04/14/2025 Pension Trustees Meeting Minutes April 14, 2025
City of Clearwater
Main Library- Council Chambers
100 N. Osceola Avenue
Clearwater, FL 33755
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Meeting Minutes
Monday, April 14, 2025
1 :00 PM
Main Library - Council Chambers
Pension Trustees
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City of Clearwater
Pension Trustees Meeting Minutes April 14, 2025
Roll Call
Present 5 - Chair Bruce Rector, Trustee Ryan Cotton, Trustee Michael Mannino,
Trustee David Allbritton, and Trustee Lina Teixeira
Also Present: Jennifer Poirrier— City Manager, Daniel Slaughter—Assistant City
Manager, David Margolis — City Attorney, Rosemarie Call — City Clerk,
Nicole Sprague — Deputy City Clerk, and Tiffany Makras — Human
Resources Director
To provide continuity for research, items are listed in agenda order although not
necessarily discussed in that order.
1. Call to Order— Chair Rector
The meeting was called to order at 1:36 p.m.
2. Approval of Minutes
2.1 Approve the minutes of the February 3, 2025 Pension Trustees meeting as submitted in
written summation by the City Clerk.
Trustee Teixeira moved to approve the minutes of the February 3,
2025 Pension Trustees meeting as submitted in written summation
by the City Clerk. The motion was duly seconded and carried
unanimously.
3. Citizens to be Heard Regarding Items Not on the Agenda — None.
4. New Business Items
4.1 Annual review of the Employees' Pension Plan investment performance for the calendar
and plan year ended December 31, 2024.
Annually a presentation of the Plan's calendar year investment performance is
made to the Trustees. For calendar 2024, the Plan realized an investment
return of 10.27%, versus the plan's benchmark of 9.29% and actuarial
assumption of 6.5% It was a very good year of investment performance on both
an absolute basis and a relative basis.
For the last three calendar years, the plan had an average annualized return of
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City of Clearwater
Pension Trustees Meeting Minutes April 14, 2025
2.21%, versus a benchmark of 2.94%; and for the last five calendar years, the
plan had an annualized return of 6.99% versus a benchmark of 6.82%.
The investment committee, with the assistance of the Plan's investment
consultant, CapTrust Advisors, meets on at least a quarterly basis to monitor
asset allocation and money manager performance, and will continue to
recommend money manager terminations, replacements, and/or additions
when appropriate.
STRATEGIC PRIORITY:
Professional administration of the pension plan assists in attracting and
retaining top-quality personnel via this attractive and competitive compensation
benefit.
Finance Director Jay Ravins reviewed the Plan's investment
performance for the calendar and plan year ending December 31, 2024.
4.2 Approve recommended change in actuarial valuation funding method from Entry Age
Normal to Aggregate Method effective for the January 1, 2025 actuarial valuation.
The City's actuary, Pete Strong with Gabriel Roeder Smith, has suggested a
change in actuarial funding method that will provide the Trustees additional
flexibility in determining the level of annual employer contributions to the plan.
Per State Statute the employer is required to fund at least the "normal cost" of
the pension benefit annually as calculated by the actuary. The Aggregate
funding method calculates the normal cost differently than the Entry Age Normal
funding method and is a preferred funding method for the plan at this time, given
that the Plan's funded ratio is greater than 100%. Should the Plan's funded ratio
fall below 100% at a future date, consideration will be given to returning to the
Entry Age Normal funding method.
STRATEGIC PRIORITY:
Professional administration of the pension plan assists in attracting and
retaining top-quality personnel via this attractive and competitive compensation
benefit.
Gabriel, Roeder, Smith & Co. Actuary Pete Strong provided a PowerPoint
reviewing the proposed change to the Plan's funding method.
One individual expressed concerns with the organization's practice of
rehiring retirees.
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City of Clearwater
Pension Trustees Meeting Minutes April 14, 2025
Trustee Mannino moved to approve recommended change in
actuarial valuation funding method from Entry Age Normal to
Aggregate Method effective for the January 1, 2025 actuarial
valuation. The motion was duly seconded and carried unanimously.
4.3 Discuss new procedures in processing applications for disability pensions.
The City Attorney said historically the Pension Advisory Committee (PAC) in
Clearwater has been the body responsible for processing disability
applications and presiding over the question if the employee or former
employee is eligible for disability benefits. He said the PAC conducts
mini trials and determines if the medical standards have been met for a
disability pension under the City's retirement system. In recent years, the
process has become harder to manage due to the increasing number of
disability pension requests and complicated cases. Since the PAC is
comprised of councilmembers, citizens and union members, it is increasingly
difficult to coordinate member schedules to hold meetings and disability
hearings. As part of the latest round of collective bargaining with the police
and fire unions, the Trustees will now have a decision to make regarding the
new disability hearing process recently codified by Ordinance 9813-25: do
the Trustees wish to determine, on a case-by-case basis, the physicians
handling the disability application? He said historically the Pension Fund's
attorney has handled the evaluation process by a physician.
Discussion ensued with consensus to keep the physician evaluation
Process with the Pension Fund's attorney.
Trustee Teixeira moved to designate the Pension Fund's legal
counsel to select and arrange the physicians on behalf of the
Trustees. The motion was duly seconded and carried unanimously.
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City of Clearwater
Pension Trustees
5. Adjourn
Meeting Minutes April 14, 2025
The meeting adjourned at 1:56 p.m.
Chail��
Employees' Pens! n Trustees
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City of Clearwater