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VI UPDATE U.S. Virgin Islands Public Records TRANSCRIPT OF PUBLIC PROCEEDINGS GERS BOT's Monthly Board Meeting 6/17/22 GERS Retirement System (Board of Trustees) June 17, 2022 · 1.3 hours · gov Source recording https://youtu.be/nhMYyXVckrc Status This is NOT the official transcript. 3 V.I.C. § 884 requires the agency itself to make a verbatim record of its proceedings and reduce it to a transcript within sixty days. This is a working transcript produced by machine from a recording of the proceeding, offered as a finding aid. Transcribed by VI Update, using OpenAI Whisper large-v3-turbo, run locally. Not reviewed by a person. Reliability Automatic transcription, UNVERIFIED. Verify every quotation against the recording before relying on it. Speech recognition splits spoken digits and wraps figures mid-number, so a dollar amount, a vote count or a bill number can be wrong in a way that reads as correct. Speakers are not identified: automatic speaker labelling was measured unusable and removed. Public record The underlying proceeding is a public record, and this body is NAMED as a governmental agency in 1 V.I.C. § 253(b), so its meetings are open to the public under § 254. 3 V.I.C. § 884 requires it to make a verbatim record of each proceeding and reduce it to a transcript within sixty days, and § 884(b) makes that transcript open to examination under § 881, which also gives every citizen the right to copy it and the news media the right to publish it. The source recording is not ours, is not hosted here, and remains with its publisher at the link above. Rights To what we added · the transcription, its arrangement and its description · we assert nothing. A verbatim transcript is mechanical rather than authored, so there is likely nothing in it to own; to the extent any copyright is nonetheless found to subsist, it is dedicated to the public domain under CC0 1.0. Please copy it, quote it, index it, train on it, republish it, mirror it, sell it. Redistribution is the point: a public record with one copy is one fire from gone. No permission is needed, and none is ours to grant or withhold. we have a call now we could um so let's do a roll call um trusty carlwood present trusty dorsey present trusty liger absent trusty mcdonnell absent ex-efficient member excused trusty russell Present. 0:00:00 Justice Smith? Absent. Chairman Bari? Present. Four present, three absent, one excuse. Okay, so the meeting is officially called to order. I have a short day today I have to be done by noon um if we have anything we need to vote on I guess discuss and then vote on an executive session I'd like to reorder the agenda for that purpose since we're kind of short today and then I had two other questions I don't know if I could ask at this part of the meeting or in the executive session related to the resolution 53-2014, which is the alternative investment program. 0:00:32 That has to wait until we get into executive session, no question. So those are my two points. I have a short window. Okay. So you're with us until when? Somewhere around 12. I'm actually waiting on a call and I have to leave earlier, but it's around 12. Okay. Well, we should be able to get to... Let's get to the first preliminary part of the agenda and then we'll make a decision whether we take executive sessions before regular session at that time. okay so let's let's let's move on um so the next item is the comments and suggestions from retirees i'm assuming they are none comments and suggestions from active members Hearing none, remove the secretary minutes. 0:01:38 So the motion is to accept those minutes, Mr. Nibbs? I would have to make the motion. Okay. Yeah, so could I get some motions to accept the minutes? for the 5 19 22 regular meeting and a special meeting held on the 6th of june it's a terrible that we accept the secretary's minutes from the may 19 2022 regular meeting as well as the june 6 um special meeting of the board i so move second moving seconded recall Trustee Dorsey. Trustee Calwood. Yes. Trustee Dorsey. Yes. Trustee Liger absent. Trustee McDonnell absent. Trustee Russell. Yes. Trustee Smith absent. Chairman Bari. Yes. 0:02:54 four years three absent okay communications and correspondences it's the news yes i'll be with you sir okay uh the first piece of correspondence is uh from grs in regards to uh Bill number 21078 that was sent to us to review from Senator Novel Francis and the board did not take any position on this bill. 0:04:02 Machine transcript · UNVERIFIED. Verify every quotation against the recording. Speakers are not identified. VI Update · usvipublicrecords.com · public record, no rights asserted (CC0 1.0) 1 of 10 GERS Retirement System (Board of Trustees) · GERS BOT's Monthly Board Meeting 6/17/22 They felt that it was not good policy and we responded to the Senator in regards to that. that this was the bill wherein if someone is incarcerated, where their annuity will be suspended while incarceration. We felt that it was not good policy and we wrote a letter in regards to that. Received from on May 20, 2022 from the legislature, this in regards to our annual appearance before the legislature. As you know, during the budget review, they do have us present. Legislature does not have any jurisdiction of our budget, our board does. So we just gave our overview of our operations. It's Monday, August 8th, 2022 at 9 a.m. in the Aldi Hartley Hall on St. Thomas. 0:05:11 and they're inviting uh just uh five testifiers at the table and five in the gallery that would be senior management uh a memo dated June 30 13 2022 to the GRS employees in regards to returning to work we plan to return to work effective July 5th 2022 all employees will return back to work obviously there is application has to be approved this is something that has excuse me i don't know i i was losing your four minutes go ahead freezing up sorry it's freezing up for some reason yeah yeah yeah i missed it but can't you continue mr nims yeah he did say something that my internet is having problems or something like that um yeah so it's just that the employees will come back to work uh we would um recommend um the customers uh limited in-person service will resume however we strongly encourage the employees to schedule appointments as much as possible until further notice we also have a drop box uh in a lobby of each office one in st thomas and one a letter from the virgin alice casino commission june 13 2022 and this is in regards to lease renewal obviously the lease is uh getting close to um being um expired and the action that uh they really knew for additional one year term and obviously we did have discussions on this so So I would assume that if the board approved the changes today, because the policy committee's recommendation, this can be extended more than one year. 0:06:14 That's it. Any questions? Yes, Ronald Russell. The testimony before the legislature, I'm not sure I understood that fully. Have we taken a position regarding that testimony? Is it the same thing that we discussed earlier? This is something that is done every year, you know, semi-autonomous agencies come before the legislature and they give an overview. They do ask for information on our budget. 0:08:36 We couldn't give them anything on our budget for 2023 because we have not even submitted it to the board. We have not even finished our budget. It should be finished by the end of this month. so uh we submit actuals they do ask for a lot of information we have submitted most of that information already and we go before them every year and we usually do our overview of our operations and we answer any questions that they have of us have we ever asked them for money for money no and the system um we give them all the information that is needed we tell them about the unfunded liability we tell them about the rate we tell them we need more monies yes i mean you know everything is put out i mean um on the table to them in regards this year i don't plan to to um i think i need to to to uh look at the way i craft my my presentation copies of these presentation on the website but we do have we give a historical background of the the operation and the the the problems we have in and things like that okay okay but we don't we don't i mean we tell them the funding problems and we really everything on the table but we don't ask them when i say ask them for money um we tell them that is the legislative responsibility to fund the system on an actual reserve basis all of those type of things i didn't get what you meant when you say money well well let me maybe a little more but that's a discussion for another day um does the system approach them about changes in the law that we might think would assist us in moving forward let's begin with that we have recommended reforms yes okay and do you use that opportunity when they Clearly, the budget is an important aspect of the legislature, so it is a good time to highlight. 0:09:15 We have requested reforms. We have requested increasing the rates. Obviously, you know, they have given us the responsibility to increase rates. So, I mean, that's something that they didn't want to do, so they gave us that responsibility, but we let them know what the status of the system is and what's needed to be done to get the system up to a fully funded or on an actual reserve basis. Okay. 0:11:39 They just said it gave us responsibility to increase rates? The GRS has the employer rates, yes. We have the responsibility to increase rates, contribution rates. It was the responsibility in the legislature. And they gave us that responsibility. When was that? I don't know. When was that? About 20? In 20? Oh, I think it was around. 0:12:06 I'd have to double check. call because if they they gave us a tier one but then didn't give to two and we have to go back and get it so i'll look it up in the code and give back to you we have the response is probably in the 2005 reform act yes um and okay so that have we considered any rate adjustment for some of the employees that get early retirement we have already increased the rates to the maximum we can only increase the rates up three percent every five years so we have two more years before the board can increase the rates so that in in consideration of this early retirement these early retirement bills that really tax the system you have already increased it yes the board increased the rates um three years ago one percent per year and so in in another i think it's another two years the board can come back and raise the rates and was it targeted for those pieces of legislation that gave all the retirement regardless of age it was targeted for everybody everybody every employee you received uh great increase every member i should say okay okay uh okay mr 0:12:39 Machine transcript · UNVERIFIED. Verify every quotation against the recording. Speakers are not identified. VI Update · usvipublicrecords.com · public record, no rights asserted (CC0 1.0) 2 of 10 GERS Retirement System (Board of Trustees) · GERS BOT's Monthly Board Meeting 6/17/22 nips thank you very much okay go ahead mr nips okay okay so that that that um that concludes the communication correspondences yes sir okay um share process report i i don't have a report as such i just like to take note and to welcome the General Accounting Office engagement with GRS. This is something apparently at the behest of the Delegate Stacey Plaskett. The terms of the engagement seeks to answer three specific questions. One, how does GRS compare with other define benefit pension plans especially with respect to where it's funded and the benefit that it pays to what is known about the GIS's ability to sustain benefit payments it has promised and three what options exist to ensure that the government of the Virgin Islands can sustainably fund the system we of course intend to cooperate fully with that engagement and in my view only good things could come out of that the government the gao which is government accountability office is an independent non-party non-partisan agency of the u.s congress it provides auditing evaluation and investigative services to the congress and specifically to its committees so um i guess we look forward to that engagement that's that's my comment um on that part of the agenda 0:14:29 now you move to the administrator's report okay this is my report uh meetings presentation and appearances on may 23rd i attended a follow-up meeting with staff to document recommendations for acts mba 80 statement of the loan program on the 24th of may i attended a meeting with staff to discuss current quadro as qualified domestic relations order issues on may 31st i attended a meeting with wapa representative regards to replacement of water lines on the heavens and more property on june 1st i attended a meeting with geo representatives the study of grs requested by congresswoman stacy plastic on june 6 i attended a special board meeting same day i attended meeting with the developer of plant hotel development of Havenside Mall. On June 7th I attended a meeting with a real estate firm interested in acquiring tenants from Havenside Mall. On June 8th meeting with a Roy Lester Snyder CEO. On the 9th I attended FY 2021 audit entrance meeting with the move auditor. On the 10th I attended Havenside Mall oversight but it really was a oversight committee meeting management meeting really. on the 13th i attended policy committee meeting haven site mall site visit that uh didn't have an even site mall site visit however the policy committee did have a meeting to discuss releases 0:16:28 also i attended a planning meeting with nikita in regards to presentations for the board retreat as far as member services applications there are 148 applications pending from 2015 through 2022 in 2022 we received 110 we processed 15 so far in 2021 we received 343 we have processed 296 so the majority of the applications that are not remaining are in 2022 uh the reasons for remaining application obviously we're waiting for the nopers or maybe the bi-weekly last bi-weekly trans sponsor contributions um that is basically for uh uh the semi-autonomous agencies because now we have uh received monies from the government in regards to that funding employee owes contributions and obviously receipt of employer contributions from the scc so those are the four main reasons why applications are not processed you cannot process an application until we receive the final note for disability certificate we out 263 we have received 232 that's far that's pretty good uh we have received 88.2 percent uh 31 certificates will not receive a second request will be sent out before suspending annuity there is no respond same um stats for the disability cases i think we'll be dealing with some of those 0:18:31 in executive session uh in this meeting as far as contributions refunds we have processed from october through may 31 4.8 million dollars as you can see 84.3 percent uh for regular members those that were not vested approximately 4.1 of the 4.8 that benefits we have processed 933 531.16 active members 80 66 percent of the 933 were for active members accounting as of june 15 we have 8 728 um pensioners or retirees uh period october 1 15 through june 15 we have uh paid out 184 million eight hundred ninety one thousand four hundred 24.84 cents we added to the payroll from october through june 15 277 we deleted from the payroll from october 1 2021 to june 15 2023 229 members that have passed away personal loans as of may 31 we have one thousand five hundred forty seven units left of which 78 uh mortgages um total outstanding uh in the portfolio drawn portfolio is seventeen million ninety two thousand fifty seven 0:20:22 dollars and sixty nine cents there was some refund of overpayment of loans 13 units of five thousand 888.60 uh we are at the end of 2022 again we approximately 526 loans are scheduled to mature uh we are getting uh information i think trustee bar uh dorsey was the one that asked for this information we are accumulating this information to see number of loans that would be maturing in 2023 and 2024. I think that will be given at the retreat, presented at the retreat. 0:22:16 No major problems at the St. Croix complex, St. Thomas complex obviously we still and they continue with a roof project. Scheduled completion date is July-August 2022 subject to the weather air conditioning units also is ongoing have to rewire um there was a change order and the answers basic completion date is the fourth quarter of 2022 generator this is uh something that we currently need just a few days ago we went down we have some issues with the part we did order the part came it was wrong we had to send it back and they were just about ready to mail it out and found out that they uh they didn't have all the parts in the mailing so hopefully we'll have this repair completed by next week but um um uh we do need to uh purchase a new generator uh this is something that we'll be looking at in the 2023 budget have to discuss that further with the the uh the trustees the motor small projects downstairs in the lobby and those hopefully will be done very soon. As far as Havenside Mall, we are waiting. FEMA approved the scope of work and costing for the demolition 0:22:59 Machine transcript · UNVERIFIED. Verify every quotation against the recording. Speakers are not identified. VI Update · usvipublicrecords.com · public record, no rights asserted (CC0 1.0) 3 of 10 GERS Retirement System (Board of Trustees) · GERS BOT's Monthly Board Meeting 6/17/22 and so demolition permit to be submitted to DPNR within two weeks. Waiting on FEMA for approval of the project to proceed and permits received from dp and for warehouse j hotel development we had a meeting with the developing emancipation of soil samples i know last weekend jacka and sierra engineers began the um boring at the dock to determine the um the soil content and in the area where the uh hotel is going to be built As far as the annex, we call the White House annex. There's some electrical work that has to be done. We hope to move into that building where we will store our supplies in that building. 0:24:55 The restaurant at the Havenside Mall is coming along. um I sort of want to do some um dining out on the walk and so the architect uh waiting for the architect plans uh however we have approved for them to do that this is something that we're excited about to have a a new restaurant in the mall our rent and collection exhibit a In May, we collected $123,776.78, total for the year, fiscal year to date, $857,260.42, of which $566,862.99 were rental portion. have some arrages i know that i saw where um a payment was to be made i think on the 15th of yesterday of eighty thousand dollars i'm not sure if we received it but i saw that from the printout from uh you know propton procurement or finance the payment was in happen to be made of eighty thousand dollars for the department of uh justice as far as leases eop lease is a government house for signature and um justice we the uh ceo did inquire with the ag and attorney general about the lease they're finding iron finalizing a letter so i guess a letter to either go to come to us or go 0:25:48 to government house for trans transmittal of the lease um update on the board retreat obviously you know we plan to have the board retreat on july 20 to the 22nd yesterday afternoon i circulated a draft of the uh agenda hopefully you have seen it something to ponder about we got input from the presenters from from nikita from uh seagull from the accounting uh the accountant the auditor and also we go on the second the first day is going to be dedicated just to the investments and the actuarial assumptions um um uh it's going to be a long day and um very interesting day i know that seagull plan to do some modeling which they have done about three or four years ago for us and they plan to do that plan to have at least about three or four of them coming down and they're going to do modeling to show different assumptions and what the results would be if we did this we did that and all that Mekita is going to give a good presentation also incorporating the alternative investments. Is this going to be in person, Mr. Dems? Yes. Oh, okay. Yes. The second day is going to be the auditor and then the governance training ethics and governance by one of our outside firms that we use for the uh for our investments and um also we're going to have a legal portion 0:27:37 also on the second day and the third day will be for staff presentation only two things we're looking at we're looking at the IT and there's we need to ponder something there because we are limited in our budget so we need to discuss further with the board as to what we need to do what our recommendations are is this is something that is critical that we need to do also we want to do a presentation our recommendation in regards to the reinstatement of the load program the we tried and miss cooley can chime in we tried everything in all three islands to get adequate space um most of those places where you just sewed up it was not adequate enough um uh we did look at carambola which would have been ideal however it's very too expensive compared to what we paid they're really going up a significant amount and i i didn't think i could have spent that type of money for two and a half days of um the retreat um we did find some place in st thomas however that place to me is uh been shut up for period of time and it's very moldy and smelly and um they don't have to meet the the adequate technology for us that we need so we settled on coming in and using our conference room here in st thomas what's going to happen is that we would have a year to covet uh protocols what maybe staff staff that does not need to be in the room could be in their office and looking at uh participating by zoom the presenters would be in person um so um that's how we plan to do that um any questions 0:29:30 i have a question chair go ahead yes yes question yeah the the the meeting you had with um the meeting you had on the 31st is there any documentation on that meeting that was with the wapa representatives replacement of the water lines haven site mall property no documentation no documentation okay so nothing's happening on that issue right it's not that is nothing is happening they um they asked a few questions uh yesterday i spoke to uh um attorney smith about it we are checking on something in regards to the grant process and also their takeover and if they want to take over now we have to do an mou i kathy smith can give you an update but it's not that nothing is happening okay no when i say nothing is happening mr news i've been requesting the documentation on that particular issue yeah i haven't seen i haven't seen the report i only heard attorney smith saying that the system needs to give up everything with anything to do with water on the property even though water is being sold to the ships mr dorsey there is no document we're not getting any revenue we're not getting hold on guys we're not getting any revenue uh from that we don't even know how much uh weico has been charging the cruise lines but yet you guys are 0:31:37 talking about giving up and doing an mou i was just requesting whatever documents you have up to this point if you can share those with the trustees that was not a particular point and then the other point i had mr news was the meeting you had on june 1st is there any document you can share on that meeting as well that you had with our congress rep i didn't 0:33:27 Machine transcript · UNVERIFIED. 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VI Update · usvipublicrecords.com · public record, no rights asserted (CC0 1.0) 4 of 10 GERS Retirement System (Board of Trustees) · GERS BOT's Monthly Board Meeting 6/17/22 see it in my paperwork i sent you the questions or the approach we submitted public documents to them copies of investment policy copies of our career reports those are the things we submitted to them everything that has been public he's on the website or been in public we submitted those stuff okay well i didn't i didn't see it um we didn't say we didn't we didn't give it to you we submitted those to them we submitted to you the questions that they asked okay um i was just asking for a copy of the package that means on both sides the other question i had was the and this is still in your report for the electrical costs that you discussed in Exhibit A, is that the current number, or is the $80,000 that you think you believe you saw someplace, O&B or finance, is that 80,000 the um is that 80,000 for that number of that is that is that 80,000 for the electrical or is that 80,000 for the rent sorry as you know they put everything together as far as i understand now everything is lumped as rental i saw something that i asked miss um Ms. Clenden Ingrams, if she had an update, she showed me that there was something and it happened to be paid, I think, yesterday of $80,000. I'm not sure if it was rent. I mean, everything is lumped together as rent. Okay, so then, if you can break that out, I'd like to see what that is as well. And then the other item, I had made a request of a copy of the contract for the Department of Justice and Division of Personnel. So I did get a copy of the Division of Personnel. I didn't get one for justice. 0:35:13 I'm not aware of your request. I don't know who you requested that from. I requested it in the meeting that we had. I wanted a copy of that, because we were at the time, I believe it was in the policy meeting, we were talking about giving more authority to the administrator to negotiate leases. I guess Trustee Russell will speak about that later, but I was very specific because my concern was that when we do the new lease, that we put a section in there where they will have to prepay money versus us having to pay for them. They're electrical every month. I think I did clear on that issue. 0:35:56 I think we did have that discussion. I believe you guys said you were gonna make the attempt in the new lease and put that section in. That's what my understanding was. So I was just looking for a draft of that language, what that's gonna look like when you get to that. I would like to see a draft of that language. As I said last, during the policy committee meeting, Mr. Dorsey, we do not have the draft of that language yet. the when the negotiations begin that's when we will draft language for that in a draft contract but we have not gotten to that point yet and as for the information with wapa we do not have any documents with wapa we're still on discussions about trying to get the water replacement the lines replacement paid by a grant and so we're still in discussions with wapa there's nothing that's been writing once we finalize all the discussions verify that we can qualify wapa will be the one doing the grant and putting us into it and then we will have to make arrangements because in order to to um for wapa to take over the water lines they have to we have to deed the water lines to them and all of that will come before the board at the appropriate time we're just not to that point yet you you keep saying that take over the water lines and i really asked you guys how much did weico pay charge the cruise ships how much revenue did they get out of this over the last 10 years five years you guys haven't produced a document you want to give them something that might be another uh flow of income to the system we don't even know what that is because you guys never been clear on what is supposed to come to us we're still trying to sugar out what is all to us from white can i respond kathy please yeah go ahead trusty dorsey i've been in meetings with us at wiko we have asked i think it was attorney williams in a meeting asked for those records i submitted a re a letter to wiko a couple weeks ago asking and reminding them that we would like to see records at least going back five years to get 0:36:35 a feel obviously they've been doing it since 1993 we can't go back and do a claim from 9 to 1993 but we want to give a feel at least for the last five prior five years and they have not produced any records to us so what do you want us to do well i can make a simple suggestion mr nibs and attorney smith i really can make a very simple suggestion the committee of uh government operations which was a few weeks ago had wico and the port authority in front of them they discussed every single lease that they have in their system and how much each lease produces i would have thought by now that someone on your staff would have just made the recommendation drafted the letter for your signature mr nibs to the government operations chair making a request for those documents that are now in public documents they said publicly what you claim you're trying to receive from them they have said that publicly you can go back and listen to the senate session that was uh senator joseph carla joseph's committee okay so it's there i will check with senator joseph and ci we we get along very well and i'll see if she has that information um if he's giving it public why doesn't he give it to us well like i can't answer that mr nip because i'm not i'm not in those meetings with you to answer that question but if i was in the meeting which i made the request to you guys i don't have a problem sitting and hearing the other side because i've only been hearing your side well not to say that it's not to say 0:38:46 that you haven't been doing what you need to do mr news but i can't speak about why you're not getting something if i'm not there to hear the other side's reason okay okay you know i just want to say what we're trying to do is to try our best to work with wapa to move forward we want to move forward and you know the amount of income coming from there could be peanuts compared to what we have to do so we want to move forward instead of going backwards mr nibs that's an easy statement to make but you don't even know what that number is so how are you going to say it's peanuts we 0:40:34 Machine transcript · UNVERIFIED. Verify every quotation against the recording. Speakers are not identified. VI Update · usvipublicrecords.com · public record, no rights asserted (CC0 1.0) 5 of 10 GERS Retirement System (Board of Trustees) · GERS BOT's Monthly Board Meeting 6/17/22 cannot submit a claim for it we can't submit a claim for it let's go so i have two more points chair at the same document um hold a second hold a second because you know we started out saying we have short time so we need to control this this this time so we have two minutes to finish this issue please no problem no problem mr niv just for clarification can you at least forward to us what that payment is for eighty thousand dollars i'm not sure who it's coming from but you say it's either for justice or personnel you're not sure if it's for a rent or electric because the document you have here in front of us exhibit a is showing the document that i saw it's the department of justice and it says rent it says rent on the document please okay you request the request is for you to forward to trust the dorsey the document that says what the eighty thousand dollars so um just that's that's the request uh what's the second request mr i got sidetracked it's not in the report but i think it's your way to executive session i'm trying to get a balance on wapa what they paid or didn't pay okay okay i had a question because i having some problems with the dates of the board retreat mr chairman um um i'm scheduled to be off ireland for some uh medical attention and i'm not sure how that would um situate with the board retreat dates i supposed to leave the 11th of july so i'm not sure and then number two um the synchro complex is it open yet miss nico i i haven't spoken to anybody but uh like for example if i wanted to go to the sink quite complex to participate in a meeting or or do some you know meet the staff and everything is it open yet maybe somebody could tell me well i i visited complex so you as a trustee or just let us know and you can go you can if you want to go into use the room you can go okay okay okay so and the other thing is that um so the the board retreat we'll discuss that but i i have been i trying to schedule stuff that i don't miss the board retreat but i don't know if i could uh accommodate according to uh the schedule that i might have okay and i'll discuss that at the board retreat thank you mr nips good comprehensive report good good thing just want to say senator that uh we can also make available zoom so if you you know if you can use the zoom it's going to be hard to change the dates how everything is locked in with presenters yeah i i might have to do the zoom okay yeah i might have to do the and i like in person but i might have to do the zoom um depending on you know my travel and everything okay okay okay glory point information 0:42:57 as far as the retreat as well that might the dates might be in conflict with myself i'll be traveling around that time as well so you'll do this whole thing with it well i'll do the zoom if it's possible okay good morning i just want to let let the record know that i am on okay thanks also i'm going to be um out of the country at that time for the retreat as well so we don't try so miss smith you do zoom or you out of the country meaning the u.s and zoom will be hard i try to zoom out of the country i tell you yeah i'm gonna be out of the u.s yeah so that yeah okay i was out of the u.s recently and i tried a zoom hearing and it didn't work because you know it's different anyhow we'll have to walk through those over the next couple of weeks okay so that that concludes the administrator's report okay do we need to accept it the what's that okay coming to reports are there any committee reports yes the policy committee i i i ready to make a report go ahead okay good morning to trustees and good morning to members um we had a policy meeting on June 13th and I must commend the Board of Trustees, they attended and the meeting 0:44:52 and the discussions had in the meeting were very productive and I think we're moving forward. um there was a foster discussion regarding submitting to the full board which i think we're going to consider today a plan to deal with the leases and basically we're giving the discretion to the administration but with the caveat that the government leases will have a provision that the legal counsels will explain but that provision is like a lockbox guarantee because there's no there's no confidence in the government leases being paid timely and that it came out but we know we are sat on one government but uh we have different responsibilities and it came out and at the appropriate time um that that provision will be discussed after we finish the leases i made a presentation to the members present and i i have some numbers to submit we want to approach uh our delegate and president biden to return the gasoline excise tax through an executive order and um the only trustee that had a didn't believe it could work was uh trustee carlwood he didn't oppose it but he don't think it's good work and at the appropriate time um i'm going to submit a 0:46:45 budget for the entire board to consider um funding the the effort to get the grs to have the exercise tax returned to the virgin islands to cover the deficit that or actuaries stated that we still face. And Ms. Smith was the one who said in the meeting that we're not out of the water yet, basically with our funding. And so it is something that we have to consider how we gonna make up that deficit and how we gonna make up the solvency of the system. and that was discussed um although there may be some caveats moving forward and maybe we are in a point now where we're better situated it doesn't mean that we're out of the water regarding our funding and that's part of the problem why that proposal was brought to the policy committee uh today isn't the appropriate time to submit a budget because i have my staff researching that but i will submit it to the trustees via email and then we had a situation which for me was embarrassing and i would say this I follow rules, and if the board makes a resolution that I don't know about, and then I schedule meetings with, not investors, but people who want to help the system, and in this particular situation there were three organizations that wanted to help the system they were talking about restoring the loan program they were talking about developing some land uh wind energy and we had uh those organizations and persons ready to make presentations, but I 0:48:40 Machine transcript · UNVERIFIED. Verify every quotation against the recording. Speakers are not identified. VI Update · usvipublicrecords.com · public record, no rights asserted (CC0 1.0) 6 of 10 GERS Retirement System (Board of Trustees) · GERS BOT's Monthly Board Meeting 6/17/22 found out that the board had passed a resolution that I didn't know about, preventing the presentation of any kind of alternate investment. And that resolution was adopted in 2014 or 2015. And Mr. Nils brought it to my attention at the last minute and that was problematic for me because i had made several calls and had engaged the presenters to at least present it to the policy committee so that we could have an idea of how what we would need to have as a policy moving forward but but following the rules and the fact that there was a resolution preventing that, we had to tell the presenters that we couldn't engage them at that time. From a chair point of view, I was embarrassed, and I don't want to be put in a position again. Mr. Names and staff, I don't want that. I want when we move forward, we move forward as a team looking out for the members and taking our fiduciary responsibilities serious. If I had known that resolution, I wouldn't schedule nothing with these, okay? and i just i need to make that public because the people who presented or what were ready to present you know they were very disappointed but we're moving forward and we're moving forward mr cheer it appears that the presenters have two committees that they can present and i would urge you i will send you the information that uh we could schedule these meetings sooner than later because these people are ready to present proposals which they think will help the system and i think we need to listen to them as at at the outset and then as a board we could 0:51:27 determine how to move forward one with energy one is development of the property and the what other one is uh restoring the loan system the loan uh loan program for the system uh we concluded the meeting and we called the presenters in and apologized to them and uh so that meeting went well we had four members present uh mr dorsey miss smith and mr carlwood and myself and i want to thank them for participating because it's pretty open people discussed um how they felt and uh i think we did the business of the system well and that's what i am going to report that although there was a fiasco with the presenters i think the meeting went well and uh to all of you trustees who participated thank you for participating that's my report okay thank you very much um are there any other comments i have a question uh pierre your question on the report yes on the report it's it's kind of it's a question i have a question that's related to the process right that the trustee russell is speaking about um maybe you can clear it up um mr trustee russell was the individuals that came um they were all capital projects or were they lease leasing physical assets to develop on our side they were prospective um persons that and individuals and organizations that wanted to 0:53:40 make presentations to the board regarding their various interests one was a developer and he has the idea to develop the land the wind energy uh know that we have property and they wanted to provide an alternative source of energy to solar and wapa and the other one who is a bank that wants to help us restart our loan program to benefit us to benefit the system So they weren't related to leases particularly. They were just related to policies I think we should establish as to how we want to move forward in these areas of the system, entertaining the various things that might help the system to make money and to provide services to the members. 0:55:38 i was trying to figure out um you do you have another question mr darcy yeah i have the same it's along the same line i'm trying to get clarity on the alternative investment program because if we're just leasing land then it's not an alternative investment is that what it is would you know that answer chair if we just lease and land to a private company one of these companies that uh two of the companies the trustee just made reference if they're or are they public private partnerships with the system trustee russell or were they uh i was just trying to figure out how that part will work we're not mr mr mr russell you've you've completed your committee meeting yeah you've answered the question we need to move to the next item in agenda thank you are there any other committee reports we have the treasurer's report please good morning board chair and other trustees i will share the screen okay this is the government employees retirement system schedule of receipts and disbursement for the month ending may 31st 2022. we have loan repayments 897 141 year to date 6 million 630 327 employer retirement contributions ten million two hundred and seventy one thousand fifty one dollars year to date sixty three million nine hundred and seven dollars ninety six cents employee retirement contributions five million four hundred and seventy thousand seven hundred 0:56:43 55 year to date 32 million 859 512 for a total collection in may of 17 million 257 274 year-to-date collection 195 million 131 499 disbursements we have annuity payments of 22 million eight hundred and twenty five thousand five hundred and eighty nine year to date 178 million nine hundred and eighty thousand three hundred and thirty six dollars we have administrative expenses of eight hundred and seventy seven thousand eight hundred and twelve year to date eight million two hundred and nine thousand three hundred and twenty two we have refund of contributions five hundred and forty seven thousand one hundred and twenty nine year to date five million six hundred and sixty five thousand five dollars for total disbursement of 24 million two hundred and seventy one thousand eight hundred and fifty year to date 193 million eighty one thousand five hundred and twenty one in the month of may we have a net cash deficit deficit of seven million fourteen thousand five hundred and seventy six year to date a cash surplus of 2 million 49 1979 we have drawn down at the end of may 85 million from the investment portfolio and our year-to-date administrative expenses is around 51 0:59:00 Machine transcript · UNVERIFIED. Verify every quotation against the recording. Speakers are not identified. VI Update · usvipublicrecords.com · public record, no rights asserted (CC0 1.0) 7 of 10 GERS Retirement System (Board of Trustees) · GERS BOT's Monthly Board Meeting 6/17/22 percent of the budget so havenside mall in the month of may we have collected three hundred and ninety six thousand ninety nine dollars year-to-date collection we have two million one hundred and seventy seven thousand eight hundred and seventy one we have a total disbursement of two hundred and five thousand 386 for two um year-to-date disbursement of one million seven hundred and seventy six thousand six hundred and six we have a net cash surplus in may of 190 713 for a year-to-date um cash surplus of 401,265 our year-to-date collection over last fiscal year was increased by 78 percent or 954 thousand our fiscal year expenses were about 52 percent of budget that ends the schedules report board chair do you have any questions on the treasury report we need to accept the report mr names yes you do okay let's get a get a motion to accept the treasurer's report I move that we accept the treasurer's report. 1:01:05 Second. Second. Second. Second. Move and second, then. Board call. Board call, the Senate. Trustee Caldwell? Yes. Trustee Dorsey? trustee dorsey trustee dorsey absent trustee leiger yeah trustee mcdonnell absent trustee russell yes trustee smith yes jaman barry yes five years two absent thank you um investment officers report good morning trustees okay so different updates of the investment portfolio as of May 31st 2022 so the total plan was slightly up to the month, returned 0.5 percent. A total fixed income was up 0.4 percent, slightly underperforming benchmark by 0.3 percent. Our total alternative portfolio was up 0.7 percent and slightly outperforming benchmark by 0.3 percent. Q Capital's portfolio was up slightly 0.5 percent and our blackrock index fund was up slightly on well zero seven percent uh i'm sorry our time with your audio um 1:02:42 you hear me now try a little closer or something but yeah yeah i can hear you now but you're going okay i'm sorry okay we had one um a lot on compliance um we had two positions in the pew capital portfolio that triggered on a lot um that we tracking um as it pertains to uh manager specific guidelines so we had a lot that um position which had a power value of about 500,000 I think two corporate positions, two corporate bands, triggered that they were out of compliance with not being rated by two national agencies of people be or above. 1:04:54 Upon a follow-up with Pew Capital, they did provide me with information showing that they are in fact in compliance so i'm working with state street to make sure that that a lot is um is um satisfied as it relates to the cash flow for the month uh we ended the month at approximately 423.8 million uh we raised no funds in the month of may so we had a beginning market value of 421.9 million we had a net cash flow of about sixty two thousand dollars we had income of approximately six hundred and eighty nine thousand six hundred and seventeen we had a gain in the portfolio for the month of one million two two twenty seven one twenty that brought us to that ending market value of 423 million 760 767 as it relates to fees paid for the month through um from the investment portfolio we pay 62 000 um in investment management management fees for the month year to date we've paid hundreds i'm sorry those andy could you advance your um your presentation so you could follow that i'm not following where you're getting those numbers it's advanced on my screen okay so i've seen it no it's not on the one that's on the screen Glenville you need to go to the next page no yeah yeah it's advanced on my screen i'm sorry um hold Hold on one second. 1:05:51 I apologize. Do you see it now? Yeah. Okay. Yeah. For some reason I don't know that happens sometimes. Yeah. So year to date, we've paid 206,000. Physical year to date, we paid 308,000 in fees and custodian bank in management fees and custodian fees. A month to date, we've collected about $390 in securities lending. A typical year to date, we've collected just over $3,000 in securities lending. And Mr. Chairman, trustee, that concludes my presentation for the month of May 31st. Questions I'll be willing to answer, or happy to answer, I should say. 1:07:40 Tell me a little bit more about the alert and I want to show up for you. Okay, yeah, sure. So we have access to compliance software through State Street, so we could manage, we could monitor all our managers as to make, to make sure that they're adhering to specific guidelines laid out by the VI code. So each manager has specific guidelines that they must adhere to as long as they are managers. So from time to time, I monitor the compliance reports regularly. We haven't had a lot in a while, but this a lot popped up last month as it pertains to Micron and Small Business Administration. 1:08:22 So typically, we contact the managers, tell them, well, we got a trigger and compliance saying that you have some positions in the portfolio that's out of compliance. And we typically would give them 60 days to get back in compliance or explain to us or give us a reason why, you know, they should be allowed, if anything, to continue the whole of securities as is. So typically, we'll reach out to the managers, they will, you know, do their research and get back to us as to, you know, if State Street, you know, doesn't have the, what they feel if State Street doesn't have the correct information, or if, in fact, what State Street is saying is true, or what the compliance module is saying is true, and typically they will get in compliance within that 60-day period. what what is the specific issue yeah reduce okay for those specific um schoolings the the debt the debt based on the based on the um on the um guidelines no one position should be rated below triple b minus on two credit agencies two nationally recognized credit agencies or should never fall or should not fall below investment grade on two nationally recognized credit rated agencies okay so that's what triggered this 1:09:18 Machine transcript · UNVERIFIED. Verify every quotation against the recording. Speakers are not identified. VI Update · usvipublicrecords.com · public record, no rights asserted (CC0 1.0) 8 of 10 GERS Retirement System (Board of Trustees) · GERS BOT's Monthly Board Meeting 6/17/22 particular um a lot on compliance Pew Capital did submit to me documentation that showed, because State Street tracks the SMP and Moody's, but we also have Fitch, which is also one of the major rating agencies, and they do have, it does comply with at least two of the rating agencies. So it's just a matter of me updating or getting with State Street and updating that a lot on their platform. OK. So from your perspective, they're back in compliance? Correct. OK. All right. All right. Any other questions from the trustees? Yeah. I am looking at a fact sheet from the Biden-Harris administration. Races to deploy clean energy and create jobs and lower the cost of living. and um our what particularly have we focused in on any of those types of public interests when we invest are you thinking about esg investments yeah okay so to my knowledge the The assignment system does not have an ESG-related mandate for dynamics based on the BI code, and I don't think we have anything internally available. I mean, that could be something that the trustees could discuss and consider if that's something that, you know, should be approached. 1:11:27 But as it relates to a mandate, we don't have a mandate for say, that we have to abide by any EFG fact or say. Okay, because what I'm looking at right now is that new actions by the administration advances wind energy, offshore wind, leverage public lands for clean energy, which is solar and whatever. and build bipartisan infrastructure laws for transmission lines with energy and whatever and we qualify as the virgin islands as a rural area there's tons of money and if the government don't want to do it or whatever they got the problem gers could do it we got land we got wind sun and whatever water here and we could invest in areas that we could make tons of money because the globe is moving toward renewable energy and president biden is fully on board so you know um as the grs and i like your presentation We need to, as a Board of Justice, maybe we will discuss it at our retreat. 1:13:00 We need to do that. Exactly. And we got money. I think you should put it on the agenda. Let's put it on an item for consideration in the retreat. Yeah. Because I will send a fact sheet for Biden to everybody. We need to jump on board. board thank you very much you answer the question you answer the question we don't have you know we don't have in our portfolio that kind of thing and we need to so thank you mr industry thank you you're welcome okay right do i get a motion to accept the investment officers report so move second Trustee Calwood? Yes. Trustee Dorsey? 1:14:29 Absent. Trustee Liger? Trustee Liger? Absent. Trustee McDonnell? Absent. Yeah. Yeah? Okay Mr. Liger. trustee russell yes yes trustee smith yes chairman barry yes five yes one option okay next item agenda is a regular session there was some earlier talk about switching the agenda at this point is that still should just continue i think we need to go to executive session i think so i agree i would remember carl would they because we're gonna lose our quorum and we we need to take some get a motion to get into executive session so chair i move that we go into executive session to discuss matters pertaining to trade secrets or financial or commercial information or personal legal matters the matters whose premature disclosure will frustrate the implementation of the proposed agency action i see second that's the coward yes trusty dorsey trusty liger yeah trusty mcdonnell absent trusty russell yes trusty smith yes 1:15:27 chairman barry yes six yes one absent Okay. 1:17:26 People named in this transcript SUSPECTED, and a finding aid only. Names were matched by machine against the spellings used across all 426 of our transcripts, and the title is the one used in the room. Being named here is NOT evidence that a person attended or spoke · only that the name was said. Speech recognition mishears names, so a spelling may be wrong even where no alternative is offered. 5x Trustee Andre Dorsey heard in this transcript as: Dorsey 4x Trustee Vincent Liger heard in this transcript as: Liger 3x Trustee Ronald Russell heard in this transcript as: Russell 2x Trustee Leona E. Smith heard in this transcript as: Smith 2x Senator Novelle Francis heard in this transcript as: Novel Francis Machine transcript · UNVERIFIED. Verify every quotation against the recording. Speakers are not identified. VI Update · usvipublicrecords.com · public record, no rights asserted (CC0 1.0) 9 of 10 GERS Retirement System (Board of Trustees) · GERS BOT's Monthly Board Meeting 6/17/22 Bills and acts referred to Matched by number against our own acts corpus. The number is what the recognition heard, so it may be wrong; where it resolved, the title is the one the Legislature gave the act. Referred to but not found in our acts corpus: Bill 21-0078 Machine transcript · UNVERIFIED. Verify every quotation against the recording. Speakers are not identified. VI Update · usvipublicrecords.com · public record, no rights asserted (CC0 1.0) 10 of 10