My Observations of the August 12 Pension Meeting

The first item on the Agenda of interest to the membership involved the dispute between the State Actuary, Mr. Jody Carreiro, and the pension fund’s Financial Advisors, Stephen’s Inc.

After considerable discussion of this matter between the two parties and the Board, it was finally determined that the reason for the disparity in the interest amount due our DROP members as calculated by the State Actuary and Stephen’s Inc., was because of our fund’s accountant incorrectly listing our Fund’s losses for the year 2008 on our 2009 Annual Report to the PRB.  For that reason, the Board voted to have our accountant amend our 2008 and 2009 Annual Reports to the PRB in an effort to correct that mistake.

During our previous Board Meeting, it was moved and seconded that the Board would send a letter to the PRB complaining about the fact that our Fund was not notified of the PRB determination that our Fund was a “projected insolvent fund” as required in §24-11-208(c).  This was apparently due to the PRB’s use of regular mail delivery that resulted in our Fund not being notified of this determination and provided the PRB with no evidence that it ever mailed the notification.  Consequently, the Board also voted to include a request that the PRB make future such notifications using registered or certified mail; however, that issue was tabled to allow Mr. Moore the opportunity to read the PRB minutes concerning the notification of funds designated to be “projected insolvent” and was not voted on during that meeting.  Therefore, I brought this matter to the Board’s attention and the motion received a unanimous vote of approval by the Board.

The next issue of interest to the membership is the fact that, in the Special Meeting of the Board held on August 6, 2010, the Board voted to make written application to the PRB for assistance from the Guarantee Fund in an effort to claim much needed funding from the Guarantee Fund for our membership and to appoint myself and Lee to “discuss” all matters pertaining to the Guarantee Fund with the PRB.  As expected, the PRB Executive Director in a certified letter dated August 12, 2010, denied this request.  I picked up my letter from the Pension Office on August 16, 2010, when I picked up the audio of the previous meeting and both Mr. Moore and Mr. Harrod’s copy of the letter was still there.  That same day, I called Mr. Clark at the PRB and told him the Little Rock Police Pension Board would appeal his decision and told him he could schedule our appeal for the September 1, 2010, meeting of the PRB rather than the December Meeting because he had asked to know which one the Pension Board wanted in his letter as he was preparing the Agenda for the upcoming PRB meeting.

The next afternoon, all pension board members received an email from Ms. Lenehan providing all of us a copy of the letter sent to Mr. Moore.  I immediately sent all board members an email advising them that I had already notified Mr. Clark to schedule our appeal for the September PRB meeting.  A few hours later, Mr. Moore emailed all pension board members the following:

The Pension Board has not authorized an appeal.   I have informed Mr. Clark that the local board will need to act before any issues are taken before the PRB on appeal.

Because I was away from my home, I did not see Mr. Moore’s email until around 4:30 pm and immediately called Mr. Clark to again tell him that the Pension Board would appeal his decision and to schedule our appeal for September 1, 2010, despite Mr. Moore’s conversation because the Pension Board had appointed Lee Harrod and myself to “discuss” all matters pertaining to the Guarantee Fund issue with the PRB at the last Special Meeting of the Pension Board.  However, he was already gone for the day.  The next morning, I again called him and he advised me that the agenda had already been sent to the PRB members without our appeal listed on it but claimed that he could add it back on if we needed him too.

Since that time, Mr. Moore has scheduled a “special meeting” to be held on Monday, August 23, 2010, to take up the matter of an appeal; however, I can only hope that Mr. Clark can actually place our appeal back on the Agenda for the next meeting of the PRB because, if he cannot, it will take another three months for us to appeal.  This causes me to question why Mr. Moore found it necessary to take it upon himself to call Mr. Clark, without Board approval I might add, rather than simply schedule another special meeting of the Pension Board when he knew full well from all the other Board members at our previous special meeting that Lee Harrod and myself were appointed by the Board to discuss these matters with the PRB and there was a since of urgency to obtain a September hearing date from the PRB on that particular matter.

I suppose it is just one more example of the kind of assistance and cooperation the Pension Board has obtained from the City on matters that do not cost the city one dime but would benefit our membership substantially.  Thus, if this process takes us another three (3) months, you can thank Bruce Moore for the delay.  While I hate to use such language on this website, the fact that the Chairman of our pension board did this to our membership really “pisses me off” and I will NOT forget it!!!

The next issue of interest to the membership concerns the fact that Mr. Peace, the Board’s attorney, still refuses to further discuss his questionable fees for legal services even though this Board has made numerous requests that he do so.  As a result of this fact, I asked Mr. Petty, our newly assigned attorney with the same law firm, to relay to Mr. Peace that this Board may discuss the filing of a complaint with the Supreme Court’s Office of the Committee on Professional Conduct about this matter if he continues to refuse to discuss this matter with the Board.

Finally, I realize that this “Observation” is considerably shorter than my previous posts; however, due to my constant work on Pension Board matters and the other demands on my personal time, I hope the membership will understand my need for an abbreviated version of this post even though the meeting lasted approximately four and a half hours.  As usual, if you wish to learn more about this meeting, you can always listen to the audio of the meeting posted on this website.

See the Certified Letter from the PRB received by Bruce Moore HERE

Listen to the Audio of the Meeting HERE