Fire Pension Board - Regular Meeting

The time is 11.03 a.m. on Tuesday, September 8th. City Clerk Dan Vessels is calling the Fire Pension Board meeting to order. I'll note for the record that we have a quorum with Finance Director Barbara Lopez and Member Gary Turner. So do I have a motion to approve the agenda? So moved.

Second.

All those in favor? Aye. consideration of minutes from the June 9th meeting. I would like to have one correction. Yes, sir.

I would like it noted that the mayor did not attend. We will make that adjustment.

Is there a motion to approve the agenda with the noted correction from Member Turner?

Move approval.

I'll second.

All those in favor? This might be Kurt. I just heard the elevator.

I did too, yeah.

Could be.

Give it a second.

It could be Kurt. It could be the individual that was working. Yeah. We've got security cameras. They don't see him anymore, but they don't know if he's in the elevator. Yeah. I don't hear anything. All right. Moving on to item 4A, the financial updates. Barbara?

Thank you. The financial update is pretty much the same. It's on page 3 of the packet. We did receive our fire insurance premium tax, which was just over $102,000 this year. So that's been steadily climbing. It's an indication that fire insurance premiums have just been going up and up and up, but it does provide a good chunk of the funding necessary for this fund. Interest income is still coming in pretty decently. We do expect our pension payments to be right around $200,000 for the year. And then there is the professional service other costs of $11,500. That is the cost of the actuarial report that we will be getting to here shortly. Fund is doing well. We've still got significant funding moving towards the future. And as always, the city's responsible for paying these pensions regardless of the balance that's in that fund.

What is the price in the after study?

It is the $11,500. Yeah, it is.

And that's required every two years?

It is required every two years by accounting standards. So yeah, we have to pay for that every two years. And again, the city would always be kicking in the money for that, to cover that particular piece of it. If you've got any other questions, I'm happy to answer them.

I don't. I will move to approve the financial reports. I second the motion. All those in favor? Aye. We'll move on now to report B, the pension calculations.

So that starts on page 4, and it's pages 4, 5, and 6 are the backup for that. In July, as you're probably very well aware of, only Trout's changes, and that's just based on a CPI. So that is what is reflective in these particular documents. So that change went in effect July 1st. Any questions on that?

No. Have we ever... Did we send an inquiry?

We did.

Yeah. Okay. Because I think he's in Iowa or something like that. Yes. We don't...

Yes, we did. Dana in HR has been sending them. When was it?

It was... Floyd Butler. Yes.

And she's had contact, I believe, with Floyd Butler, but I know she sent inquiries out.

Okay. Because we... With Barnhart, we had that issue.

Yes. And with Barnhart, it was, yes, it was an issue in that we did not do our due diligence in giving survivor benefits. Yeah.

They'd been married so many times. How many times have you divided?

Yes. So we do have parameters in place for that. But yes, Dana has been planning on doing inquiries out at least once a year. Okay, great.

I move to approve the pension calculations as of July 1st. I second the motion. All those in favor? Aye. And I don't foresee actuarial evaluation.

So, thank you, Dan. You attached the entire packet to it, and I'm not going to go over the entire thing. As I mentioned a minute ago, it is required every two years, and the liability of this fund is actually reported on our annual financial statements as a liability, and it's those financial statements that require the actuarial report every two years. On Page eight, just on the summary level, this valuation is as of January 1st, 2026. So that's when they pick the first day of that particular year as their valuation. So whatever was in place at that particular point in time is the data that they used. I don't think anything has changed since then, but that's the actual date of it. Again, I'm not gonna go through every single item on here. So basically just two real highlights on pages 12 and 13. Page 12, it comes up with down at the very bottom, it says total present value of future benefits, $2.173 million. That's the number that ends up on our financial reports as a future liability. We've got approximately 45% of that on hand right now in the fund balance. We're not required to have it 100% funded in advance, but we've got a good portion of it on hand. And then on page 13 is just their prediction of what we will pay out in pension payments each year. And that gets updated regularly. every two years. We don't take it as gospel. We actually have to go through all the calculations like we do, but they do this so that we've got a good idea moving forward.

2055, I don't know.

My guess is that it won't be going quite that late, but I want y'all to stick around as long as y'all want to.

So there we go.

The rest of the report is basically just like backup information, their analysis, what they take a look at. Honestly, some of it's easier to follow than other pieces of it. Some of it can read like Greek actuarial. Actuarial folks are very particular in how they word things. But the rest of it is basically just backup data. We at the city don't. don't do a ton with it. It's mostly those earlier amounts that we pay most attention to. So, happy to answer any other questions.

Okay. I will move to approve the actual evaluation as of January 1st.

I'll second it.

All those in favor? Aye. Is there any other business for the good of the order?

Nothing. I don't have anything.

Great. Then our next meeting is scheduled for Tuesday, December 8th at 11 o'clock. I'll just note for everyone here, do the holidays instead of sending out my email two weeks prior, asking if there's anything to be put on. I'll probably do it three weeks, two weeks prior to that, I believe is the week of Thanksgiving. Everybody's going to have family commitments going on. So you just may see that notification from me moved up and then we'll publish the agenda on December 1st and we'll have that year-end meeting on December 8th.

And that will definitely be my last one. And I'm guessing, I don't know whether Central Pierce is negotiating a new contract. No, I don't know. I don't know. So I don't know if we'll have that.

I know because they added a shift. It's not going to be much of a pay raise. Okay. Well, they added a shift a year ago.

Right.

So that was a 25%. Right. So it didn't help us retirees.

No, it did not. So just depending on how, you know, if we have those rates for 27, it may just be a very, very light.

Well, yeah. There is a basic on, you know, like on my pension, there's a minimum.

Yes. Yes. So we will. And definitely planning on doing what it is now moving forward. But depending on what happens with those pay scales. Yes. We may or may not have updates. So.

There's no other business. The time is 1112 and the fire pension board meeting for September 8th is adjourned. Well, thank you. Awesome. Thank you. And good luck.