Personnel & Pension Board

Personnel & Pension Board Minutes November 20, 2012 Combined Regular/Investment Meeting Room 335,3rd floor, 6:00 pm, City Hall Building Norwich, Connecticut, 06360 I. Roll Call Meeting called to order by Paul Schroder at 6:01 pm A. Members Present 1. Paul Schroder (voting member) 2. Sarah Kannas (voting member-joined at 6:09 pm) 3. Scott Suplita (voting member) 4. Peter Barber (voting member) 5. John John (voting member) B. Members Absent 1. James Tetreault (alternate) C. Others Present 1. Brigid Marks, Human Resources Director, City of Norwich 2. Patricia Osten, P&P Board Secretary 3. Brian Curtin, Treasurer, City of Norwich 4. Thomas Trasko, retiree 5. Carl Bourne, Police Officer 6. Steven Schmidt, Police Officer 7. Cornelius Carmody, Police Officer 8. Donald Williams, retiree 9. Marc Shegoski, Sr. Vice-President/Investments, UBS 10. Ashley Martella, Vice-President/Investments, UBS 11. Retirees for the pension payment discussion II. Minutes A. Minutes of the 10/16/2012 Regular Personnel & Pension Board Meeting. Motion to accept the minutes made by Peter Barber; seconded by John John, all in favor. III. Old Business A. Possible discussion with pensioners regarding the processing of pension payments in- house. Approximately 12 retirees attended the informational discussion on the processing of pension payments in-house. Retirees asked questions regarding how their taxes would be affected, what would happen if the 15th fell on a weekend, would the retirees be charged for an ACH deposit, etc. Upon completion of the discussion, most of the retirees left the meeting. B. Request from Thomas Trasko to discuss the denial of a refund for his purchased military time. Tabled from the 10/16/2012 meeting. Discussion regarding when the cap was put into place and when Thomas began his purchase. The 35 year cap was put into place in March of 1995; Thomas began his military purchase in February of 1992. Peter Barber made a motion to refund Thomas Trasko's military time with interest, due to the fact that Thomas began his purchase before any caps were put into place on the amount of years one can receive credit for, seconded by John John, all in favor. C. Letter from Carl Bourne regarding the purchase of probationary time. Tabled from the 10/16/2012 meeting. Discussion with Carl as to whether or not he received his option to purchase probationary time before the original deadline. Carl Bourne indicated he did not. Paul Schroder made a motion to allow Carl Bourne to purchase his Personnel & Pension Board Minutes November 20, 2012 Combined Regular/Investment Meeting Room 335,3rd floor, 6:00 pm, City Hall Building Norwich, Connecticut, 06360 probationary time, due to lack of documentation, by approving this request the Board is in no way setting precedence for future requests and each such request will be reviewed on a case by case basis, seconded by John John. Sarah Kannas requested further discussion. Sarah asked if he was originally denied to purchase this time, no he was not. It was noted there was a group of employees that did not sign paperwork sent to them regarding their probationary time nor their beneficiary forms. Sarah Kannas asked if there were changes to procedures to alleviate this in the future, Pat Osten indicated she informs employees at orientation. Peter Barber amended the motion to include item III. D., Steven Schmidt's request. Paul Schroder further amended the motion to suspend the agenda and to include item IV. B. under new business with this motion. Seconded by Peter Barber. Sarah Kannas questioned the buyback period and whether or not we charge interest on the amount due. Sarah Kannas further amended the motion to include interest charged from the time they should have originally bought the probationary time to now. All in favor. D. Letter from Steven Schmidt regarding the purchase of probationary time. Tabled from the 10/16/2012 meeting. Approved, see item III. C. above. IV. New Business A. 2012 third quarter review of the OPEB Fund and the Retirement Fund with Marc Shegoski and Ashley Martella of UBS. Marc Shegoski distributed ElectionWatch 2012 v. 4, a report from the UBS Wealth Management team designed to guide investors through this political season. Marc spoke of the market outlook, he indicated now that the election is over, not much in the political make-up has changed, Obamacare is here to stay and should result in higher insurance rates, at least for the first couple of years. Balance sheets are still cash strong for U.S. companies; the Fiscal Cliff is now an immediate issue with a 70% chance it will begin with a tax on the wealthy. Interest rates should stay low through mid-2015. The Euro zone is still in the forefront, Greece is going through the austerity they voted for; however, Germany, Finland and France are now having problems, Moody's downgraded the debt on France and put Germany on watch. American companies are beginning to bring jobs back to the country; much has to do with the price of energy. The pension fund increased in value from $135*654,897 as of 6/30/2012 to $139,147,254 as of 9/30/2012, OPEB increased in value from $5,658,250 as of 6/30/2012 to $6,800,370 as of 9/30/2012 which includes $900,000 in contributions. B. Letter from Cornelius Carmody regarding the purchase of probationary time. Approved, see item III. C. above. C. Letter from Nicholas Rankin regarding the purchase of probationary time. Nicholas Rankin's letter was not received in Human Resources by the deadline of October 29th. Sarah Kannas made a motion to deny Nicholas Rankin the opportunity to purchase his probationary time, seconded by Peter Barber, all in favor. D. Notification of death(s): Notification acknowledged by Paul Schroder, seconded by John John, all in favor. i. Marcel Blanchard (DOD 10/10/2012), survivor of Teresa Blanchard (DOD 9/14/2004) who retired from BOE on 6/23/1984. Personnel & Pension Board Minutes November 20, 2012 Combined Regular/Investment Meeting Room 335,3rd floor, 6:00 pm, City Hall Building Norwich, Connecticut, 06360 E. Application(s) for retirement: i. Priscilla Howe, Para educator at BOE, for a normal retirement eff 11/16/2012. Motion made to approve the retirement made by Peter Barber, seconded by John John, all in favor. F. New employee(s): Motion made to acknowledge the new employees by Paul Schroder, seconded by Peter Barber, all in favor. DATE OF NAME POSITION HIRE CITY/STATE Customer Acct Debra Bensko Rep/Cashier - NPU 10/31/2012 Gales Ferry, CT Apprentice Sewage Trtmt /Collections Derek Schwab Operator 10/22/2012 Colchester, CT Robin Dauda Fire Code Clerk 11/5/2012 Norwich, CT G. Employee(s) to be admitted into the City of Norwich Employees' Retirement Fund: Motion made to admit the new employees into the fund by Peter Barber, seconded by Scott Suplita, all in favor. ACAD PROB EVAL/REQUEST DATE OF GRAD PERIOD FORM NAME POSITION HIRE DATE UPON: RECEIVED ON: Manager Food Tracy Michaud Services-BOE 10/24/2011 N/A 11/23/2011 10/26/2012 Para educator Min Wang -BOE 4/23/2012 N/A 11/5/2012 11/9/2012 Network Tech- Brandon Gale BOE 10/1/2012 N/A N/A 11/14/2012 Secretary - Karen Wright BOE 8/13/2012 N/A 11/9/2012 11/14/2012 V. Correspondence A. Letter from Donald Williams. Donald Williams spoke, he indicated his questions were answered by the previous conversations with both the pensioners and the review with UBS. He thanked the Board for their participation on the Board. VI. Adjournment Motion to adjourn made by John John; seconded by Sarah Kannas, all in favor. Meeting adjourned at 7:46 pm Respectfully submitted, Patricia Osten, Secretary