not believe affected. It will be something that Innovest will watch to be sure there if there is any unrelated business income tax that they will let the Board know as soon as they know because it will be the Plan has to file a tax return. Ms. Thompson asked if the forms do not need to be filed if they is no unrelated business tax. Ms. Dominguez confirmed that is their understanding. Ms. Thompson added that while attending the annual actuarial conference, there were discussions about mortality. She said there is a public sector mortality table study underway scheduled to come out in 2018, but it is more likely to be 2019. The reason for a separate public sector study is there is an anomalous behavior when you factor in the public sector lives. She reviewed that various factors that influence the reasons for living longer if one works in the public sector. What this means to the Board is that in few years the Board will review the mortality tables again after the study becomes available. Every year GRS looks at the Plan to evaluate the status of the Plan's mortality tables. Mr. Henderson asked when GRS looks at mortality rates is the data localized for Colorado for the Plan or is it nationwide. Ms. Thompson explained that it comes in two pieces; the tables are taken from the broad United States data bases, such as civil service, Social Security, for that data. When she does the evaluation each year, she looks very localized. She looks at the NERP and compares it to the data. She then measures how it performed; positively or negatively against the NERP assumptions. She does not have a table that is Colorado specific as a standard table. The Plan's mortality experience is measured against a very large group of people. Retirement Approvals and Notifications: a. Consideration of DROP Application for Nicholas Johnson b. Consideration of DROP Application for Jack Standlee c. Consideration of DROP Application for Kevin Hill d. Consideration of DROP Application for Mitchell Riley e. Consideration of Retirement Benefit Application for Glynn Parkman MR. PHELPS MOVED TO APPROVE THE BENEFIT APPROVALS AND NOTIFICATIONS. MR. HENDERSON SECONDED. Ayes: Nays: Absent: The motion carried. Edwards, Henderson, Moore, Phelps, Rinkel, Woodward None Yates f. Notification of DROP Application for Jose Hernandez g. Notification of Death of JT Spurlock ( 1/6/17), retiree, and approval of benefit for the Beneficiary MR. PHELPS MOVED TO APPROVE THE NOTIFICATIONS AND BENEFIT APPROVALS F AND G. MR. HENDERSON SECONDED. NonEmergency Employees Retirement Board Meeting 2 of5 • • • Ayes: Nays: Absent: The motion carried . Edwards, He nderson, Moore, Phelps, Rinkel, Woodward None Yates Notification of Qualified Domestic Relations Order for Larry Medina, Retiree The board reviewed the information -no approval is necessary . Innovest Portfolio Solutions, LLC a. Portfolio Review Ms . Dominguez reviewed the highlights of the third quarter Portfolio Review. She said the total fund's return for the quarter was 2.93 percent, which was .5 percent more than the Custom Benchmark. It has been a good year for the market. Ms. Dominguez explained the graphs on page 9 that demonstrate the resilience of the U.S. economy and the cautious stance regarding rate hikes . She commented on the graphs on page 10 through 12. Innovest has new way to look at Global Equity Indices. She said that green indicates good returns and red is poor. The page has only green and the brighter colored the green the better the return for all periods. The next pages include various charts that reflect the other indices. She said that Innovest, as a firm, is updating their capital market assumptions and they will bring what their expectations are for the portfolio at the February meeting. If there is a different way of configuring the assets to attain the 6 .5 % return target with possibly taking less risk. Innovest will be confirming if commodities are still good to have in the portfolio or if looking at the MLPs and the percentages of the mix. Mr. Huggins reviewed the current investment allocation and where the funds were at the end of the quarter. Mr. Huggins reviewed the Manager Score Card on page 18, noting the reasons where there are areas of minor concern or changes. He reviewed the minor concern status of the Harbor Capital Appreciation fund has been monitored because of some of the holdings. The holdings have been working for the fund and is reflected in the fund's performance. He commented on the Thornburg International, PIMCO Unconstructed Bond and Harbor High Yield funds and the minor concern shown for each fund. Mr. Huggins reviewed the funds' performances for the quarter and summarized some of the changes, highlighted impacts to the funds during the quarter. Ms. Dominguez said that it is important to notice that Custom Benchmark has no fees where the NERP funds' performance is net of all fees. It has been able to outperform the custom index by 2.5% for the last nine months even after the fees . Mr. Huggins continued outlining where the outperformance in the quarter has been from the large cap active managers and real estate funds. He reviewed each funds' performance. He commented on the impact of the catastrophic events as it relates to the reinsurance fund and reviewed the how the performance of this type of fund is achieved. He continued indicating that whenever there are large loses for insurance companies, it NonEmergency Employees Retirement Board Meeting 3 of 5 • • • usually follows that rates are high er so ti .s:= ~·"~·'kl be the benefit of higher returns or yields from the increased prem iums. Chairpe rson Woodward asked if there seems to be n1 02·c events globally this pa st year. Mr. Huggins said it is the events in the southern states that have imp ~.c ted the fun d. Mr. Hu gg ins outlined the Plan Sponsor Peer Group Analysis on page 24 that demonstrates how the Plan compares to other public plans. The Plan h as had good strong positive performance and good performance relative to its peers . Chairperson Woodward asked if the additional purchase of reinsurance asset is happening at a low point because of the events. Mr. Huggins explained the process that the reinsurance fund uses when the fund is going to be open for additional purchases. He said the reinsurance fund was closed to purchases other than for current investors. The additional purchase was made at the end of the quarter. Discussion followed regarding the fund price fluctuations during some of the events and the fact that much of the damage was caused by flooding, which is not insurable . Maria Gonzalez, Human Resources Director, Proposal of Plan Document Changes Ms. Gonzalez introduced herself and explained that the she has been tasked with use the resources and make it more effective for the City. She has looked at the Plan and she thinks it can be improved and wants to get the Board's opinion on it before she comes up with a specific plan. The first item is that there are currently two retirement plans for non-exempt employees. The NERP and NonEmergency Employees Money Purchase Plan (NEMP). In order to capitalize on the numbers, they would like to close the NERP to new participants and provide only one plan, NEMP, for the new employees hired after January 1, 2018. Ms. Gonzalez and Mr. Keck, City Manager, agree that it will be more efficient to try to work the people into one plan and then they can play with incentivizing the participation by offering more money, by spending the City money by combining into only one plan there is 1. Two plans for exempt and non-exempt. Offer only one plan as of January 1. Close to new participants JM ask about the task presented . JM what is the appropriate questions wants some materials to make decision. 2. DROP -Maria would like to DROP the DROP. She said the idea behind the DROP was to Created as succession planning. It is a deep underperformance to substituting the drop with a negotiating a cash balance . DH asked if it needs to be for new drop or the impact on the existing drop. JM -Understand the level of influence is appropriate. *****As for copy of board duties from plan doc Notification of Board Employee Elected Vacancy -David Henderson's term expires February 1, 2018 Mr. Henderson announced that he is not seeking another term on the Board. NonEmergency Employees Retirement Board Meeti ng 4 of 5 • • • The Bo a rd thanked Mr. Hend e rso n hi s years of se rvice on the NERP Board. Membe rs' Choice The next Board meeting will be February 13, 2018 . The Board adjourned at 4:33 p.m . Isl Carol Wescoat Carol Wescoat Recording Secretary 5 of 5 NonEmergency Employees Retirement Board Meeting