Volunteer Firefighter Relief Fund Committee

City of Norwich Volunteer Firefighters’ Relief Fund Committee Minutes Special Meeting November 3, 2014 The Volunteer Firefighters’ Relief Fund Committee held a special meeting on Wednesday, November 3, 2014, at 5:00 p.m. in Room 209, City Hall, Norwich, Connecticut. 1. Roll Call a. Members Present: Richard Benoit, Taftville Thomas Quinley, Yantic Joshua Pothier, Comptroller John John, P&P Board Appointee Brigid Marks, Human Resource Director Gary Evans, City Manager Designee Red McKeon, Occum Past Chair Robert Aldi, Citizen Appointee Joseph Kochanski, Laurel Hill Donald Leary, East Great Plain b. Members Absent: Karen Mankowski, Occum Richard Benoit called the meeting to order at 5:03p.m. 2. Minutes: the October 8, 2014 meeting minutes were reviewed. The following changes were noted: a. The meeting was held on a Wednesday not a Monday. b. Red McKeon was present, not absent. c. Spelling correction for Mr. Crowley. d. Date correction to January 2015. e. A motion to accept by Josh Pothier seconded by John John. Approved. 3. Treasurer’s Report: Not presented 4. New Business a. Refund Requests: None b. Bills: None c. New Member Applications: None d. Application for Benefits: None e. Volunteer Firefighters’ Relief Fund proposed changes: 1. Yantic Fire Department supports all changes except for the change of increasing the Years of Credited Service from 20 to 25 Years-of-Service for vestment in the Plan. 2. East Great Plain Fire Department supports and concurs with Yantic’s recommendations. a. Question: If the maximum Years of Service drops from 40 to 30, how would the payout be increased?  City of Norwich Volunteer Firefighters’ Relief Fund Committee Minutes Special Meeting November 3, 2014 b. Very few of the EGP membership are actually veterans that would be able to take advantage of the four (4) years of military buy-back time. 3. Laurel Hill Fire Department does not support changing the dependent age from 24 to 18 years of age. (Brigid Marks and Josh Pothier confirmed that there is no additional life insurance death benefit for the volunteers.) a. Recommends keeping the maximum number of Years of Service at 40. b. Does not support changing the Years of Service from 20-25 in order to be vested. 4. Mr. John raised concerns over the cost of the Plan in its current state. 5. Mr. Aldi stated that in every sector, people are giving back when it comes to their retirement benefits. Pay increases to $4.00; Mr. Aldi supports going with the higher rate. See excerpt from email correspondence: “What my proposal is simply this; if they want to keep the years of service and age at what it is right at this present time, then the contributions into the fund should be increased ($$ amount is up for discussion), or make the eligibility for retirement go to 25 years of service and the age goes to 60. This way here, it shows a little give & take on the part of the volunteers. Pension funds or relief funds are slowly on a decline to the point that some companies, public sectors and government are starting to get away from them and going to a 401K, and quite frankly the pension funds and relief funds that are currently in place cannot continue to sustain without additional contributions on the part of the employee or benefactor as the case may be. Economically we do not know what the future holds but we do know that good faith negotiations can go a long way.” 6. Question: The volunteer firefighter has a minimum age of 55 versus paid firefighter with no age limit to collect pension (i.e. the paid firefighter could potentially retire at age 43 per the new contract requirement), should the Volunteer age criteria be reduced to match the Fire and Police contracts? Should the age requirement be increased more? 7. Ms. Marks stated you rarely in today’s contract negotiations do you see an increase, there must be some concessions. There seems to be a campaign to counter act the increase from 20-25 years. 8. Brigid Marks asked Josh Pothier if it would be beneficial for Tim Ryer to cost out various scenarios. $218, $264, Comp 21%, Payment 21% more. a. Possibly keep at 20 years but retire at 60 years of age. b. Josh Pothier stated that he believes that we currently had enough information, however, he would re-evaluate. 9. Taftville Fire Department – question: would it be beneficial to look at implementing a pro-rated benefit for retirees with credited service between 20 and 25 years? (i.e. From years 21-25, the rate would increase 20%, so that at year 25 the increase would be equal to 100%.) a. Recommend to keep the term at 20 years in order to be vested in the Plan. b. Dependent age – agree with change from 24-18 years. c. Agree with the proposal to reduce the credited Years of Service from 40 to 30 for maximum Years of Service.  City of Norwich Volunteer Firefighters’ Relief Fund Committee Minutes Special Meeting November 3, 2014 10. Red McKeon reports that the Occum Fire Department has no specific objections to the proposals as voiced at the monthly meeting. a. However, the membership did not agree with changing the number of years needed for vestment to 25. 11. All attendees agreed that we need to be prepared to vote on November 17, 2015 – following a pre-vote open discussion. f. Codification: Josh Pothier reported that Mike Driscoll should be prepared to weigh-in regarding the codification and the use of a preamble statement that would allow defaulting to the original ordinance if specific questions or issues arise that are not clearly defined or conflict with the original intent of the Plan at our November 17, 2015. He will give his opinion on a blanket statement up front in the new document to address potential future issues or conflict. g. Pension Funding Policy Ordinance will be discussing the following topics at the P&P meeting: 1. City contributions 2. Funding policy for future years for all plans 3. Smooth outs – big increases and decreases to make contributions and payouts more evenly distributed 4. Reference Document GASB, Governmental Accounting Standards Board, Statement 68 h. Next regular scheduled meeting is Monday, November 17, 2014. A motion was made by Thomas Quinley to adjourn the meeting, seconded by Donald Leary. Approved. Meeting adjourned at 1754 hrs. Respectfully submitted, Thomas G. Quinley, Secretary