Auditor Selection Committee - Regular Meeting

9AM. I will call this meeting to order. This is the city of Northport Firefighters Pension Local Action Trust Fund Board of Trustees quarterly meeting. The time is 9AM. Let's do a quick roll call. David Haws?

Present.

Howard Beers?

Here.

Scott Duff? Here. Timothy Robinson?

Here.

Quorum determined. Scott Duff is going to be chairing the meeting today instead of Terry McLeod, and so a motion would be in order to seat him in that position for today.

So I'm gonna just say so.

Motion was Scott Duff to be the acting chairman for 09/19/2025.

Second.

Any further discussion? All those in favor signify by saying aye. Aye. Motion carries. Acting chair. Take

it Pledge of allegiance.

I pledge allegiance to the flag of The United States Of America and

to the Republic for which it stands,

one nation under God, indivisible, with

liberty and justice for all. All

right.

Alright. Any public comment? No cards? K. Approval of minutes for the 06/20/2025 meeting.

David, I'll just make a motion to approve the previous meeting minutes as read.

There's a motion

to approve. However, a second.

Second. Any further discussion? Hearing none, seeing none, we'll take a vote. All those in favor, say aye. Aye. Passes unanimously. The consent agenda. Christie, on the consent agenda, it's

just Sorry.

They didn't finish the order.

Yes. I apologize.

It's okay. No. I'm just yeah. I just it's all three items.

Yeah. You know what? The the tablets are actually out of order.

Okay.

So the consent agenda let's see. Let me get you guys to that page. I actually had it down. Doug Lozen actually needs to be he needs to leave soon to get to another meeting, so I put him up first.

Still got a lot of

margin He's actually slightly different, so let me just get to the consent agenda. That's fine. Starts on page Okay. Hold on. Let me find my bookmarks.

119 of 142 in your packets. And just to explain to Timothy, who's new on the board, the consent agenda consists of three items. One is any paid invoices that you're just ratifying. In this case, there are two payment warrants that were sent to the custodian bank, Salem Trust Company, to pay. They've all been paid.

So you can see on the summary of payments what warrant number they were sent under, what date they were sent for payments, and what the invoice represented and how much. Now the summary is really the easiest thing to look at, but all the invoices are behind the summary of payments. So if you scroll through, you'll see a plan administration invoice, an invoice paid to the city of Northport, to Mariner for investment consulting fees. James Reno is for Mariner over here. A travel reimbursement to Scott Duff, a travel reimbursement to Terry McLeod, a travel reimbursement to David Haws, another plan administration invoice, and so on and so forth.

So if you ever have any questions about any invoices, certainly let us know and I'm happy to go over those. There are no new invoices to be paid today. But there's one other component of the consent agenda on page 130 of 142, and that's the fund activity report, which is just any member or retiree activity impacting the fund, either money going in via somebody purchasing service credit, for example, or money going out. In this case, cost of living adjustments were effective October 1 for the listed retirees. So that's also part of the consent agenda being ratified today.

Perfect.

Do you have any questions?

Nope.

Okay.

Thank you.

Are there any questions from any other board members? If not, we'll just need a motion to approve the consent agenda.

Motion to approve the consent agenda. Howard Burst.

I have a

motion to approve the consent agenda.

Second. I a second.

Any further discussion? Hearing none, see none. So I'll take a vote. All those in favor, aye. Aye. All right. New business. Actual services fees. This

is my item. I appreciate going early. Normally, if I'm going to ask for a raise, I go right at the end with my hat in the hand. The hat is still in the hand.

And just a moment since now we're going back to page five of the agenda packet is the letter from Doug, page five of 142. It's actually pages five, six, and seven.

It's kind of a busy schedule. So I think I give you a quick summary of it. That chart on the second page of our letter shows all the different things that the actuary bills for all the different work. Clearly, the valuation is the big item. And then you've got all the little items under that, all the different reporting, benefit calculations, annual report, so on and so forth.

And we've been your actuary for a long time. So the current fee structure, for all those items came in at different points in time. But on average, the current fees that you're paying went into effect a decade or more ago. The only item that goes up automatically right now is the valuation fee. So what we are asking, we've actually did this with all of our clients the last couple of years, because our expenses as a company is like any other company.

It goes up every year about inflation. We're asking on a go forward that we some of the fees initially were asking for an increase effective tenonetwenty five. That's the new baseline. And then from there, it would go up at whatever the consumer price index is. When we first did this for our clients a couple of years ago, everybody was there was a lot of heartburn because that's when inflation was super high.

The last three years inflation has been right around 3%. So that would be our expectation going forward. So here's the summary. If you approve the proposed in comparison to the current that you're paying, it would the first year would go up about $3,000 That means that what you would pay us compared to what you would have paid us is about $3,000 higher. All in for the actuary, you're paying us about $35,000 a year.

This is not your administrative side. This is just the actuary side. You're paying us about $35,000 in an average year. So the initial increase would go from about 35,000,000 to $38,000,000 as the baseline. And then from there, it would go up whatever inflation is.

There is a little bit of an offsetting savings. As I mentioned, the valuation fee that you're currently paying now has been going up every year at 5%. Everything else has been stayed exactly the same. On a go forward, the valuation fee would go up at whatever inflation is. So no longer at 5%. The valuation billing would go up at whatever inflation is. So assume like 3% or so. So that's the request. I hope I summarized it. But I'm happy to answer questions.

You said we haven't had any fee increases for probably the last decade.

Except for the valuation fee, everything else has been flat on average for the last ten

years or James, you deal with a lot of plans different than besides Foster and Foster's actuary? Yes. Our fees are pretty much in line in the industry or

Yes. We work with Foster and Foster across a lot of plans. They have such a big presence in Florida, right? They're highly competitive. They also have scale going for them. They have the admin side, the actuarial side. They do a good job. We do expect their fees to be competitive.

And is

it in the budget? Assuming there's a budget here. I mean

There it is.

Yes, there is a budget. I think

Mr.

Chairman, to the extent it's helpful, I can give you an opinion that this is not at all unreasonable. This is in line with the cost of doing business these days. So I I just you didn't ask for my opinion, but I thought I should hear it.

Thanks for giving it. So

in a year when CPI is down, if that were to happen, it remains flat? That is true.

Let's say CPI by the way, the CPI coming up for this upcoming year that our clients have already agreed to this, they would go up 2.7%. Last year, was three That's actually lower than the last two years. I guess all the COVID inflation is over and done. But that is correct. Let's say we had negative inflation, yes, Then we'd actually take a pay cut the next year. That's correct.

And then I just have another question, Doug. I'm looking at the little, bar graph kind of below that, and it's showing these, basically like per hour for special circumstances?

Yes. So

can you define some, like, in our plan specifically, what would define a special project? And how often in your experience do they take place?

Very good question. Senior consulting actuary, that would be me. Let's say you wanted you needed me to do some special studies An experience supplement, experience study, union negotiations, whatever. The billing rate would be four ten. If there was, say, some kind of special benefit calculation out of the ordinary, normally, we just build a flat, which is 3.28.

But if there is some additional scenarios, we would tap into the actual analyst rate, which would be three zero one. That fee schedule down there is usually never invoked. Those are for special type projects. Almost everything is the above chart. Cover almost everything.

No circumstances you can think of on the horizon for us where we would be using that and it would be like some exorbitant amount of staff hours, not that you can think of?

No. We've got all the share plan stuff behind us, right? So Hopefully. That's really the only thing in recent memory where I'd be tapping into that four zero one is probably with studies like that. Now it may come on the horizon. Maybe the union comes back to you at some point and says, hey, we're bargaining. And yes, it's a close plan, but we would like x, y and z. But really, at that point, you can say, okay, union, fine. You pay it. Pay them $4.00 $1 an hour. So the answer is almost never do the does that bottom schedule kick in. It's for special type projects.

Thanks.

All right. Any other questions? I'm happy with your service, so I'll entertain a motion.

I'll make a motion to approve the Foster and Foster fee increase.

However, I have a motion. Do I have a second?

I'll second.

Second. Any other discussion? Hearing none, I'm none. Sick of vote. All those in favor, say aye. Aye.

Passes unanimously. Really appreciate it. I'm going to leave on a high note because I do have to the only reason I asked to go early is because I have to head up and do another meeting up in Lake County. Share plan allocation this year, we're all the reimbursement is fully done. So drum roll, dollars 500,000 going to the share plan.

Is that after the city takes their 250,000

Yes.

Wow. Wow. Okay. That's good. Yes.

The state monies came in $100,000 higher than last year.

And Doug, would you I've had a few phone calls from some members that I just forwarded them to talk to either pretty much Chrissy. But have you seen any other people Chrissy, maybe? I guess this would be Chrissy maybe a little bit. Have anyone contacted you or anything regarding whether they were eligible or not eligible?

I have not. The only person I've been communicating with was Mitchell Diaz. I sent him some forms for his accumulated balance, but there are no no one else.

Okay. And maybe this is to Paul then. If anyone had a question regarding if they were eligible, would it be, Doug, you read the ordinance and implement that, right? Yes. Okay. Not Paul to determine that, okay. Just had some people that would get

I'd help if there's a hiccup.

If there's a right. And I think a few people have said, I'm included or I'm not sure if I'm included because there was when we negotiated that fifteen years ago, it was when you were parked, invested, you didn't gain any new benefit until you took your retiree when you were 50 and you went. Okay. Just was curious. Thank you, Doug.

Appreciate it.

Appreciate you guys very much. Okay.

Nothing else for Doug then? Let's see here. Update on trustee terms. Chrissy?

Yes. So Dave's term is expiring September 30. He is a member elected trustee. So I really just wanted to touch base with you guys and see how you handled member elections at the fire Department. I am happy to have Foster and Foster send an email to all the active members and say, Dave's term is expiring September 30. If you're interested in serving on the pension board, please respond by x date. At which point, if we had a respondent or respondent, there would be an election. And if nobody responded, Dave would be back on the board. That is assuming you want to stay on

the board. Yes.

And we could also post something on the portal. We could also do a physical flyer. It's really To what extent we do this, you guys advise, and that's how we'll proceed.

And it is an active member, so they truly have to be still working? Can it be because sometimes that was in question,

and I

guess that would

Sometimes the language is that drop participants can vote or they can serve as, but not vote for, member I elected will clarify that and make sure that whoever gets the email is eligible to serve on the board.

Okay. And it's not a retiree then, but like you say, it would be the last 28 guys that are working?

Correct. Usually, it's when the membership falls active membership falls below 10, I think. They let retirees serve in member elected positions. That would have to be an ordinance change that the city adopt. And off top of my head, I don't know if that's in there. But for now, yes, active members only.

But you could send the email to those people that are included?

Absolutely.

Are

you guys agreeable to that? Is there another

I like the last time. I used to, as I was the secretary, would one: talk to the chief. Chief would say, Okay, yes, send an email. But I would love for someone else to pick that

up. Should we run it by the chief and see if he has a preference?

I just asking him when I used the city email.

Oh, that's it. Is there

a time frame that you know of that you send out those requests for nomination?

Yeah. Usually, we give a few weeks, and then we say respond to the plan administrator. We used to have previous plan administrator. If he didn't get any responses, he usually would come back to me and say, hey, didn't get any responses. And then I would just put out an email saying, hey, Dave's staying on board in this situation. Keep it easy. If you can handle that, that's awesome.

Yeah. So we don't need to run it by the chief?

I don't think so. I was only using the city email for that. So I don't know if you have

email for everyone that's Yeah.

Would be the only question.

SPEAKER So wait, you want me to use personal email? You

I don't care really personally at all because it's not blanketed. It's only 28 guys. He won't have a problem with that.

SPEAKER So it could be either?

I think so, yeah.

Or would you prefer it be uniform, like everybody gets it just to their city email?

Do you have personal emails for that's the one thing I think of when you enter the plan as a young lad. Don't remember, but back then email wasn't there. But maybe it was. I don't even know.

Shooters were Let's

even see what's

on this list. Looks I like think there's '28

is around there is what Foster and Foster had on there.

Pros or cons are sending it through your personnel chief, administration chief, have him send it up to 28 firefighters.

Just send an email and it goes

to someone's

calendar. Got couple of It's

a good point. Actually, I kind of like the idea of the work email.

I do.

And the list I have is just work emails.

Okay.

I'm sure from the portal, we have some of their personal emails. But I agree. It's like they have to their work email very personal. You know, I check mine like every three days. So, okay. So we'll do city emails.

Yes. Sounds great.

Okay. Cool. And I will send it?

And you'll let us like you say, it'll be next meeting if no one if someone does put in for it, I know there has to be an election. But we can I guess we'd talk about that at the next meeting then?

I'll keep you guys posted. Okay. If there is going to be an election, I guess, because his term expires September 30. Now that would hold over until, you know, another trustee was there. So I guess we could talk today if an election is needed, how you guys would prefer to do that. I have one going right now for Greater Naples Fire, and we just did an electronic ballot. We said first sent them an email and said, hey, on this day, you're going to get an email with a ballot. You may only vote once. The ballot will be open for, you know, ten business days. It will close promptly at time. We posted something on the portal, and that was that. And we can see the results coming in real time. It's kind of cool. But you may have a way of doing your elections.

No, I like that idea.

You like that? Okay.

We have to

go station to station, right? Oh, god, it was a nightmare. So

I mean, if that's Okay with you guys, if somebody responds and says, hey, I want to run for Dave's seat, then I'll reach out to you and say, there's going to be an election. Do you want me to proceed? I guess I'll talk to Terry and say, do you want me to proceed with that electronic election before the next meeting? Or do you want to talk about it in December and we'll go from there? Whatever you guys think. But the seat does expire at 09:30.

Right. But he stays on until we get another member anyway. And I don't see anyone putting because it's been vacant. Tim's spot here has been vacant for a long while. No one's

Well, he's a city appoint

He's a city. I know I had asked some of the guys that were in the city. He's like, hey, can you step up?

That's pretty common. A lot of people are intimidated. They're like, I don't know what this is. These guys have been on the board a long time. So maybe there won't be any responses. But if there are, I'll keep you guys posted.

Sounds

good. That's just what the 28 firefighters

Just for the active members of plan. Yes, sir.

Is it appropriate, Christie, in that message, though, to say that I do intend to retain my seat? Don't want 100%. Yeah, I do intend to do that. That can be so people don't think, like, oh my gosh, I'm happy.

That's right.

And yeah, I usually do that. It's just like, for the record, he does want to serve another term. But if you want to put your name in, an election will be held. Please let me know by x date. Cool.

Awesome. Thank you. You're welcome.

Is there any other terms expiring that we need to no. Don't or is it So

your your term ends 2026.

But we'll have two meetings before that.

Howard, your term ends 09/10/2026.

And you're a citizen?

Terry's seat will expire 10/01/2026, and then you're good till 2027.

Okay.

Thank you.

Alright.

Proposed meeting dates for 2026. Okay.

Let me get there here.

And Chris, we already have the one scheduled in December for this year. I think it

was December 19.

'19, is it? Okay.

We do. And I think we're scheduled for to be in this room again. I think we all prefer this to council chambers. I think, Sarah, maybe we talked about that last time. And you're like, oh, yeah, we can get

them in 02:40 Yeah, guys are in here. If this is what you prefer, this is where you guys will stay.

Okay. Thank you.

I like the gavel. It's powerful. But whatever.

I have a gavel at home from when I was a middle school teacher, so I can bring it to these meetings if you'd like.

Well, at that. You're asking me shall

we speak? I used to pound on the gavel at

work. Well,

I'm not anymore.

I take it all back.

Okay. So for 2026, the dates I've proposed, and I guess I'm looking ahead to see what days of the week these are. March 20 is a Friday. June 19 is a Friday. September 18 is a Friday. December 18 is a Friday. And these are really kind of just to get it on the calendar. Certainly, there are changes we need need to make, we can. And

you've contacted, like, Mariner, Paul, or or not yet?

Yes. And I know James, you know, I still haven't gotten back to you on that. He was considering maybe move did you bring any suggestions for alternate meeting dates? Okay.

Depends on everyone's schedule. Remember last meeting, we talked about maybe bringing it earlier because We did for the month. Yeah.

I like it. Yeah.

But if we're not prepared to discuss that today, maybe we plug it in for another year and we just keep that discussion going.

Or we could amend it going forward. I mean, maybe we get these on on the books so we have, you know, a reservation for the rooms. And then we don't need a motion to approve these. Maybe just by consensus, that way we can make changes as needed. Paul?

Yeah. Scott, I'll tell you. That I will be out of town that week of the eighteenth. I could probably see if Jim Brantley could cover that meeting. Or, I'm hearing some talk that that's pretty close to Christmas, and it might make sense to move it earlier. So You're I'll let you know that.

The '1 December 19 works for everybody.

Wait, Paul, are you talking about 12/19/2025? Yes. Oh, Okay.

I would agree with that. I think that know I'm gonna be out of

town too.

You're gonna be out of town as well? Okay. You got any issues with I mean, okay. So if the week before maybe?

Or Is

that '12?

Let me see.

December. Eleventh is a Friday. Eleventh. Oh, sorry. That's

Paul, what would work for you as well?

Like I'm looking

at the wrong year.

The week before possibly? I'll let you all because I think Yeah. Me and Dave are okay. Howard says he's not so

good on

the night. Shit. But

am not. I have a, I have a 09:30 meeting that day. If we did it later in the day, I could be here on the twelfth.

That would be really challenging for coverage.

Yeah, it would be. It works for me. Ten to eleven. Pretty flexible.

Okay. We can we don't have to be the twelve. Twelve starts shift day, so it's better if it's not. But

So it's better if it's not the '12?

Yeah. Yeah, it'd be better

if it's I could do the eleventh.

The eleventh or something. I like the eleventh.

You like the eleventh, Howard?

I like the eleventh.

I like that.

James, eleven? Yep. Okay. I guess we got it.

Eleven? I love that. I love

the eleven. Thank you for commenting. Awesome.

Oh, great.

Eleven? Yeah. Works great.

Right. And this is 12/11/2025, right? The next meeting.

I'll let you know if the room is available.

Twenty second.

So just give me one moment.

You, Stub Howard, you are in trouble.

But we could find a room possibly. If it's this room And

if it's not, then it would be in chambers?

Yeah. We'll fit it wherever we got to fit. See?

It's a win all the way

around. Right.

Good stuff. You don't have access to it, though. I

don't want to see this. Yeah. You guys are good for this room. Yes.

We're good for that. Okay. So December 11 I

just want to change so you're going to change your December meeting to December 11 just so I can get it on our calendar?

Correct. Yes. 12/11/2025.

Yeah. We don't need a motion for that. Right? Or do we?

Yes. Okay. Yes.

Okay. Thank

you. There's a motion to revise the next meeting date from December 19 to December 11.

I need a motion. To me, somebody.

I'll make the motion that we alter the date to 12/11/2025.

Okay. I have a second?

Second.

Further discussion? Hearing none, seeing none, we'll call for a vote. All those in favor, aye. Aye. Passes unanimously. Glad it worked out.

Awesome. Good teamwork, everybody. Nice.

Budget. Chrissy, how are we doing?

So on your tablets, this is page nine of 142. And do you go by Tim or Tim. Tim. So for Tim, the Florida statutes require police and fire plans to operate under a budget of administrative expenses for each fiscal year. So because the next fiscal year is coming so soon, we approve this before October 1.

So these are administrative expenses only, not investment management fees. So your expenditure types are basically your plan professionals actuary, administrator, attorney. IME physicians fees are independent medical examinations fees in the event of a disability retirement. Those exams are not cheap. We have to send that, potentially disabled firefighter to a doctor that they've never seen before, someone that the attorney would recommend for a very independent view, not the firefighter's physician.

Auditor fees, your custodian bank, that's Salem Trust Company. Fiduciary insurance covers the board, for, you know, if anybody sues you guys for whatever it may be. School travel and dues, your investment consultant, which is Mariner, and then any miscellaneous expenses. And with the budget, you do not need to meet the budget. You just cannot exceed the total bottom line.

Okay.

And looking at what was budgeted for this year, I thought some of it was a little high. The actuary, I I'm glad I kept it at 55,000 because even though the actual expenses as of July were 35,000, you just approved a fee increase for Doug. And so I I'm comfortable with that. For me and off top of my head, I don't know what my monthly retainer is, but I did the math when I was preparing this, and I thought 50,000 was way too high to budget for me. So I dropped that some.

Maybe one day I'll come with a fee increase, but until such time, I don't think we need to budget 50,000 for me. Same with same with the attorney, you know, based on the actual expenses, and, you know, Paul is mostly here via Zoom, so no travel expenses and things. So I dropped that just a little bit. Let's see. The audit fees, dropped as well just based on the engagement letter that was in your packet. They quoted you a flat 12,500, so I didn't think we needed any cushion in that line. Custodial fees, fiduciary everything else, I kept the same. So I did drop it down. But, you know, if you guys are one that really likes a nice cushion budget and you prefer bigger cushions, I'm happy to make any adjustments. You guys just let me know what you think.

But if you like it, we do need a motion to approve this. Any questions or tweaks or anything?

I'm okay. You guys

Yeah. I'm fine with the Yeah. Proposed amount.

Yeah. Like, it went down 22,005. So yeah. Howard, do you got

any concerns or questions?

You never know. I just you know, with the attorney's fees and stuff like that, if we should stay.

Yeah. They don't like Where

you back up?

Let's just Chrissy,

I I see that the actual expenses are $1.35. What will it be on September 30? Can you guesstimate that for us so that, like, you know what I'm saying? We can see what the cushion would be?

Let me yeah. Let me see. Let me moment here. Because, obviously, some other invoices have been paid. And then I'm even looking at your summary of payments from today. It's like, what are so there are some things that haven't been factored in, but you guys are still pretty well under budget. But I'll check the spreadsheet. Give me one moment to get logged into the server.

Yeah. My opinion is if it's still significantly under the

Yeah.

It's under

two you know, $2.44, I would be comfortable doing that, making those adjustments. Okay. Hey, Paul. Has there ever been years where the attorney's fees were, you know, significantly higher than that proposed 25,000 that you can think of in our plan or any other plan? Okay. Never

ever. And that's the only reason I can think to have the budgeted amount. I'm proud that we were able to bring in our fees to one fifth of what was budgeted. But the only reason to do that would be an unforeseen litigation or something, you know, that this that we can't even anticipate. That that's the only reason to budget as high as we're budgeting for fees for attorneys.

Actually, my budget spreadsheet isn't showing

far as leaving.

You know, anticipated payables, so I'm not sure. I'm happy to follow-up with you after the meeting with a more current actuals. I just don't have it in this moment. It would take me

a few minutes.

It would still be a few.

If I'm happy to to revise it. We can always increase it. Because, again, you guys don't have to spend the money. You just can't go over the total bottom line. So I'm I'm happy to adjust it, and it can be approved as amended.

Yeah. It probably makes sense to keep the numbers higher because the budgets, as you know, projection and a wish list. And if you have to exceed the budget, you can do it. You just have to amend the budget.

And that's something I track every quarter.

So And if we have to, we amend it if if we had to. Okay. Any other discussion? Okay. I'll entertain a motion to approve the budget.

As presented, or did you want to make a revision anyway?

I'll Whoever wants to make a motion, I'm not making much.

David, I'll just make a motion to approve the proposed twenty twenty five-twenty twenty six budget as presented.

I have the motion. Do I have a second?

I would bear a second.

I have a second. Any further discussion? Hearing none, see none. Take a vote. All those in favor, say right. Summary plan description.

Yes. So, this is a longer document. Hopefully, you've had a chance to look it over. As the administrator, I've read it. It's current. It's updated, updated through the the most current ordinance amendment. This is supposed to be updated every two years and distributed to the membership. And, Foster and Foster prepares these summary plan descriptions. So I'm really confident in the information. I'm just asking you guys if you happen to review it and found anything that you disagreed with or had questions on.

I know, like you say, it follows the ordinances. But by being a closed plan, there's some things that it doesn't even touch people. Like all the active members were hired prior to that one tier where they all have a multiplier of 3.5. Discusses, like, things that aren't pertinent. But it doesn't matter. I it doesn't really matter, Paul, if it's in there or not. Like, if we all those employees have okay. Have since terminated. Okay. So, yeah. That's I just had looked over. There was a few things, but I'm fine if Paul's good with that.

Is there anything you think is in there that may confuse any of the members that could be stricken? Because I'm this comes from my office. Right? So I didn't do it personally, but it does come from my office. If there's anything you want removed because you're concerned, we can do that, re finalize it, and send it out with changes.

No. Like I say, I briefed over what we did last weekend. So nope. I'm okay with that. Anyone else have any?

I think the only thing I would ask going forward, Chrissy, if there are, like, changes to it, then maybe they could be, like, highlighted or something so we would recognize it. I mean, obviously, we do read the thing. But if there were Yeah. There were changes to it just so we draw our attention to it, like, oh, that's different or this changed or whatever based on new practices.

Yes. No. And I I apologize. It was sent to me as a a red line. And when I PDFed it, that's not how it came out. I'm happy to resend it. If you guys want to we could move this to the next agenda for approval after you've seen a red line version.

Were there a lot of red lines?

I would say it

was mostly like let's see if I let me see.

It's just one or two tweaks.

I think it was, you know, the drop extension, you know, was in there. Let's see. Where's the word version? And some, you know, just clean up. Let me see how much did she redline.

But no big policy changes?

No. Because the summary plan is really just a summary of the plan as it exists through the most currently adopted ordinance, which was, I think, February 2025 when the drop extension was passed. So okay. Wait. That's the IBS red light. Here it is. Summary plan description revised. See Let's what she did. Lots of, like, formatting things. She updated the third party administrator that's on page two from Dave Carroll to, to me.

On the same page, it mentions the most recent amendment to the plan was ordinance number, twenty eighteen dash 17, and she changed that to be twenty twenty five dash o six. Let's see. Lots of, like, just formatting changes. Okay. She included, she added a section on page six to the drop section that, about the ninety six months.

And anybody who is in the drop as of 02/25/2025, can also extend their drop. On page eight, she input, an example calculation, it looks like at the top. She wrote as an example of your average monthly salary at your normal retirement is equal to 4,000 your credited service is equal to twenty two years, then the calculation would be as follows. So keep going. Share plan distributions.

She added on page 15 a section, about financial and actuarial information, And that's about it. Do you want to see the red line version before approving? Because I'm happy to share it and then bring this back in December. There's no rush.

Like you say, the plan hasn't changed. It's closed. The only ordinance change was the drop, like you say.

Yeah. I don't wouldn't need to see a red line version.

I don't

know if it's just updating the statute or whatever ordinance.

Paul, like you said, there was things pre-twenty twelve when we tiered, but it doesn't affect anyone. It doesn't matter that it's in there. So I'm good with it. Anyone else have any other questions, concerns, or no? Okay. I'm assuming when we update it, it'll go to the portal?

We'll upload it in the portal and also email it to the membership.

Awesome.

Okay. Entertain a motion regarding the summary plan description.

I'll go ahead and make the motion that we accept the summary plan description as of today.

Second. Howard Marks.

I have a first and second on the summary plan description as presented. Any other questions, concerns? Hearing on CMN, we'll take a vote. All those in favor, aye. Aye. Passes unanimously. The auditor engagement letter

from Halton

SPEAKER Yeah. To be honest, I wasn't sure if this needed formal board approval. I've done it with other clients, and some I haven't had it formally approved. But this letter just basically lays out the scope of services and the cost. So for the audit coming up for the fiscal year that's about to end 09/30/2025, I guess I don't know the the legalese.

I imagine Paul has reviewed this letter and and can determine if it's appropriate to sign. But what I highlighted was just the, the scope of service and the fee on page 34 of one forty two in your packet. Wade said that they expect to begin the audit in December to issue the report no later than February 2026. And the fees will not exceed $12,500 And that's why I reduced it on the budget because they said not to exceed. So I figured there was no danger in going over. Paul, have you had a chance to review the engagement letter? And is it pretty standard?

Yes.

Okay.

And yes.

And you would agree that it is appropriate to execute today?

Yes.

Okay. Thank you.

So we need a motion for that, you're saying that?

Yes.

Entertain a motion for the make

a motion to approve the auditor engagement letter. How adverse.

I have a motion to approve the auditor engagement letter. I have a second. I'll second. We have a second. Any other further discussion? Hearing none, seeing none. Call for a vote. All those in favor say aye. Aye. Pass it unanimously.

All right. Thanks, guys.

Thank you. James. All right.

We'll just keep it rolling

here today. Let's get some good news here, right?

Well, we have good news today. It's very good to see you all. Please excuse me if I sound a little nasally today.

The,

endless Florida summer has kicked up my sinuses. But, welcome, Tim. You came to a busy meeting today. We do have a little bit of ground to cover. But I'm going try to move kind of semi quickly. Please slow me down, ask questions. But we're going to review the investment results,

this

report right here, that will be the main review.

Do you have any extras that

I can?

I love paper copies. I'm a paper person. Thank you

so much.

But as you'll see, despite all of the tariff related volatility that we've seen, it's shaping out to be another very strong year for the plan. And I don't know the numbers yet, but we have a couple more weeks until the end of your fiscal year. And if we're able to meet your return objective, this will be the third year in a row. So just fantastic results across the board for the plan. We'll also be doing an asset allocation study.

Remember, we talked about the alternatives portion of your portfolio, BlackRock. And while it was additive in a low interest rate environment where bonds really weren't doing work for us, now that we're in a new interest rate environment, we want to see what opportunity costs we have. And we do think position the portfolio going forward. If we split the BlackRock to equity proportionally and fixed income, that that will serve the portfolio better going into the future. So we'll discuss that today.

And finally, based on the decision there, we'll go over an updated IPS and some rebalancing recommendations. Okay? Okay. So just jumping into page one real quick. So as many of you know, each year, we try to give a firm copy letter to our clients just to let you all know what's going on under the hood here at Mariner. And this is a notable year because it marks a year and a few months since we partnered with Mariner and became Mariner Institutional. And I'm pleased to say it's been a great success. We just got our fourth year in a row of the Coalition Greenwich Award naming us best investment consultant. So we're really proud of that. We've had 99% client retention rate, 99% employee retention rate since the acquisition.

And the whole reason for the acquisition was so that we could make sure we're investing in the technological build out of our company, investing in our question. Great that's appreciate the trust you put into our firm. Okay? We'll get into the fun stuff now, market environment. So turning to page six.

And I don't want to beat anyone up with this today because we talked about Paris last time for a good fit, right? And really, the dominant theme driving markets really, even now through September for the whole year, have been tariffs, right, and trade policy and trade policy uncertainty. And in early April, to start the quarter, we had the reciprocal tariff announcements, the so called liberation days, where tariffs came in so much higher than anyone expected. And we saw a dramatic not only dramatic, but a historic pullback in the stock market. Since then, we've made significant progress with negotiations with big trade partners like China and EU.

And just today, I heard that President Trump is meeting with the president of China, And they're going to discuss possibly a TikTok deal, which people are thinking that could show that relations are improving between the countries, especially as it relates to trade policy. So we have significant progress there. And we've also kicked the can down on tariffs. So we have more time to negotiate, right? And we've seen the stock market just come roaring back, not only recovering all those losses from first quarter, but we closed out second quarter hitting historical highs.

And we just hit them. Yesterday, the stock market closed out at another historical high. So exciting year, exciting year for the plan. Looking at the numbers here, on the top right box there, you can see the S and P 500, just for second quarter twenty five, the broad stock market index, returned 11%. Now that's nothing to overlook, right? That's a big number. International markets, up 12%, just below that, the MSCI, Acquix, U. S. To date, the S and P five 100 U. S.

Stocks are up 13%. Year to date, international stocks are up 26%. So they just keep moving and keep growing. We confirm we're earning more returns. The Bloomberg US AG just below that. The US bond market returned 1.2%. So we got another pop there. Year to date, The US bond market has given us 6.5%, which is nothing to shun either. And a lot of that due to expectations that the Fed would cut interest rates. Good news is after nine months since the end of last year, we just got our first interest rate cut again yesterday.

So that's very good news. The problematic part of that is because it's not because we have inflation under control. Inflation's continued to be sticky. It's really because of a slower or weakening labor market. We had a bunch of new job growth numbers that were revised pretty drastically downward. And we've continued to get kind of disappointing job growth numbers. But the positive side is people are still out spending money. We're seeing very healthy consumer spending numbers. And we also have corporations that continue to be earnings. So all those big AI leaders, Microsoft and Nvidia, they just keep impressing investors.

So still the stock market is roaring as you saw with the numbers. So any questions there before we move into the portfolio results? Okay. So jumping all the way to page 15.

So on

the top left corner is where you started the quarter. So at the March, you had about $68,000,000 To close out the quarter on the top right, you landed at $72,000,000. And I'm happy to say that was a new high watermark for the plan. And I pulled your market value just yesterday, and y'all are over $75,000,000 now. That's amazing. Continuing to hit new high watermarks. Watermarks. I'm So checking my phone. Up $3,900,000 for the quarter. This came after $4,300,000 in investment earnings and then $400,000 in net distributions.

Remember, you're a closed plan, so you're paying out more in benefits than you're taking contributions, okay? Turning to Page 17. So Tim, this is a very important page, and this is probably the most important page in the whole book. And all this is, this is our long term strategic positioning. So we have the ingredients of investing, our stocks, bonds. Here, we have alternatives, real estate. And then we want to create a mix of those ingredients that gives us the dish that's going to hit our return objective. And this is just showing the mix we selected that strategically is going to get the plan to its return objective. This plan is a closed plan. It has a return objective of 6.75%.

So in the long term, we want to get that on average per year, again, in the long term. Sometimes the market is going to undershoot, sometimes it's going to overshoot. But looking out fifteen, thirty years, we want to hit that target.

On average, yes.

So on this page, you can see the vertical lines are your strategic targets. You want those green arrows to be close, reasonably close within the gray balance, right? And you can see across the board, the portfolio is well positioned, but domestic equity, the red there, domestic equity has had a huge run up, right? So it's over the upper bound of your policy ranges. And I am going to make a recommendation today based on what we decide with the asset allocation of moving about 3% from domestic equity.

So we're not taking it all completely off the table, but trimming some of those profits, moving them over to bonds. Any questions there? So jumping to the front page, Page 23, we're going to go into the plan results. Quarter to quarter, the plan was up 6.3%, outperforming your benchmark fiscal year to date of 5.5%. So very close to that 6.75.

I was able to calculate exactly where you're sitting today, right? It's still moving fast. We still have a couple of weeks. But I would imagine, given that $75,000,000 market value, that you're either right at that target or above it, just depending on cash flows too. So hopefully, the next two weeks cooperate. Again, a lot of volatility on the table, so we'll see how it plays out. But you'll see you're starting to lag your peers some, bottom 50% kind of across the board. Remember, we're still comparing you to open ended plans because we just derisked a little under three years ago. So basically, what we did is they became closed plans. So we took some equity risk off the table and put it in fixed income.

And once you have three years as a newly derisked plan, we're going to promote you'll see that second line item, the all public plans 30% to 50% equity. Those are your closed plans. We'll promote that. And that's what your rankings will show. But if you look across the board, that's the median return for that peer group.

You're outperforming it in every trailing time period, so at least top 50% of your peers across the board. Looking at the longer time periods, the three, five year since inception numbers, very competitive with your bench mark, each of those outperforming your actuarial assumption of 6.75%. So the plan has been well positioned. Going down, just going to focus on the fiscal year to date column. Total equity, again, this year has been the main driver.

We're still seeing the dominance of the AI theme, and that's up 9%, outperforming your benchmark at 8.8%, coming down a little lower to total fixed income, up almost 1.5%, outperforming your benchmark at 1% in the quarter. And you can see that one year number, 6.5% from your fixed income portfolio. Now you're diversified. You hold intermediate maturity bonds of five to ten year maturity bonds and short duration bonds too since we've been getting yield for basically zero risk and not taking on interest rate risk. And really, you don't hold high yield bonds.

These are the highest credit quality bonds. So we'll take 6.5% all day every day if we can get it for bonds. Coming down to alternatives, and this is your BlackRock investment, and this is what we're going to talk today. You can see fiscal year to date next to bonds, it's been a good diversifier, right? And if you go out to the five year number, almost 6%. Look at the five year number for total fixed income, 0.3%. It's not very attractive, right? But we were just coming out of a very artificially low interest rate environment. And in 2022, the Fed hiked interest rates. And we saw the biggest negative return we've ever seen in the bond market.

So all that's showing up in the five year. But going forward, if you look at the three and five year for the BlackRock returns, you're comparing that against percent global stock market index and a 50% US bond market index. And you can see it just fell short on the three and five year. And that's where GTAA is, global tactical asset allocation. In theory, it sounds very good because you're hiring a manager to be able to find yield in different markets across asset classes globally.

So that's attractive, which is very hard to do that in practice. So what we're going to recommend today is that we've moved 50% of that back to equity proportionally, 50% of that back to domestic fixed income. And you'll see each of your return assumptions about the same and actually slightly lowers your risk profile. Coming down to real estate, all good news there. We just had our fourth quarter in a row of positive returns. Tim, I don't know if you've been following the real estate market, but it's been a tough ride, really since COVID. It's been liquid. There hasn't been much transaction flow. It's just been a difficult get we're

to

we're got to ahead to of the curve, trimmed office space. So we are pretty excited for their prospects. And you can see fiscal year to date up 3.3% outperforming the benchmark. So overall, almost every single component of your portfolio is outperforming the benchmark and has been added to when it comes to relative performance. So any questions there before we get to the asset allocation study?

All right. I'll show one more page just to show you all that high water mark. If you go to Page 31. So Page 31, that blue line, shows since 2006 just the growth of the plant's market value from investment earnings. The gray line is how much over dues you've actually put into the plan.

So if you would have just put money in a shoe box and you had contributions and payouts from that shoe box, you would be about $16,300,000 because you invested it and invested it wisely at $72,000,000 So it just shows kind of what we're doing here and the beauty of compounding returns. Okay. So now we have the asset allocation study. Looks like this. And I have a few more things I'll pass out. I tried to anticipate what your decision will be today. If you'll go another way, we'll have to

delay some of these decisions. But

just turn into page one. And I'm a I'm a try to keep this brief. But the four left, policy, those are your current strategic long term targets. You've 37% domestic equity, 8% international equity, 40% fixed income, 10% real estate, and 5%

alternatives.

Now, when you put this into the model with the long term return assumptions of that mix, you can see the arithmetic long term return, 6.8%. So that's what we would expect, which is good because that's over your 6.75% return target, so well positioned. The standard deviation, which is just a measure of risk, how much that return is going to vary around that mean return of 6.8% on average, about 9%. Percent. So taking some risk there, we can't get compensated unless we deal with some risk in the portfolio.

That Sharpe ratio, that's just the squeeze. Am I getting the juice for the squeeze? That's how much return we're getting for each unit of risk we're taking. So Sharpe ratio, you want it to be as high as possible. Now when you go across the mixes, remember, these are long term return assumptions. So don't pay too much attention to the exact numbers. This isn't a precise science. Look more at the trend line and how it's moving. So you'll see mix one, the scenario is taking 5% from alternatives and moving all of it to domestic fixed income. Mix two, you take 5% from alternatives and move 3% of it to international or 2% to international equity and 3% to domestic equity.

So all that going back to equity. Now mix three and remember that 50% benchmark, global stocks, 50% bonds it's moving it proportionally to your equity and fixed income allocation. So adding 3% to domestic fixed income, 1% to international equity, and 1% to domestic equity. And you can see between your current policy and mix three, not only does it keep your long term expected return about 6.8%, it slightly lowers your standard deviation to about 8.9%, so a more attractive risk profile. So I'll just open it up for discussion. Are there any questions? Or however you want to

So you're the expert on this.

We like Big Street. We think

it makes sense, right? Not only do the numbers show it, right? Domestic equity and fixed income, especially where interest rates are now. Now the Fed started cutting interest rates, right? But we'll see how much they cut and how quickly. Maybe one day, we'll be back in that very low interest rate environment. But then we'll make a call then, right? But right now, that domestic equity fixed income split or total equity fixed income split is attractive. Because if you put all the 5% fixed income, you kind of lower your risk, and you can see the return assumption is actually below your return target. If you put it all in equity, it really does bump up your risk by like zero five percent.

So it's a nice mean. And that's when we went for GTAA, the BlackRock asset, when we went for that investment, we pulled from domestic equity and fixed income. So kind of parking it back from its funding sources.

And you want to get away from the alternatives?

Yes. At least GTA. I think like on paper, it sounds great. And like BlackRock, we all know who BlackRock is. They have some of the most impressive portfolio managers, right? If their team can't do it, maybe it's just very hard to do.

So hypothetically, James, the rates keep getting cut, they keep getting cut. Is that a space we would want to be back in?

I don't think so. Just based on what we've seen, we were kind of desperate there in the 2010s. We're in a low interest rate environment. So we're looking for yields because we've got to hit our return targets, right? And if bonds not doing their job, giving us a baseline low risk return, we've got to find that yield somewhere else without increasing our risk too much. At GTA A, that was the promise. Same, we went into real estate. We went into bank loans. We went into many asset classes to make up for this deficit. I will say some have been more successful than others.

Real estate has been great if you're in the right managers, but it's been tough. It's kind of a flip flop, right? Because nobody saw COVID coming. But there are if we're ever back in that environment, I would bring education. We would talk about several asset classes. Since we tried the GTAA thing, we'd probably look at other stuff first.

I like the idea of mix three knowing that it's derisking a little bit more. Like, that makes sense because we are a closed plan, we've talked about that. That's gonna be the methodology going forward anyway.

Yeah.

The only thing I would say, and, Doug, maybe you can answer this. This is kinda the first time I've been in a meeting and, like, Terry wasn't here. Is this something that maybe we table to discuss with Terry? Do you think he would be in agreement? Do you guys have an opinion on that? Like, I don't I don't think he would be staunch against any of those ideas, knowing that, again, like Tim said, James is the expert, and we rely on your guidance a lot of the time for stuff like this.

I can't answer for Terry. But like you said, the mix three does derisk. Our investment plan, we could change it if you want to say at any time, right? Yeah. Mean, if we waited till the next meeting, if we want, I mean, I don't see waiting, but Nick could always

change. Push we want this back, I don't see nothing's going to change overnight. We're looking long term. So I wouldn't be worried about that. We do have that overweight to domestic equity, right, on that upper bound. That's the one thing I would say we should take care of today.

Right. But I'm with you. The mixed three sounds sounds like Howard's shaking, and it sounds like that. So I'm not saying it doesn't matter. Yeah. No, I think Yeah.

I think We've been talking about getting out of alternatives for Yeah.

We have. Yeah.

Multiple meetings in a row. I know we've kind of, like, been entertaining that. We knew you were going to talk about this today, James. I don't I am not against doing that.

And just a question. If we you do the mix two, you're putting it mostly to domestic and then a little to international? Yeah. It just is increasing risk is what?

That's right. You see it jumps from your current nine percent to nine point four percent. And it really doesn't move the needle on that return or something.

Yes, the 6.9%.

And you can see the Sharpe ratio, we want that to

go up, right? That up.

We stay the same. And you can see it actually drops slightly. So we're not really getting juice for the squeeze there. It's not to say that your plan you have a closed plan. It's still very long term. It's not to say that you could potentially take that risk. But we have to understand your tolerances, where your minds are. There's more than one way to skin the cat, right? But a mix three, that is an appropriate position for the portfolio of giving you a return objective and especially the bonuses if you're comfortable with it.

I'm good. Anyone else have any other questions?

To be clear, the recommendation, you be an It's the next three. Yes, sir.

I'll entertain a motion if someone wants to make one.

I'll make a motion to adopt the mix three asset allocation, which eliminates alternatives as presented by Mariner.

Okay. I have a motion. Do I have a second? Second.

Howard Bergman.

Second. Any other questions, concerns? Hearing none, I see none. I will call for a vote. All those in favor, aye. Aye. Passes unanimously. Thank you, James.

Yeah. Appreciate it. Unfortunately, I have to beat you all up a little more. Now that you've made the decision, we'll do the obvious and some rebalance.

Last meeting was forty five minutes, James. You got some equity

today. Yeah. We're compensating. No free lunches, right? So the first page is just the IPS that we'll be covering.

Alright. So this this document right here. Now, Tim, this is just this is the major document that kinda governs the plan from an investment side. It says what we're going to invest in, what we're not going to invest in, what's our strategic position going to be, any regulations we need to think about, and how we're going to evaluate the plan. So basically, just keeps us on the straight and narrow.

And you can see just on the first page here, and this is really the only changes, just updating your IPS to that mix three with the appropriate ranges of plus or minus 5% across the board. And you'll see at the bottom, it's effective October. We'll go ahead and make the trades as soon as possible, but we won't update the benchmark in the report until October, start on a clean fiscal year. So we're comparing apples to apples, and we'll have a full quarter's work next quarter or fourth quarter of you all at this new kind of strategic Okay.

So we need a motion to approve this, right, Krissy?

Yes, absolutely.

Entertain a motion.

Make a motion to reallocate the funds as presented by Mariner in the new target allocations.

Motion. Do I have a second?

Second. I

have a first and a second. Any other questions? No. Hearing none, see none. Call for a vote. All those in favor, aye. Aye. Passes unanimously.

Awesome. Thank you. And I'll just need your signature too, Scott. Okay. Afternoon meeting. Yep. Okay. Last but not least, just kinda now that we have these new targets and we're selling out of BlackRock, what we're gonna do with that money and how we're going to put it to work so that we're at our new allocations. And you can see the first recommendation kind of towards the bottom here. You can see we're completely selling out of BlackRock.

Now that's going to move around based on what the market value of BlackRock is when we do sell it. So I do want you to know these are approximations. So we'll see where it ends up. But the balance, based on where your cash is, your sale and cash just for benefit payments and stuff, should go there. But basically, selling BlackRock, which is around $3,300,000 as of the time of this valuation, moving $2,800,000 to fixed income disproportionately so you're within your targets, and $300,000 to Fidelity International, your international index fund, and then the rest left in cash.

And you see that $225,000 kind of move into cash, just the balance. So that's the first recommendation. Are there any questions about that? So the second recommendation is, remember, we are overweight domestic equity with that upper bound. So you'll see we're selling $1,200,000,000 from our Vanguard total stock market index and then $1,000,000 from the MFS growth fund and reallocating that proportionally to fixed income along with the BlackRock assets.

So like I say, this is just showing getting rid of BlackRock and then putting it Move and then rebalancing the over weighted.

And moving it around. It is showing how it kind of moves your percentages around, but it does. And we could break it down. I don't think it's that important, but it brings us really close to all our targets. So we'll be well positioned going into the new fiscal year.

Okay. Do we need a motion for that or to rebalance?

Yeah. For both recommendations.

Okay.

You prefer Paul, do you think they should make two separate motions for these recommendations? Or can they do it all in one?

For me, it's fine if they do it in one. Either way, it doesn't matter as long as it's all on the record. And then there's, you know, a second and time for discussion. It can be it's fine if it's done in one motion. It can be two. Either way.

All right. Entertain a motion.

I'll go ahead and make the motion that we accept the rebalance recommendation as presented. As presented, I have

a motion. Do I have a second?

Second. David Hodz.

I have a first and second. Any other discussion, questions, concerns? All good? All right. Call for a vote. All those in favor, aye. Aye. Passed it unanimously.

Okay. So that was for the rebalance.

Yep.

Right? So I think we need one a separate one for the removing BlackRock and reallocating? Or was that all No.

He said it as presented. So it's on both of them. Perfect.

Sorry about that.

So Thank thank you all very much. That wraps it up for me. Thank you all. Thanks, Jim. Appreciate it.

All

right. Paul, what you got for us? Anything?

I have good news. There's no

news. That's awesome.

I said that in a meeting yesterday, and it got chuckled. So I thought I'd plagiarize myself. Awesome.

Okay. No. Nothing under old business, Chrissy? I see none here.

No.

Okay.

No. Thanks.

Foster and Foster. Chrissy?

Oh, yeah. I don't have much. Just an update on the state monies, which I put all the distributions in your packets. It's really Okay. Let's see. So you can see Northport on page oh, so many. I thought I highlighted. Yes. 139 of 142, and it's really small, but I did like to put the whole schedule of the premium tax distributions attributable to 2024 just so you can see comparatively. And I'll tell you how much you got last year as well.

But for, 2024, the amount that was already deposited into the pension fund this year is 493,000, $2.68. And I did the math yesterday. That is about $45,000 more than last year. So that's great to see. And like Doug said, that goes into the share plan. And as far as education opportunities, Tim, I always present anything that's available to the board. They have a membership with the Florida Public Pension Trustees Association, or the FPPTA. It's a board membership. And so that covers all of you. And I'm going to reach out to them and make sure you're on the roster if you ever want to attend.

There is a school coming up in a couple weeks. Registration is still open, but it'll be tight. Any of you guys go into the fall school up in it's in Jacksonville, so it's a hike. But I always present educational opportunities. If there's anything you see that you're interested in, let me know or call Foster and Foster and say, hey, I'm a trustee on the Northport Fire Board and I want to travel. Who do I talk to? Because I'm not a one person shop. There's a whole team of people behind me. So you call the office, it's not going be me answering the phone. But just say who you are, and you'll be connected to the right person.

Or you shoot me an email and say, hey, I want to go to this, and we'll get you signed up. Because these conference registrations are usually like $750 $850 We don't expect you guys to pay that out of pocket. But if you do, please let me know. We'll get that reimbursed promptly by the pension fund. That's all I have. And I hope everyone has a nice weekend. Awesome.

Trustee reports. Annual reports. Next meeting, we've already concluded December 11.

And Sarah confirmed that we are all scheduled around the calendar. It's all good. Okay. I have a quick question for Paul, if So I Paul, because Scott is acting chairman, can he sign he can sign the minutes, he can sign the investment policy, the auditor engagement letter, right? He can do all that?

Correct.

Even though he was just acting chair for the meeting, but he is he's acting chair.

Yeah. I mean, you're gonna have to do it now. Right?

Okay. Yes. Okay. I wasn't sure if I should do that or if you would prefer I just send it to Terry McLeod to sign via DocuSign. I can do that, too, but Scott's here.

I think you could listen. It is okay to do either way

Okay.

Truly. So if if it if, maybe Terry would want to see it and he's chair, he could sign it, I mean, that's fine. It's a ministerial act.

Okay. Thank you.

So it's not a, you know, a legislative act. So either Terry or the acting chair can sign.

Perfect. That makes my life easier. Thank you.

Tim, you got any questions being a new member, for Paul or maybe after the meeting? I don't know if you've been on the board before.

I haven't, but no. Looking forward to being on the board. So

if you had any questions, can we just forward your number to Tim in case he had any questions regarding being a trustee or anything? I know sometimes when you're in person, someone will talk to him after a meeting. I know I've been a long time for me or anyone, but

Yeah. Tim, welcome aboard. Yeah. Guys, go ahead and please share my cell number and email with Tim. Tim, you're always welcome to call me or email me. The only restriction would be you're not allowed, as you probably know, to do it with another board member. So as long as an individual board member and I are communicating, and the same goes with any of the other professionals, it's fair game. So you don't have to wait until a board meeting. If you've got any question, concern, or thought, you're always welcome to email me or call me. And we can even, you know, set up time to talk if it's more involved.

We can you know? And I by the way, Tim, I tend to come to a meeting or two a year. Since the pandemic, we've gone to Zoom, and that's actually reduced the expenses considerably for all of us. But I look forward to seeing you again soon and meeting you in person. Oh, while I have the mic, one last thing I should mention.

Strongly recommend that you that you do one or more of these trustee schools. Particularly valuable for new board members, and they are a wealth of information in these schools. The the Florida, the FPPTA, and then there which, you know, Christy was talking about coming up in Montevidra. And then the division of retirement, Florida division of retirement Bureau of Police and Fire Pensions does a phenomenal seminar once or twice a year. I think maybe now they may only be doing it once a year, where they have the first day is a new trustee school, which I can't recommend highly enough.

Okay. Thank you.

And, actually, that brings

And that's all paid, by the way, by the board Mhmm. By the pension funds. So you should not have to go out of pocket to make that trip and to have a hotel and the registration and all that.

And actually

per diem.

The the FPPTA also has an online course. It's called pension fundamentals for new trustees.

Okay.

It's a $150 Again, that's a cost to the board if you're interested. It's all online. Haven't taken it myself. I don't know if any of you guys have, if you know anything about it. But I know it's available if you're interested. I've

done in person. And like I say

And Mr. Chairman, if I could, while still talk about Tim's attention.

Yeah. Yeah. Sure.

Tim, I I you know, I've just it just occurred to me. I have a I represent several police and fire pension boards in Florida. And, one of the other boards I represent had a new member come on. And this new member's personality was to be very, very detail oriented and very interested in in reading every word of the pension plan ordinance and everything. And he had a series of questions that he wanted help understanding and answering. That's the kind of thing I can help with.

Okay.

So if you feel the need, like, if you, you know, sitting down and reading it or anytime. I mean, he basically, we had a little mini new member seminar with him just based on his questions. And I think Chrissy may have joined me for that meeting, and she I believe she's in that other you know, the administrator of that other pension fund. And if I remember correctly, Chrissy but it doesn't matter. The point is it was very helpful. He new was member and he just liked very detail oriented guy. I'm not suggesting that you need to do that, but it's there if you need it. That's what I can help one of the things I can help with.

Thank you. Okay. Awesome. Glad to have you on board, Tim. We had a vacancy for a while.

Is that right? Mhmm. Yes. Alright. So yeah. It was brought to my attention. I'm doing that Northport University. I don't if you've heard of that.

Uh-huh. Cool.

It's very educational. And one of the classes they brought up about the different vacancies, and other than the firefighter pension, that's what I did in my previous life. So that was part of the thing under me. The secretary come under me, he reported to me. So I go, this would be a good way to kind of give back to the firefighters of Northport a little bit. We appreciate it.

Thank you.

So we do need three people, three trustees physically present to have a meeting and do board business. So someone from my office is going to contact you in order to determine a quorum. So you're going to get an email probably about three weeks before each meeting from quorumsfoster foster dot com. And we just would ask that you please respond. And if you can't come, please just let us know. We just need to have an accounting of who's going to be here. So if we don't have a meeting, then, you know, James doesn't have to travel, and I don't have to travel. I'm just in Fort Myers, but it's still 40 miles away. So, just communicate with us. And if you can't attend a meeting, let us know.

Too easy.

Yeah. That's all I got. I'm done. Okay.

Awesome. Anything else? No? We don't need a motion to adjourn, do we? We could just adjourn, right? Okay. Meeting adjourned.

All right.

Thank you all. Well done, Scott. Yeah.

All right. I need a few