Columbus, Georgia

Georgia's First Consolidated Government

Post Office Box 1340
Columbus, Georgia, 31902-1340
(706) 653-4013
fax (706) 653-4016

Council Members

MINUTES OF THE

BOARD OF TRUSTEES MEETING OF THE

COLUMBUS GEORGIA EMPLOYEES' PENSION PLAN





March 5, 2008





A meeting of the Board of Trustees for the Columbus Georgia Employees? Pension

Plan was held March 5, 2008 at 2:00 P.M. in the Mayor?s Conference Room.





PRESIDING: Morton Harris, Trustee & Mayor Wetherington, Chairman





PRESENT: Isaiah Hugley, City Manager; Pamela J. Hodge, Finance

Director, Morton Harris Trustee; Omagene Holland, Trustee; Mary

Strozier-Weaver, Trustee; Col. R. George Plummer, Trustee; Alan Rothschild,

Jr., Trustee; Major Lemuel Miller, Trustee; Reather Hollowell, Trustee; Richard

Swift and Henry Swift, (Smith Barney); Tom Barron, Human Resources Director;

Savonne Robinson (Columbus Water Works)





ABSENT: Joe Smith, Trustee





GUESTS: Mr. James (Jim) Donofrio and Mr. Ben Law (Buck Consultants)









Mr. Morton Harris, Trustee called the meeting to order. Ms. Julia Rasch,

Recording Secretary, recorded the attendance.





MINUTES OF THE PREVIOUS MEETING:



The minutes from the February 6, 2007 meeting was presented for approval. A

motion was made and seconded to accept the minutes as submitted. The vote was

unanimous.





INVESTMENT UPDATE: Interim Report (Mr. Richard Swift)



This interim report covers the period from November 30, 2007 to February 29,

2008. The first chart shows the Ten Year Treasury Bonds and shows what?s going

on in the bond market. For this three-month period, the yield dropped from

3.97% to 3.53% indicating a better bond market.



The next chart is the S&P 500. At the end of November the stock market was at

1481.14 and finished at 1330.63 at the end of February 2008. Mr. Swift stated

that it?s been a pretty dreadful marketplace since the first of the year and

that in large part makes up the returns that will be seen in the rest or the

report.



First are the fixed income managers, Synovus, Tattersal and Madison, and

looking at the figures in the right hand column are the returns, Tattersal is

under performing. In the last quarterly report that was presented to the

board, looking at Tattersal, there were some bonds that appeared in their

portfolio that were un-priced securities. When the quarterly report is

presented to the board, those securities are priced through the Tech Center in

Atlanta, so the figures in the quarterly report are priced but in the interim

report those securities are listed at cost and so it can be an inaccurate

number. So it looks like they are under performing and they very well may be

but there is a discrepancy with the un-priced securities with Tattersal. But

even with that under performance or those returns, the combined fixed income

was up 2.15% vs. the index of 2.68%, so slightly below the index for that

period of time.



The growth managers, Rittenhouse, Trusco and this is the period when the funds

were transitioned from Santa Barbara to the Russell Growth and so those assets

are combined in this category. The returns for the managers were down ?8.32%,

-8.56%, -7.12%, a very, very tough period, really for all equity accounts, but

the combined growth was down ?7.90% vs. the index being down ?10.23%. A down

(negative) number is absolutely hard to accept but relative to the market, the

managers are capturing much less of that down move which helps.



The value managers, TCW, Cambiar, Spears and the Russell Value account, is a

similar story, the combined was down ?5.47% vs. ?9.58% for the index. Again,

relative to the market place, a good performance, although on an absolute

basis, the numbers are down.



The core managers, Knott, Madison and S&P 500 Account, similar numbers, down ?

5.90%, -7.03%, -5.76, and the total was down ?6.38% vs. the index being down ?

10.16%.



Next is the international manager, Lazard, and the EAFE Account, again a tough

market place, internationally, down ?4.10% but compared to the EAFE being down ?

13.96%.



Small Cap funds down ?2.41% vs. the Russell 2000 down at ?10.62%, mid cap funds

down -2.48% vs. down -.9.29% for the Russell Mid Cap. Looking at the indexes,

this has been a dreadful, stressful period. Even though this has been a really

tough period, the managers have held up really well compared to the market

place.



The combine fixed was 2.15% vs. 2.68% for the LB Gov Credit. The combined

equity was down ?6.13% vs. the S&P 500 down ?10.16%. The total city account

was down ?2.18% vs. the indexes down ?5.03%.



Mr. Swift stated that this is a tough report, it?s been a tough period, but

soon we?ll be moving out of this period and we?ll not be reporting on January

which is really a tough month coming right out of the gate.



Mr. Harris stated, ?thank goodness the bond market did well and it offset

almost all of the losses in the stock market?.



Mr. Swift commented and ?that?s why we have 40% in bonds.



Mr. Swift said he had two announcements to make and then he would bring in the

actuaries.



He stated that Santa Barbara has been fired and they will be replaced with

another large cap growth manager. The search has been done; the data has been

put together on a spreadsheet for the sub-committee to review. The Mayor has

appointed a sub-committee and a meeting is necessary to let them know who the

candidates are and arrange a meeting to look at the data. The sub-committee

consists of Col. George Plummer, Pam Hodge, Joe Smith and Morton Harris.



Lastly, the Mayor will get a memo from Trusco outlining everything about the

change within Trusco, and a copy will be mailed to each of the board members.

This is Trusco basically changing their name. The style is the same, there?s

no change, Joe Ransom, will continue to be the portfolio manager. The account

representative, George Smith has introduced our new account representative and

his name is Marc Schneidau. That transition is in place but they are moving to

a platform where they have a subsidiary of Trusco Capital, it?s going to be

called Ridge Worth Capital Management and Ridge Worth is going to manage a lot

of different boutiques, money management arms, so instead of having the Trusco

large Cap Growth, Trusco Large Cap Value, Trusco Municipal Bonds, all of them

are going to have their own name and their own logo and our portfolio will fall

under the arm called Silvant Capital Management with Joe Ransom as our money

manager.





PRESENTATION(S): Buck Consultants (Actuaries)



Key Results



Contribution requirements for fiscal 2009 total $18.5 million as

compared to $17.9 million for 2008

-The increase is attributable to the 3% as hoc COLA granted to retirees and

beneficiaries last year



The plans are 79.5% funded (financial statement basis), an improvement

from last year?s funded status of 78%



The fund earned 11.4% for the year ended June 30, 2007



In total, experience tracked the actuarial assumptions rather closely

during the year



Covered Population



This section covers the population for General and Public Safety

Employees as of July 1, 2007



Active Members

Pensioners and Beneficiaries

Terminated Vested and Disabled Members



Plan Assets



As of July 1, 2007 plan assets totaled $215.7 million

Allocation:

56% stocks

37% fixed income

06% Cash and Short Term Investments

01% Receivables



Actuarial Value of Assets



Contribution and funded status are based on a smoothed ?actuarial? value of

plan assets



The difference between actual return and assumed return is recognized over a

three-year period

This is designed to reduce the impact of random fluctuations in the capital

markets on the contribution and funded status



For fiscal 2007, the return on market value of assets was 11.4% compared to

6.5% on actuarial value



Funded Status



This basically a comparison between 2006 and 2007 for General Government and

Pubic Safety Employees:



Projected Benefit Funded Ratio

Accrued Benefit Funded Ratio

Financial Statement Funded Ration



Contribution Requirements



Please see actuarial report for figures



Actuarial Assumptions



The actuarial assumption will be remain at 7.0%



Contribution Forecasts



This consisted four charts depicting different scenarios with an asset

return of 7%



OLD BUSINESS:



Mr. Swift informed the Mayor that the old business had been addressed earlier

before he was able to join the meeting in progress.



NEW BUSINESS:



Mr. Barron addressed the board and stated that the City Council had passed an

Ordinance authorizing the creation of a Retiree Health Plan trust fund as a

component of the pension plan.



The meeting was adjourned and the next meeting is scheduled for April 2, 2008

at 2:00 p.m. in the Mayor?s Conference Room. Globalt (Synovus) will be the

guest speaker.





_______Julia A. Rasch ____

Julia A. Rasch

Recording Secretary

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