USVI Public Records

Document text

VI UPDATE U.S. Virgin Islands Public Records TRANSCRIPT OF PUBLIC PROCEEDINGS GERS Monthly BOT·s meeting 09/22/22 GERS Retirement System (Board of Trustees) September 22, 2022 · 2.8 hours · gov Source recording https://youtu.be/LSX6j9R_xt4 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. That's me, that's me, that's me, that's me, that's me, that's me, that's me, that's me. Sorry about it. Trustee Calwood. Present. Trustee Dorsey. Absent. Trustee Liger. Mr. Namesh, you are mute. I don't have any control over that. Anybody else? can you hear us i don't know if he's not hearing somebody else trying he's hearing but he's trying to use the system in the board room but he's hearing you okay but he's showing that he's a mute so is that bad okay can you hear me now yes so mr is mr nibs in the boardroom yes he is oh okay all right so could i get a roll call mr nims trusty carlwood present mostly dorsey just join mr moses excuse me mr dorsey says he's trying to get in waiting for the host to let him in i just let him in okay are we hearing each other are they hearing me now my uh laptop is off yeah so that's no problem all right trusty carlwood present trusty dorsey absent 0:00:00 present trustee liger yeah trustee mcdonnell absent ex-official member richardson well good morning florine ordain hassle um assistant director for the vision of personnel standing in for um director cindy richardson trustee russell present here okay so um we do have a quorum um mr hibbs is is this a point where you said you wanted to to us to reorder the agenda yes i would like you to reorder the agenda so that we can accommodate mikita investment group uh to give their presentation on the memorandum on the impact of any activity to our portfolio and also to give a brief evaluation of the investment portfolio as of august 31 2022 both leo festino and sean borman is on the uh is on the screen so you're asking to to reorder to where on the agenda include right after the roll call move number 11 which is investment officers report to number three on the agenda okay 0:02:11 um okay um any objections from board members no objections no objections um so we'll we'll we'll reorder the agenda accordingly so um are they ready mr nibs yes they are on the screen good morning everyone thank you for your time today thank you for your flexibility to adjust your agenda we have sent you two material items that start on page 34 of your package um first on page 34 it's a brief document that addresses a question we received from mr neves that came from the chair as to how did or how is the current decline in the stock market over the last couple of weeks affecting GERR's portfolio. 0:04:15 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 20 GERS Retirement System (Board of Trustees) · GERS Monthly BOT·s meeting 09/22/22 So that document is a couple of pages in length. It starts on page 34 and is followed by the monthly performance report. So we plan to cover those two and answer any other questions you may have. So starting with the first one on page 34, you will recall at the last board meeting on August 25th that the board approved new targets for asset classes to essentially update the asset allocation of the fund. 0:05:21 The new allocation policy targets are shown again on this table on page 34. And if you want us to pull up this content onto the screen, we can. If you have it in front of you, that's fine. And we can point to page numbers. us know how you would prefer like you this is trustee dorsey i'd like you to put it on the screen please okay thank you can you see that yes yes so since we've met with you the markets stock market in particular has declined uh to the tune of about seven percent for the period from august 25th through about two days ago when we put together this report for it um since august 25th we work with state street bank which was also the um i guess the partner organization of state street global advisors the asset manager that you chose to fulfill your allocation through through passive approach so those uh the documentation the contract went to your staff and those have not yet been finalized as a result there's been no activity there's been no terminations no sales and no new purchases so the more conservative portfolio you still have and as a result you were not subject to any decline in the markets you continue to be subject to moves in interest rates and the trend of the rise in interest rates 0:05:54 has continued so your bonds have lost some money meaning the the interest rates went up the price of the bonds went down which means you experienced some losses but they were smaller about half or a bit less than half of what the stock market lost during this time um so from that perspective that this is uh you know can be framed on a relative positive way because you whenever you're ready to buy whenever the contracts get executed if nothing changes you'll be getting the same exposure the same assets the same holdings if you will but at a lower price which tends to imply a better return into the future so that's basically the gist of this presentation it describes what happen uh which is essentially no actions but work behind the scenes to the point that at some point in time we will be ready to act and uh at that point in time we will meet we will seek to minimize the impact of any sudden move in the markets as we have discussed by buying a portion up front and then a gradual uh purchase of the remainder to get you to your targets over the next couple of months so that's the plan nothing has changed we still continue to believe it is a very reasonable and prudent approach for you to take in the circumstances that you're experiencing with the expected cash flows and in the current market environment and as soon as those activities begin to occur staff and or mikita can produce reports to inform you of the progress uh you know on a monthly basis or whenever a transaction takes place so with that i'll pause and see if you have any questions we can certainly provide more comment on the markets yesterday for example the federal bank uh increased rates another time by 75 basis points so that continues to uh to take place and there is the expectation that one or two more rates uh will take place within the next 0:07:45 two three months uh chair uh morning i have a question yes go ahead so mikhita let me just ask this question um with the decrease you were saying in the bonds are any of those uh going forward or any of those five strategies that never really got the conclusion on will be implemented in the future to assist us uh i'm sure for the question trustee dorsey can you repeat yeah you just said that we had a loss in the market right the market lost yeah the equity market lost about seven percent in the last i don't know three four weeks and the bond market is about two to three percent okay so going forward as you mentioned i guess at the retreat and since that meeting at the retreat that you had these strategies that you would be using in the future um for our plan so with any of those five strategies that you were mentioning would be used in the future i was just trying to figure out how that would be applied yes yes yeah thanks for bringing that up um our our intention is to uh at the next investment committee meeting at which mikita attends that you convene us or that we have a slot in the agenda to bring our um colleagues that are in charge of managing risk mitigation strategies to provide more content and education so that you understand the ramification of those strategies they're not fail proof there's a cost for those strategies they work under 0:09:50 certain situations so we want to make sure you understand the pros and cons of of those potential actions so our objective would be to to meet with you at the next investment committee meeting and address that yes so is there any way uh those strategies that you're going to be proposing to the trustees at that meeting that we can have that before maybe like a week before so that we could be able to ask questions about it as opposed to getting it at the meeting and trying to ask questions at that time so if i understand correctly mr dorsey what you're saying is if you can get the materials in advance you can review them be prepared ask any questions in advance and then have a meeting uh there is more in depth yes absolutely at least at least for myself i can speak for the materials in advance and this is going to include those five strategies that we might possibly use in the future is that correct yes it's going to include a combination of strategies may not be all five because maybe not all five after our analysis may be the most appropriate for you but it's going to include at least a handful of those for for discussion and we don't expect this to be an action item but it's going to be mostly uh an educational item i think it is something new for this group and we want to make sure everyone is on board and 0:11:43 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 20 GERS Retirement System (Board of Trustees) · GERS Monthly BOT·s meeting 09/22/22 understands the ramification of those considerations well i was only asking for the five because up to now you never define the five i just wanted to be able to review it so if i had questions even on those maybe two or three that may not be used at least i can ask a question for myself we did send materials in advance uh as soon as that meeting on the 25th and another time that we forward information to to mr neve so that those would be sent uh to the trustees so we can resend that and we will also prepare some those those are more generic uh materials white papers presentations that we put together for our client base at large but the content that we intend to present to you at the next investment committee meeting now that those materials will be custom made for girls and those will be sent also in advance at least a week prior to the committee meeting so you all have plenty of time to review them so my last point you're going to be bringing an individual who specializes in those particular strategies or would that be yourself it's going to be ourselves the client team and those individuals so it's going to be multiple makita people available to ensure that information is um is shared with you in the best possible way i got you thank you you're welcome okay i have two questions i also have questions i'll go after you okay so my first question to you um makita is um am i am i reading your memo correctly that the the rebalancing of the portfolio that we approved is still a good strategy yes so if the question is is this still a good pruning and standard strategy for girls our answer is yes it continues to be okay and the second i guess the second question is i don't I don't know whether this is to you or Mr. Nibs. What, if any, is a holdup in executing the documents to implement the strategy? 0:13:31 On the agenda today, the contract. We have submitted everything to Mikita in regards to the SSGAs, all the information that is needed. So however, the contract has to be, on the agenda for approval today okay okay so that that's that's that's that's the only holder i mean leo has been you know going forward and doing what he has to do but like i said we have supplied everything that they've requested so we just need to approve the contract Okay. Chair, I have another question to you. 0:15:33 Question to me? Yes. Okay. So based on what you were just asking and how Mr. Niv just answered that we're waiting to execute this contract today, that was the reason why I asked Makita the question because mr makita just indicated that the strategies they're going to be looking to do they haven't technically presented those until his group comes in the next investment committee meeting so i'm not sure why we would implement something that hasn't even been fully explained what implemented is a contract with him to move forward yeah if i may it's it's two different things i mean the contract right now is with the state street bonds to implement essentially to fund the index funds in essentially stock and bonds which is uh a very common way for pension funds to get exposure girls has that exposure today in the bond space it used to have it in the equity space so it is really nothing new it is the lowest cost to get brought exposure to the markets globally to to essentially provide capital with the expectation of generating return from from putting that capital to work so that is one thing and that's what is that's what was approved the other topic that you brought trustee dorsey is the issue of well is there a way to protect our capital by getting some kind of insurance premium invested in some type of defensive strategy that may produce a lost or a very small positive returning up 0:16:26 markets but when there is a major correction potentially produce meaningful gains offsetting losses elsewhere in the portfolio so those are very different payoff structures they're very different and those are the ones that we intend to uh discuss with with the investment committee at the next meeting but these they're not necessarily related and one is not predicated on the other okay so mr nips um so when you say the item is on the agenda you're talking about done with the pool of the Makita Investment Group contract? 0:18:18 Yes. We ended up so okay so I'm a little bit confused my understanding of the conversation was that the the hold up was with the change over to the managers i suppose am i confused in this we have supplied mikita with everything that they've requested after the investment committee meeting okay okay all right excuse me mr chair sean is there any app that you can provide from your perspective with respect to the execution of the contracts with state street global advisors and the timing for funding do you have any updates that you can share with this group yeah so as mr nibs stated we requested some information on behalf of ssga a couple weeks ago mr nibs and his staff provided that to ssga and then a few days ago ssga supplied the contract and documents uh for jurors to sign those are with mr nibs's staff and have to be reviewed by legal and executed okay can you send it to uh sean i didn't see it let me look hold on one second uh it was sent on september 15th to yourself mr henderson and miss collie i can re re forward to you now okay maybe i forward it to henderson to give me some feedback but i'll check it out 0:19:02 okay okay all right i guess we the amount of the stories that we need to get those executed so that we could um have our policy and our strategy in place for our own protection Is there anything else on this issue? Anything else for Makita? I got some questions. 0:21:22 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 20 GERS Retirement System (Board of Trustees) · GERS Monthly BOT·s meeting 09/22/22 Oh, sure. I'm sorry. Go ahead. Yeah, I got some questions. Go ahead. Good morning. Good morning, everybody. There are two things you mentioned that tells me I need to ask this question because I'm not sure I understand. You mentioned the Fed's increasing the interest rate. and tell me how an increase in the interest rates by the feds affects our current portfolios and then with this new plan that we have how would an interest rate by the feds in impact our new plans could you explain that to me because um i i hear this fed's increasing the interest rate all over the news and everything but i i want to understand how it affects our portfolio okay and then going forward how it will affect our portfolio yes i will try my best so the fed raised the interest rates and they've been doing that that for for quite a bit of time during this year and so the latest one was yesterday on the 21st and it raised rates by 75 basis points or three quarters of one percent right the interest rate today is between on the on the target that they can manage which is on the short end of the curve is between three and three and a quarter so each time that happens all fixed income rates all bond products essentially uh go up and when that when the interest rate goes up that means those bonds are worth less 0:21:50 than they used to because a new bond would be issued at a higher rate and so the existing bond that pay a fixed rate has to go down in price to offset and essentially provide an equivalent yield which is the the distribution over divided by its price so all that basically says if you hold the portfolio of bonds and interest rates increase the the price of your on your bond portfolio is going to go down which means you're going to experience a loss at least temporarily because eventually those bonds need to come back to par um so what that means is that in today's portfolio this is the major variable that affects the performance of girls in the new portfolio the lion chair of the driver of performance is going to be the economic cycle because you're going to have equities equities have much greater volatility or variability in returns and is more driven by the economic cycle now at times changes in interest rate can play an effect into the economy right now one of the key drivers for the increase in interest rates is the inflation that for the last year or so has come in much higher than anticipated than some of the highest readings over the four decades in retrospect one can argue the fed should have started this you know sometime earlier than than it did it actually and that the quantitative easing that we had for quite a few years should have stopped earlier so right now we're in the opposite liquidity is being taken out the market there is tightening of financial conditions 0:23:39 and that is a primary goal is again to try to decrease this inflation rate now the fed inflation is always an issue between demand and supply the fed cannot really control the supply because the supply it's outside of the fit the fed's control and in many cases outside of the control of anyone so what things like the russia and ukraine war covet shutdowns which affects supply chain issues for example in china labor shortages people stopping working for a variety of reasons mainly related to kobe all of those affect the supply size so the only thing the free can control now is the demand and they can do that via movement in the interest rate pricing so that is what's what's primarily happening today and i guess the expectation is that this trend will continue for at least the next few months the issue is what will this lead to more likely than not when this happens eventually it's going to begin to impact labor meaning unemployment may go up it may also impact the economy which may right now is very resilient but it may put the economy eventually into slowdown or into a recession and i guess the key question that investors are pondering is how severe this might turn to be is it gonna be pretty mild or is it gonna be more like you know maybe in 2001 or is it gonna be much more uh challenging as it was maybe between 1980 and 1982 so that's it maybe a little bit more than you asked but i tried to give you a fuller perspective yeah thank you thank you okay all right thank you mr chief that's my question okay you're welcome um okay so 0:25:27 um i think we need to move on with the agenda 30 minutes into the meeting i haven't been distracted mr chairman yes yes and i get an update can i give an update to the documents that uh sean had uh spoken about yes he did send them to us okay that's it that's no problem okay all right so um so i guess we we could excuse makita and we move on to the rest of the agenda thank you very much guys thank you thank you All right, so we'll continue with the agenda. Comments and suggestions from retirees? 0:27:18 Comments and suggestions from active members? Hearing none, we move on to the Secretary's Minutes, Mr. Nibbs. So I guess we need a motion to accept those minutes, in advance of the August 25th board meeting. Mr. Chair, there are a few typos. 0:28:26 Okay. On page 10, on page 10, page 10 analysis, we have Virgin Islands Finance Housing Authority, believe that it should be version of the housing finance authority um under the casino rate says finance house yeah it should be version of housing finance authority okay yeah okay um go along a few lines under the casino control commission um exercise additional option for another year i believe until them until the beginning that's correct yes what's the chain if you read that sentence should be it's all it's somebody until until that should be there until that should be stricken beginning so it should be it should read um additional option for another year beginning October 5th October 5th 2022 okay and then on page 11 to the bottom second to last line that sentence the last sentence should start as part of the plan okay I'll say that 0:29:00 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) 4 of 20 GERS Retirement System (Board of Trustees) · GERS Monthly BOT·s meeting 09/22/22 that's it I would also um there's one more page 13 The Board of Trustees has agreed to a table and nomination at selection of the Vice Chairman until? I don't know. They're just going to be funny without it. You're breaking up, at least on my side. I'm not sure if it's just me. Page 13 on the A, item I, the sentence that begins with the Board of Trustees, I believe the word until should be placed after Vice Chairman, so I should read Vice Chairman until during the selection of the Chair Paulson. okay everybody got that any any other correction you had something mr. Tony Williams yes the date the document reflects that it's the minute of August 25th 12 202 that should be 2022 12 to add throughout the document in the header right yes okay so with those corrections your motion to to accept the match not to pull the match such a move that we approve the minutes of the august 25th 2022 regular board meeting as amended was corrected second by dorsey okay 0:31:17 Trustee Carwood? Yes. Trustee Dorsey? Yes. Trustee Liger? Yes. Trustee McDonnell? Absent. Trustee Russell? Yes. Trustee Smith? Yes. Chairman Bari? Yes. Six yes, one absent. Okay, next item, communication and correspondence. 0:33:08 On September 1, 2022, we received a release of $3.4 million to satisfy Act Numbers 8578, which was sponsored by Senator Fred Gregory to pay additional bonuses for years 2018, 2019, and 2020. These bonuses are received by GRSD funds from the VI Lottery every year. Initially, the amount under Act No. 8473 was for $2.2 million. I remember when it started for the first two years, they were giving us the full amount and then they dropped off. So each year, since the first two years, they have been decreasing the amount. So what the senator did was appropriated fiscal year 2023, $3.4 million to give additional bonuses to retirees who were 60 years at the time of 2018, 2019, 2020, were 60 years of age and had been on the payroll for at least one year. So we have received the funds, and we are presently trying to wrap up the files. We did have some problems, and we are looking at those problems so we can at least try to get these bonuses processed by the end of September. Also, as you may know, for those retirees who did receive the bonus in those years, and are now deceased, we would have to go back and check the files and determine who the beneficiaries are, and we would have to pay out the beneficiaries. That's the only piece of correspondence that we have. I know that the Senator is doing the same thing for years 2021 and 2022. I think the bill was just passed in committee, in the bill number 34 that's 0333, that was just passed yesterday. So she's appropriating additional monies which we know we would receive when the governor signs the bill into law. ends my communication and correspondences okay so the next item is the chairperson's report um i don't have a full report it's like to to note that i have been assured by by the pfa 0:33:48 that the GRS will receive full $158 million from the funding note on October 1. You may or may not be aware that the matching fund cover over received from the Treasury was $226 million based on a $10.50 per proof-gallon rate when the funding note assumes closer to $277 million based on the $13.25 per proof-gallon rate. 0:36:58 So that created a shortfall. The first claim to the receipts to the money is to pay GRS and that's $158 million and to pay the wrong companies, which is $103 million, to add those two together that's $261 million, which is more than the $226 million that was received. So there's a shortfall. So I was concerned that the IRS, the $158 million would be reduced. I've assured that they we will get the full 158 million dollars the pfa will make up the difference from from pfa funds so that's that's good news um not so good news is that um it appears that the funding that we requested up from the finance committee when they were marking up the budget additional contributions to grs apparently did not make it through and you may or may not be aware that at the finance committee meeting when we're discussing the budget the grs requested two items of funding one was to move the a pending increase in employer contribution from the current 20.3% to 23.5%. 0:37:47 Did I get my percentage right, Mr. Names? 23.5% to 26.5%. 26.5% so a three percentage point increase. currently scheduled to go into effect in 2025 and we were asking the finance committee to move that forward to 2023 so that we start getting that addition earlier we also requested of them that they fund the 50 approximately 50 million dollars worth of administrative expense there a point in time when the legislature funded the grs administrative expense from the general fund and that was that was discontinued some couple years back and we were asking for that to be reinstituted um and that apparently didn't make it forward either so just want to advise of them that's that's basically what i have to what i have to report the point of information chair what was the last part you said didn't make it we at our presentation to the finance committee we had asked that the legislature appropriate funding i think we asked for 15 million dollars to fund the administrative expense the annual administrative expense uh of the system that's the 15 million dollars to sound familiar because we're going to be talking about that a 0:39:48 little bit um in the budget apparently there was a point in time when when the legislature funded the administrative expense from the general fund that was discontinued i don't i don't recall the dates i don't know if mr major call it is but that practice was discontinued well we asked of the legislature was to reinstitute the practice and the appropriate fifty million dollars from the general fund to pay for the administrative expense of the system the picture we're making is this is that that sort of makeup for the shortfall and as we know the the contributions from the funding note is going to drop off after a couple years and pick back up later on and we're trying to fill that gap so that was the that was the argument 0:41:37 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 20 GERS Retirement System (Board of Trustees) · GERS Monthly BOT·s meeting 09/22/22 you made before um but partly that didn't make it so so um chair the we made a request to the senate through the administrator and it didn't go through for the three percent increase of the government portion and now the administrative cost of the system that used to be covered years ago based on a code um so should we now go to the plan sponsor to make the request at this point that that would seem to be the logical at least where i said to go at least ask the plan sponsor because the plan sponsor has indicated there is a surplus of bonding that was put aside during this time and that surplus is more than my understanding that surplus is more than the 15 million at least the administrative costs we could probably cover which would probably open the door for us to be able to start the loan program i'm assuming my plan sponsors at all i'm going to the government the executive branch that is the plan sponsor that sponsor is the government the version which is it is government and legislature and the legislature is the only entity that that appropriates money the governor can't can't appropriate funds only legislation appropriate funds i agree i only i own i'm only saying the same way the governor would send down bills to be voted up or down his influence at this time i think would would give us a little edge at this time when we sit but i think it's immediate we probably should have with the administration with the plan sponsor i don't think we should give up because the senate decided to say no when the governor is saying he has a surplus okay i mean the rest of you could weigh in if you want i mean eventually it goes back to the legislature and when it comes from me i come from the governor goes back to legislature and they are we have this when they're putting together the budget they are fully aware of the revenues and they feel it the full area of any software that's available and they decided not to do it so um well i wasn't i wasn't trying to say that what you ordered i guess we recommended it at some point that that's not that that wasn't good coming FROM THE BOARD OR COMING TO THE CHAIR, TO THE ADMINISTRATOR, I WAS SAYING THAT THE GOVERNOR 0:43:31 HAS CERTAIN INFLUENCES THAT OBVIOUSLY WE DO NOT HAVE. HE JUST SHOWED IT BY HIS OTHER CHAIRS PAYING THE DIFFERENCE IN THE BOND FUNDING, THE SHORT FALLS OF THE BOND FUNDING, OF THE COVER-OVER. SO I'M JUST SAYING THAT I THINK WE SHOULD OPEN IT UP. WE SHOULD AT LEAST ASK THE QUESTION let him tell us to know if it can't work but he just said he has a surplus he's been telling the community there is a surplus miss o'neill from omb indicated there is a surplus that's so plus more than it's easy on the administrative side of the cost any other thoughts i support going back to the governor and asking him to consider legislation is since this budget is being approved because clearly the calculations with the 1050 far shot so some although the pfa is agreeing to make up the difference it is still a taxing on the overall finances of the territory so we should go back to the legislature i believe i just asked the governor to do it i'm not sure i'm not sure i'm following that it seems to me we get we get the governor to ask the legislature to appropriate 15 million dollars 0:45:17 for us yeah the governor could do it he could ask he could he could say that you know they will receive a short file from the cover over and that's you know that's something appropriate we receive a shortfall and we need 15 million dollars to do our operating expenses so the governor if we could ask him to do it it's simple i i i i mean you're confusing me i don't know i'm not sure i understand the 15 million 15 million dollars has nothing to do with the 158 million dollars no but but the 158 million dollars has to do with the overall budget and the money the the territory gives to the gr system yeah yeah so we go back to the to the as he said plan sponsor and ask the governor to ask the legislature 15 15 million dollars since we we receive a shortfall from the cover over justified i mean i i i i follow that i just said that we won't receive a short form we're talking about the 158 yeah okay currently the territory gonna receive a short file regardless of how the numbers come out the 1050 gave us less money from the cover over than the 1325 that has to be made up somehow now whether the delegate could do it but i think as dorsey said without surplus we asked for the 0:47:05 15 million dollars from the governor and he might find a way to give us the 15 or he could ask the legislature but we put it in his lap that's what i'm saying put it in his lap to make up that 15 million dollars that was removed from the general budget when you know there was there wasn't enough money to include it so you know i just wane in our doors he said because i think it's a good idea any other thoughts Okay. 0:49:03 And the board has been asked about that idea? Chairman Borey, let me just ask you again. Do we lose anything by making a request, something that's already in the code that we tried to do through our means that didn't work, and I'm referring to the administrative portion of the plan and asking the plan sponsor to just be able to look for that money, especially saying that there's a surplus. That's the thing. It's one thing if you say you don't have the money, but you're saying you have the money and it was said during the same finance Committee for OMB, Trudad Budget Director, that there's definitely a surplus. So I'm not sure why we wouldn't all be on board with that. I'm not getting this point of it. And this is beyond the shortfall of just the bonding alone. I'm just trying, we can isolate the administrative costs of the plan going forward at this point. We can just put that off the table that's one less thing that the board of trustees would have to worry about each year and that would even include uh moving forward with any daily uh expenses of the system itself that would just be covered through that what is a question to me mr that we go to the plan sponsor 0:49:54 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 20 GERS Retirement System (Board of Trustees) · GERS Monthly BOT·s meeting 09/22/22 and ask for the 15 million even outside because we made the request already officially to mr natives during the budget process. It didn't go through as you indicated today. So now we do have another option, which is the plan sponsor. And he did indicate, the plan sponsor did indicate that we have a surplus. So I'm not sure why we wouldn't go down that road. We have nothing to lose. The most the governor can say is no or he can say yes i feel he would say yes because most of the things he has been doing they have been successful and this is part of his overall plan indirectly because he alone would like to see well along with some senators would like to see this loan program come so every little bit that we can take away from the daily operation that we don't have to rely on it opens up other monies that at some point we wouldn't even have to worry about tapping into internal uh funding mr mr mr darcy um i've asked the other board members for input i'm not hearing i i hear you loud and clear but you as a chair know we have that option you were a former uh omb director so you know that is an option and i just indicated to you that the current sitting omb director says we have at least a plenty twist million surplus you're saying you said it over again you said that about five times already in the last three minutes right but i was looking i was waiting for you alone to indicate as the chair that that's a good idea that's something we need to look at i've already indicated i don't think that that's that's a 0:51:44 dollar the source the source of financing is the legislation we went to the source we went directly to the source of funding only legislation only government is going to do is ask so sorry but that that's my perspective as a former budget director The sitting budget director says they have a $20 million plus. We're looking for $15 million. That will leave them roughly $5 million in their surplus, right? So I'm saying again, the governor has to say I want to reappropriate $15 million of that $20 million, which he didn't do before, so he can do that now. But we need to at least give him the option. Hopefully somebody from government houses listening in on this meeting really okay all right any any other any other thoughts from any other board members on that issue okay well i like i'd like to make a motion at this time chair yeah my motion is that we make a request to the plan sponsor to cover the administrative costs of this plan that we presented uh during the budget process so move you have a motion second second move and seconded roll call 0:53:34 trusty dorsey yes trusty liger since the chair said it is we didn't think it's gonna go through my vote is no. Trustee McDonald absent. Trustee Russell? Yes. Trustee Smith? No. No. Chairman barry no two yes four no one absent okay next item on the agenda is uh administrator's report good morning uh just to mention some items of my appearance of meetings on the 24th of august i met with the appraisal McCloskey to discuss recurring appraisals and also the appraisal of the Havenside Mall. The 30th I met with Best Taxi. On the September 5th through the 8th I attended Value Edge Advisors 2023 Public Pension Forum. On the 15th of September the internal meeting with the retro and annuity adjustment team. On the 16th, I met with the Oversight Committee. On the 19th, I met with NCPERS, which is the National Conference on Public Employees Retirement System, Executive Director Hank Kim, in regards to the GAO study based on a request made by Stacy Plastic, Chair of the House Committee on Natural Resources. Could I interrupt you, Mr. Nibzai? What's your understanding of where that is and what's going to come out of that? 0:55:19 Your study has not been completed. NCPOS, which is a national group that has membership in all countries u.s canada in all countries uh they are asked to give their opinion on on it they did meet with katie and myself and basically the same things that the geo asked us they were inquiring us to the status of the grs we gave them some information public documents i was my i don't know what is going to be the outcome i think I guess the delegate wants to see if she can maybe have Congress pay more attention to the GRS in regards to maybe funding. But I know that Congress is not going to really look at the GRS because, number one, GRS does not contribute, don't have really any voting members in Congress. on the senate and number one we have states that have the same problems like the grs pension system and therefore ordinarily in order to shore up a pension system the states have taxing atari you know usually the the congress would maybe finance a recent type pension plans not public pension plans i'm i'm interested in the the gao study itself i mean what do you understand purpose for that it did several years ago i do not know sir we met with them They asked to meet with us. They're conducting the study. They're including individuals like the executive director, NC Press, who would have a voice. And I think he would say the same thing because we met with him when we went to Washington, D.C. four or five years ago in regards to probably, and also with a delegate, in regards to getting funding for the GRS. And he told us, plain blank, that he could not support it because, you know, the same thing I just told you, you know, the Congress don't usually fund pension, public pension systems. 0:57:12 You know, the states and the territory have taxing authority to do that. I think that is just of, I don't know what the outcome is going to be, but. Okay. okay um what's the name what's the name of the um agency you met with that i missed that nc press and and give it what yeah okay they have always worked yeah they have always worked with us during the in the last election campaign the one before this one we had them come down we had a we had a forum with them they were here we had a forum at carambola and uh all the you know the aspirants and the governorial candidates came and we were talking about the pension problems and but they have always been supportive of us so you know i'm just going to tell you that they're not going to support any funding for the GRS for Congress, because they've already told 0:59:51 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 20 GERS Retirement System (Board of Trustees) · GERS Monthly BOT·s meeting 09/22/22 us that. Okay. Okay. As far as applications, we have received, we have an outstanding 182 applications. As you can see from the screen, in 2022, we received 213 applications, and we have processed 63, there's 150 applications remaining in 2021. Of the 343 received in 2021, there are 43, 23 remaining. So main reasons why, obviously, is probably employee contributions are due. Maybe we have sent in requests for employer contributions from the semi-autonomous agencies or maybe LAS NOPA has not been received. 1:01:04 Life Certificate of the 263 letters that were mailed out, total of 259 were returned so there are about four left and those members benefits will be suspended if we do not receive the Life Certificates. Same issue with the disability, there are four pending cases in regards to internal legal. Refunds, so far from October 2021 to August 2022, we have processed $8.1 million. 1:01:56 Of that $8.1 million, regular, which is non-vested members, counted for $6.9 million. debt benefits we have completed 41 so far for the year dependent 47 without 1.7 million annuity payments the september 15th payroll there were 8 733 8,733 members that were paid, total amount from October 15, 2021 to September 15, 2022. We have paid out $250.6 million. We have added to the payroll that same period, 363 members. and we have deleted from the payroll from October last year to September 15, 310 members. The gross retiree payroll for the 9-15 payroll was $10.9 million. Loan portfolio, as of August 31, 2022, there were 1,363 units left. Of that 1,362 units, 1,283 are personal loans, and the balance of 76 are mortgages. 1:02:32 The balance in the portfolio as of August 31, 2022 is $14.9 million. There were about overpayments. We had to refund some payments for members who overpaid. 16 million dollars in the month of August and this is the maturity schedule as you know the loan program as far as personal loans probably end sometime in 2025 through December 2022 we will $526 would have expired and about $294 would be expiring in 2023. As it just brought to my attention, I said a refund of overpayment is $16,000. 1:04:04 I'm sorry, $16,000. That's a big difference. We don't have $16 million to give out. There are no major issues with the St. Croix complex. I just want to mention that the emergency generator is working. We did have some power interruption in both districts. No generators will function properly. In St. Thomas, the hip roof. Currently, if you've been to the complex, you see that we have a lot of construction going on and completion date is hopefully by the end of September. subject to weather. It was a problem last week obviously because of the rain, air condition project. We want to complete that by the beginning of October. The generator is fully functional, thank God. Of course the new generator will receive. One was selected and approved and we will get that generator in here by january 2023 leave inside more the demolition as i said last month is going to start in october um give me a call about the deal and what we're doing please thank you you trust me what's the last minute mike demolition is going to start in october we plan to meet with waiko tomorrow meeting with them we'll let them know schedule um the hotel development the lease was signed between grs and haven development lc we are waiting some information from the geotechnical engineers We have received the plans from Waiko that were required by the engineers. The White House annex is now occupied and we have moved maintenance supplies in that area. As far as the White House itself building, we drafted an MEO, we wanted partnership with St. Thomas Historic Trust for occupancy as a museum and MOU was drafted and was sent to the legal team. Same thing with a bronze statue of the poor women on the green space and it was drafted and sent to the parties and we presently sourcing a generator with minimal legal. 1:04:55 Can I interrupt Mr. Nance? Where's the bronze statue supposed to go? Where is the bronze statue? It's going to be on the green space. Okay. As far as our rental and electricity collections, significant improvement in the rareages. For August, we collected $285,115.67. Total fiscal year to date, we collected $1.4 billion. our rarages through August 31, 2022, $18,133. 39 cents. As far as leases, the DOP lease is still at the government house to signature. We followed up on the status on 9-16. Department of Justice, the final letter was sent by me to negotiate and finalize the lease. Sent to the Attorney General on September 16. We are awaiting response. We want to finalize that leave by the end of September. Virgin Islands Police Department, VPD, is interested in two rental spaces, and we'll send the property and procurement inspectors to make the assessment of the area. These spaces are downstairs where VI Housing Finance Authority was. As you know, they ended the lease. Police Department is interested in that. Also we found some space on the second floor that we can also rent to them and move some of our some of those employees upstairs on the third floor. So we're trying to see if we can maximize as much to to get some more rental into this building building casino control you think it's wise to to push rental to government agency you're famous for not paying that question was asked before you know 1:07:32 you know but no nobody taking the department private sector isn't taking it so we don't want to make it idle the money's appropriated just a matter of timing when the funds come in right now we have no arreages on on government and government entities government tenants our rare is right now is on the private sector the 18 18 18 thousand dollars how 1:09:31 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 20 GERS Retirement System (Board of Trustees) · GERS Monthly BOT·s meeting 09/22/22 do we how do we advertise for that space they approached us the thing is i understand that my question You know, when you talk about the private sector, you said that nobody in the private sector is interested. So my question to you is, have we reached out? How do we reach out? Years ago, we did. Years ago, we did advertise. Years ago, this wasn't available. Well, I'm responding to you, sir. Let me complete. I said, years ago, we reached out, okay, and we didn't get any really responses from them. The person that occupied that place was the bank, the first bank. They had occupied the lobby, the downstairs, and also on the second floor, and we didn't get any responses. So, we didn't reach out this time because maybe through the grapevine, maybe the property procurement told them something and they came and approached us and they i think these these are going to maybe have getting federal funds so i think instead of letting the police be idle um we just take a chance did the same thing with vi housing finance authority and it was successful okay okay well and the differences in how the finance authority is they're semi-autonomous agency they usually pay better than the central government agencies they get the same federal funds well so am i hearing that you're saying leave it idle it's trying to be funny now mr means there's nothing in my car well are you recommending then that we send out our advertisement today what what we need to rent the space i mean if you have other vacant um um properties then you can put it back out you can put it out but but right now i don't see a problem with the police department um occupying the space I just wanted to help them, what are the points that pay? 1:10:33 Okay, that, as you can see on Exhibit A, the arrearages from the central government have been paid up. And their reerage right now is in St. Croix from Pleasant Company, 17,963-44, and we're going to be. This has never happened with them really recently. 1:12:24 The last time I knew they had a reerage was after the storm in 2017. So, usually they're a very good tenant as far as payments. I'd like to mention before I conclude, I'd like to make mention of the accomplishment of one of our employees. On August 30th, Kathy Smith, the General Counsel, was elected as Chairman of the International Pension and Employee Benefits Law Association. This is an international group. She's the first person of color to be elected to this position. And she has been a member of this group since 2010. There are about 30 countries that are represented in this association. And it boasts about 250 members from places like Argentina, Austria, Belgium, Bermuda, Brazil, Canada, Denmark, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Jamaica, Japan, Kenya, Narnabia, New Zealand, Portugal, Sweden, Switzerland, United Kingdom, Zambia, and Zimbabwe. The mission of the association, which is the International Pension and Employee Benefit Law Association, is to promote knowledge, discussion, and development of pensions and benefit law among its members more widely by providing educational tools and resources and establishing networking opportunities that bring together international pension and benefit lawyers working in academia in institutional private practice and corporate setting kati attended the public pension forum with me earlier this month in california and i'm going to tell you this uh what she has achieved is is is is very important because a lot of members i met at the pension forum they were congratulating her she's the first person of color to be elected to that position so i think we should be proud of attorney smith and wish her well mr chairman 1:12:59 that concludes my remarks congratulations tennie smith it was a good day when i first signed that contract with you congratulations okay it was a good day for me too i've really enjoyed my time at grs this has been my best employer okay congratulations congratulations attorney smith trustee dorsey um i had some questions for um mr nibs i also had some questions chair so i'll go after trustee russell all right all right oh yeah mr nibs um regarding the generator that was bought uh for give me a little more information about that because i don't participate in the meetings uh and i want to i will start participating but does that generator power the whole complex or is it specific and what kind of generator is it um a hybrid way you could use different types of fuel now it's diesel um i'll let miss glennin and gums respond yeah good morning trustee um it's a 500 kw cummings uh generator it was sourced and available in january as you know generators are hard to come by lead times could go from 50 to 62 weeks we're lucky to 1:15:12 get this one under manufacturer warranty brand new coming to us in January. It's going to power the GRS main building and leave space for expansion. Our current generator is the capacity is much too big for the energy being used here. It's a 900 kW. So that's going to be kind of our backup. it has a shelf life of like two to three years left so being proactive okay so when you said the main building that's not even site no not at this time okay so okay so okay that's so the main building the next question um when you when you say you have a backup generator um um is that still valuable could could could it be used in another area that the grs might want to have a generator right the shelf life of the old generator is about two to three years it the technology is older it's kind of huge and cumbersome so it's going to serve as the backup here uh we've experienced in the past when that generator was down our itac payroll those some of those critical areas needed the power generation. So we thought this a good plan, a strategy going forward until it dies. 1:17:08 Okay, so it has warranty. How much it costs and who's gonna install it, this new generator? The new generator, we're gonna offer, it's less than 170,000 thereabouts. abouts um and we put it out um for solicitation um invitations for bids we 1:18:37 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 20 GERS Retirement System (Board of Trustees) · GERS Monthly BOT·s meeting 09/22/22 got three and import supply was selected um so the generator was ordered and they will install and surface oh okay okay they are the authorized uh dealer in the virgin islands for that okay good okay okay okay uh mr nibs back to mr nibs just one more question okay uh yeah mr nibs when you say there were significant increases in rent and you are discussing the police department um what rent increases were they money's owed or that a new rent was instituted for some of these um uh leases i'm not sure i understood how we get a rent increase i did not say that senator russell i didn't say anything about increases in rent i probably said there were decreases in their rarities the rental marriages oh okay okay from uh okay i i i walked away and i i sort of missed what was the um the so the they pin the arrearages and they're decreasing okay the arrearages from the central government wiped out we have uh arrearages in the private sector now and in saint croix and i don't think we should have a problem with that because they are usually on time their payments okay okay okay thank you thank you you can clarify that yeah yeah chair i had a question as well a few mr nibs um um i wanted to ask the first one goes back to um those meetings you had on your schedule in your report so i want to go right to the meeting with the appraiser that was all physical properties that were appraised the appraisals were completed on when you said physical properties i'm assuming that there are two pieces of raw land one in st cloy one in st thomas the buildings here are not up for appraisal at this time so it was uh two pieces of property st thomas st cloy and the haven cycle okay so every two years okay so was the appraisals completed it so we just started they haven't oh question information and hopefully it will complete maybe by november december hopefully okay and then for warehouse j which is going to be uh torn down is the cost on that uh from the bid it has the cost changed has there been any change orders 1:20:27 on that now we haven't started yet that's a theme of project miss miss clandina gums can respond but that's a theme of project we haven't started yet i was trying to figure out we were still within the the scope of the cost if there's any hiccups that might have come up that there might be a change in the course um um actually yes the original uh cost was a little bit more than a year ago we did the rfps and selected the vendor um and as you know kind of with diesel and the national supply chain everything is kind of going up a little bit so we did write the contract with that in mind for approximately about $55,000 more, just to give some consideration with the architect consultation in the contract. Adding that percentage still was lower than the other bids that came in, but we did just the contract for that amount taken into consideration and the inflation that we would be faced with to the tune of thank you okay you answer that thank you okay mr nibs i just had another couple of questions the section where it talks about uh regular employees and the refunding of those regular employees who are not vested do you feel like we need to look at that um as trustees to close that gap because we're talking about millions of dollars re reimbursed into those regular employees overall when you said take a look at it i don't 1:22:16 know what you mean well what i mean by close the gap instead of doing the nine-year window or the 10 or up to the 10-year window they become vested if maybe we should just look at bringing it right to the probationary period going forward and members will decide if they want to be with us or not and maybe we can put some laws on to address that 10 years to just whatever the agency rather the central government or semi-autonomous it'd be based on your probationary period that you're going to stay or not stay so that if we do have to do the refund a much much lower number i can't i can't promise you anything like that i think the last time you spoke about this you mentioned reducing it to five years and my response to you was at the time we were pending insolvency i would say i told you that maybe those new employees that didn't reach the five-year mark would have asked for a refund so i think we still have some some issues in especially millenniums um millennials don't stay in a job too long trust me two years or they're gone so we're gonna have we're gonna continuously have this issue i think with uh regular employees and what they're doing now is they come in for two years they take their money out they may go to the states for a while then they come back new again so they come back as a new hire and they don't put their money back in so they're starting over we have seen the trend but I don't think we have any ability to stop that that's why I mentioned Mr. Nair we're not even talking about five years now and we're talking about that population but i'm talking about just probationary period which can be anywhere from i guess turning on the job anywhere from the six months to three months six months a year um it's just a lot less money if we have to refund as a system and then some people 1:24:04 would leave the system and i don't want to call any names some people would leave the system like you just said they worked in nine and a half years leave the system then whatever that window is they'll come back and work and start it all over again so we have that open window i was just suggesting and to close the gap if we just put it to the probationary period it would be a huge savings for the system going forward that's all i'm going to say about that you just have to think about it they're not going to have any senator supporting that we won't know we won't know until we put it out there mr and i would recommend that this should be something that can be brought up in the policy committee and okay good as you know that would be my response to you okay um the other item i had was the overpayment the overpayment was it's in that same section so the overpayment is for the loan program in general, all the different categories? 1:26:04 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 20 GERS Retirement System (Board of Trustees) · GERS Monthly BOT·s meeting 09/22/22 Yes, those are for the personal loans. What happened is that they paid more than they should have. The finance did not stop it or something like that, and so we have to refund them the monies. Okay, and then when you say you delete a certain number of retirees, does that mean they're no longer with us when you say that? is that a polite way of saying it well yes i think if you got like 300 people that you deleted that means they're no longer with us in my report i've always said deceased but i didn't say this time those are members okay okay okay and then the okay so i was reading that lease note you had for justice department and looking at what you said the last time so the letter you have for department of justice is for the justice or property and procurement it seems like up to now they keep talking about i think in the last report or the report before the last day we're talking about the square footage cost so now they're beyond that because they have paid up so obviously they want to go forward so what we're saying is a hold up again for their lease as well as the personnel they were not in agreement with our cost per square foot and we told them that this is what is required it includes cam charges and everything and we laid it out for them and we told them that there's no room for negotiations because they're probably paying the same thing personnel is playing and they hadn't have an increase in years so um we told them that we need to have a negotiated at least by the end of the month they have to agree okay so what happens mr nibs if they do not apply the end of the month where are we at with them notice to quit okay okay and then um the internal meeting you talked about 1:27:13 uh for retro annuity adjustments can you get into that a little bit i didn't see any documents on it that was on that was it that was the issue that was brought up in the meeting last time by uh miss mohair and i think deborah christopher in regards to recalculation of uh annuities we sent a memorandum to the chairman i think you got a copy it was dated september 20th in regards to that issue okay so i remember reading that memo now i thought it was something else so in that memo it talked about eras uh as one of the points that you could use as an adjustment. So individuals in that communication with Ms. Moorhead and Ms. Christopher, they indicated that how do you, and it also talked about that contracts that were negotiated, even though the money came later, it should be adjusted. And I think that's what Mrs. Moorhead's comment was at that time. So where are we at with that? I didn't see an answer to that. 1:29:19 i just saw you put out a memo on what the law says but i was looking for a response we'll receive copies we have already signed the letters miss mohair and miss christopher and we indicated to them we have we showed them exactly what occurred and as far as we're concerned they're not entitled to any adjustment the letters are going out we send copies to you okay um it also said well i'm getting one of the letters a little confused i was also read in a report i don't want to be putting members information on the record uh no i don't want i don't want to i don't want to put it i don't want to put it in the record as well on the record sorry um okay so the last item was the meeting you had with um the delegate um that was at a conference or was that at the grs that was on the 19th that's not that's in regards to the delegates requests of geo to prepare a study i met with the nc first executive director that was a zoom meeting okay someone from the delegates office was part of that meeting no oh so that was just uh the organization and that was uh put together through the delegates office is that what you're saying no i guess gao reached out to the national organization for the input so they they you know we know they we know these people we have met with them and we have attended a conference so they reached out to us to access what this was all about and asked us some questions and 1:30:27 we gave them some documentation which are public documents so they can do their due diligence so mr niff did you consider um in your meeting did you consider i guess one having trustees attend especially since trustee russell this is what i'm saying especially since trustee Russell brought an official proposal on this particular issue in terms of helping us fund the system. And he was actually talking about having the delegate be part of the process to lead the way to the President of the United States, which our sitting governor has indicated when he spoke to us during the funding request of the current note, whatever we can do as trustees, let's move forward and he's on line with it i mean i mean mr trustee russell's proposal was was right in line so it doesn't even sound like it was probably been considered in your meeting different things number one and i indicated uh we met with this group when we went to meet with the delegate in washington and we put on the table we wanted them to join with us to go to treasury to get a loan and all of that stuff to fund the system they were not in alignment with us reason why is because number one we are public pension system Congress have never funded public pension systems that's a state that are state taxing authority so mean I can introduce the policy committee chair to to uh hang kim and you know what i that meeting was not for that it was on the spur of the moment and we we discussed it for like 30 minutes okay i was just i just mentioned it because uh i saw it on the agenda and then i didn't speak to trustee ruffle about it but i said i'd just bring it up today but it just seems like 1:32:13 nothing else seems to be working. We had a motion today to try to get some funding for the system that is sitting there for us to get. Obviously, that would have to come from a third party. In this case, the plan sponsor himself, if someone's listening. And Trustee Russell's proposal, it hasn't even come up on the agenda to be considered. It's not a true cost to the system per se it's within our spending limits and it hasn't been even considered I'm not sure why it hasn't been considered but if you're going to have this type of meeting and you're talking to the delegate then it would have been nice if since 1:34:15 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) 11 of 20 GERS Retirement System (Board of Trustees) · GERS Monthly BOT·s meeting 09/22/22 trustee Russell mentioned that through the delegate I understand the governor indicated when the question was raised by trustee Russell at that time that he's on board with it so i'm not sure what's really going on with that but thanks again we're not talking speaking with a delegate last time i spoke with a delegate was me three years ago in regards to funding so this is a geo study which was requested by the delegate through do it's a georic um the government accounting uh you know accountability office is doing a study based on the delegates request i don't know what i understand the study uh mr nibs i was only indicating that officially trustee russell gave a proposal to the board right to have fun to help fund the system that's a viable proposal and i'm just saying if we're speaking about funding his proposal hasn't even come on the agenda to be discussed for whatever reason and it's a viable proposal so this would have been another way to probably get it in that's all i was saying thank you thank you thank you thank you chair make a motion yes i hope i wish i responded to justy dorsey's question but um okay so um next on the agenda is committee reports and i i have a report from the budget committee which i which i circulated hope everybody got a copy um i'll just read it into the record briefly quickly it says that the budget committee convene via zoom and 10 at 10 a.m september 20 2022 to consider the proposed fya 2023 budget for the administration of the system the committee members present were trustees borough chair carwood with like staff staff present were administrator name if operating officer tenden drums chief financial officer after due consideration committee voted to recommend would approve a 523 expenditure budget for the administration of the system as follows. 1:36:15 Personal services $5,344,000, fringe benefits $2,219,000, a total personnel cost of $7,563,000, Supplies $513,000. Services and charges $6,696,000. Utilities $635,000 for a total operating expenditure budget of $15.4 million. $193,000 was budgeted for capital outlet for a grant of $15,600,000. 1:37:35 This proposed $15.6 million budget comprises $15.4 million for operating expenditure and $193,000 for capital outlet. In total, it is $348,000 less than FY22 budget and $584,000 less than FY21 budget. Importantly, it is consistent with the $15.6 million that was assumed in the cash flow projection for the GRS funding note. $7.6 million personnel cost, which includes employee compensation and fin benefit, accounts for almost half of the budget. 1:38:18 It provides funding for 75 employees, 28 exempt, and 47 classified, and accommodates all negotiated salary increases for unionized employees, as well as increases for non-union employees. The budget, as proposed, brings all union contracts current. Next biggest line item of $6.7 million for services and charges represent 43% of the budget. Almost all of that is for a wide variety of professional services, primarily legal, financial, audit, medical consulting, and transcription services. The balance of the operating budget, $655,000 for supplies and $635,000 for utilities, was considered to be the environment. 1:39:05 The budget was approved on an interim basis, understanding that it would be needed to accommodate upgrade to the system's backbone computer system. Current version is several upgrades behind and is in danger of losing critical technical support from the vendor. Because of it, because of its substantial cost estimated upward of 5.5 million dollars, the committee requested further refinement of the project, its cost, its implementation timetable at which time the budget will be will have to be revisited and most likely revised the committee considers this upgrade to be a strategic imperative the committee expects to receive the fy 2023 proposed budget for the heavenside mall for its consideration in the mall's fy 22 budget is deemed to be carried over FY23 until then. Committee would like to acknowledge the participation and the input from the senior manual staff that will outline the board. That's the end of the report. 1:40:05 Of course we will be spending some more time on later on in the budget when we talk about approval of the budget. That ends the report. I have a question chair yes oh what was the date of the meeting it was September 20 days ago I didn't get any notification I'm helping so was something sent out yeah it was sent out well i didn't get any notification so i can't speak on it um mr nibs can you um we will have we have the budget the budget is on the agenda later down for board approval okay i'm going to ask you a question okay then okay so here another uh report with committee reports we've got the treasurer's report mr chair i'll make a short report okay mr jeremiah music um right mr mr you you and committee reports right okay i think i didn't hear i didn't hear anything i was mute i was mute so i had to unmute okay so do you have a report from which committee policy committee we met yesterday and we could move forward with the meeting and i i want to state that 1:41:20 we have to have a legal opinion resolving the issue that came up yesterday and the issue is whether or not when full members meet um what occurs can the committee meeting go forward without proper notice to the public and attorney williams and attorney smith had a difference of opinion there and we would like uh some type of legal opinion issued uh when we have these committee meetings uh i postponed the committee meeting which was dealing with a very serious issue the medical um policy and we'll have it shortly once we get some kind of consensus on how to proceed with committee meetings when a lot of members showed up and let me thank the members for showing up carwood smith dorsey and myself uh and staff was there so um we we wasted a a time frame that everybody could attend and i was sorry 1:43:15 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) 12 of 20 GERS Retirement System (Board of Trustees) · GERS Monthly BOT·s meeting 09/22/22 about that but um we postponed the meeting simply because there is a pending legal issue that needs to be resolved and we we scheduled a meeting accordingly when we get a um legal opinion thank you very much research here okay so may i ask briefly what what was the issue yeah yeah sure um the issue was whether we could proceed with a meeting with four members uh because the the issue is if you have four members at a meeting then it constitutes a quorum and that would suggest that you holding a meeting for the board and that issue came up mr nibs chimed in miss smith chimed in everybody chimed in but at the end of the day uh we want to get some consensus how to move forward with these committee meetings when for example if if everybody showed up at the meeting yesterday policy meeting to deal with with the medical issue uh the policy uh would it constitute a board meeting and then all we were doing was making a recommendation to the board but there was a difference of opinion legally what constitute a meeting for the board and and i'm pedro if you want to chime in okay i think you could chime in because if you you could give the public and mr barry you know a better understanding of the issue that we faced yesterday yeah yesterday we called it at 4 30 everybody was on time and we ended about five past five okay thank you so so so it didn't have it didn't keep the meeting no we couldn't i i all on the kind of side of caution because we were going to another issue that came up is whether or not in these committee meetings the public should be apprised or be involved and there is an issue whether or not when you're discussing policy whether the public should be a part of it well when you open discussion and when you come up with your recommendation and you put the recommendation to the full board then the public could be involved it's how do you include the public at committee meetings also came up so it was it was an important issue to be decided i i'm sure that in your um budget meeting or whatever um you you you didn't confront that issue but we confronted it at the policy meeting and i would like to get legal counsel to resolve 1:45:21 it for us so we could move forward okay okay um not sure i understand what the issue is but um the issue is that it does does four members meeting constitute a board meeting okay okay it's simple okay we're just saying that we may cut we may characterize it as a committee meeting but exactly legally it's a board meeting yeah because in the the amount of members appears to have made a big difference in how we approach these meetings four members yeah that would mean that um the only way to have a committee meeting that does not constitute a board meeting is to have the committee to be less than the quorum or you just announce every committee meeting to the public and you know uh you know you could i i could announce that meeting to the public and say if you want to participate in the policy meeting fine and just host it with as much members as want to attend or you know change each committee to be three members and then you know it will solve the problem but i i we need to discuss it and we need to solve it so that proceeding forward we don't have that conflict like why is happy yesterday with my meeting uh trustee russell hello yeah um couldn't you have had the meeting start the meeting and then go into executive session if you didn't want the public to to be involved it was unclear no i i okay uh Do the executive session apply to a committee meeting which dealing with policy? 1:47:24 And that was an issue, Mr. Liger, that was uncertain. To go into an executive session, you have to have specific criteria. And usually, you know, you're dealing with certain matters. and uh you just don't go into executive session based my view was an executive session wouldn't apply to what we were going to discuss in the policy meeting about our policy about uh the medical uh the medical procedure for the board i i i didn't think that we would qualify to go into any executive session for that but you know i would stand corrected if um if the legal council give a view of it but i didn't think we could do it with discussing simple policies and simple revising a document like that no not with secrets or not personal information you know i don't think it qualified that's my answer but in that case listen listen if you have four members it constitutes an uh a board meeting and if this is the case and you have matters to discuss that you feel the public should not be uh prove you to you you can go into executive session because it's a board meeting it constitutes a board meeting if you have if you have a quorum yeah mr laiga the problem would be notice i i didn't notice that meeting right okay yeah 1:49:34 i didn't notice that meeting and and i think we could solve it you know uh we just get the legal opinion and we could solve it i don't think it will create a problem moving forward but it was good that it was brought up and we discussed it uh uh member carlwood and and smith and and and dorsey archie um chimed in so we have an issue that the legal council could resolve so moving forward these committee meetings could be set straight you know either you you indicated mr trust to us so that we had two different opinions between our concert yeah that's that would suggest that we need to get an independent and outside cost i thought a different concept i think we could do that i think it might be better but you know i would like to see if they could resolve that issue as to the sunshine act and what you know how we could i i was going to suggest any committee meeting just publish it and as many board members show up and let's move forward that that's that was my solution because i don't i ain't got not to hide in the public or so and some of these committee meetings just discussing policy if we discuss in policy let the public know give the notice and let's have the meeting that was my i didn't tell the team that but that was my solution and if we need you know i think we need a legal council opinion i think 1:51:28 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) 13 of 20 GERS Retirement System (Board of Trustees) · GERS Monthly BOT·s meeting 09/22/22 the two are the two legal councils should attempt to resolve it and if they can resolve it then we get outside opinion that's my view mr cheer let me just say this as long as the councils could prove the point to show where the law supports the the the opinion that's all we need we don't have to go outside to find somebody else if if if attorney pedro williams can prove his point with law to support it that's all we need but uh i i'm just reacting to the to the comment that was made that there are different opinions i mean we we know when the reason why there's a supreme court is because attorneys disagree all the time of course yeah it's on the same two different interpretations it's on the same set facts on the same law exactly i mean if that if i don't know attorney williams is there right but he hasn't done anything I was at the meeting, I basically brought up the point. 1:53:32 I agree with Trustee Liger, and I mentioned it yesterday, and it was mentioned already several times with Attorney Williams, that if four of us are there, it constitutes a meeting, rather it's policy meeting, budget meeting, investment meeting. It's a meeting. But I also indicated yesterday, like we do in this meeting, we can go into executive session. The thing that we were missing, one of the things at least, was publishing to the public, informing the public that we were having a committee meeting. As Trustee Russell indicated, there's nothing to hide. I agree. But it's just to do it the right way. However, we also learned the system has been doing it a particular way for the last 15 years. And all I said yesterday, that doesn't mean it was right for the last 15 years, right? But because Attorney Williams indicated early on since I've been on the board what constitutes a meeting, and I think we went over that in the orientation as well. That's always stuck in my mind. So there's been other things we probably have went over that constituted a meeting or didn't have a meeting properly and it just moved forward. So I was just indicating in the meeting yesterday that we need to look at it. Now I agree with you, Chair. We have two attorneys with two different positions which came up yesterday so your point is a valid point that we get a third attorney to look at it and render an opinion from there i agree or an outside outside counsel to render that independent opinion um and as trustee ligard indicated the the law our policies i guess and procedures would be what this uh outcome would would come to so with that being said i don't 1:54:38 mind making a motion on outside council to finalize it i don't think we should have any motion right now what i think we should we should we should do is to hear from our council why he is making this point because if you go out they they would either go along with our council or go with uh attorney smith and we would still have the conflict so let us hear what what what attorney williams have to say one question before we go there um trustee trustee like based on what i've heard so far what would a proper notification of a committee meeting solid volume of course that's all that is all i believe um attorney williams is saying okay i got that is that that's what i think he's saying so if if we're going to have a meeting and we'll have four trustees it should be publicized that's it and um so but mr bowery it's not just publishing it means the meeting is then open to the public yeah if you don't have one of those qualifications to go into executive session which is limited then your discussions of whatever the topic is is open to the public and when i spoke with the lawyer who did the governance training he advises against the initial discussions when you're trying to set a policy be in open session he's saying it should come to open session when it comes to the full board but you should be able to have your candid discussions back and forth and everybody put their opinions and you may be discussing in this case some issues that arose that may pertain to certain members in order to explain why you're you know suggestions of certain things well mr chief 1:56:35 you still are you you we still we still are not allowing attorney williams who who we are paid to to advise us to tell us exactly why he's making his point yeah yeah we're getting we're getting to him I just, I just thought that, go ahead, go ahead, Pedro. Pedro? Don't tell you guys. We lost Pedro. 1:58:44 you're calling you're calling that on the committee yesterday we can't hear you you're you're you're you're gobbled I'm not sure why I'm having this challenge is that better a little bit so what why do you know yeah that's better no it was my understanding that the community requested a written or opinion under you're making up I'm not sure I know how to solve that problem or what need to do okay that's better it was my understanding that the committee requested a written legal opinion which we will prepare and provide to the members of the board I'm not sure we hashing the issue is gonna solve it but I think attorney or trustee was to basically summarize what the issues are 1:59:17 that we are prepared to address in a written legal opinion okay good I have one question for you what would a profit let's let's let's take the meeting yesterday if had if that had been notified publicly noted no if the public was notified in the two days or whatever would that have solved the problem yes that would have been one option to solve the problem yes okay the only issue that's not solved chairman barry issue that catty raised and that's that's a serious issue because I didn't want to proceed in our meeting open to the public discussing particular cases because you use you set in policy and you could use particular cases to make examples to you know to put your point across and I had particular cases I want to reference and I couldn't discuss that in a meeting with the public you know so that issue that Cathy raised is still available what you couldn't go into executive session yeah good question because if you haven't maybe you have a meeting and an issue 2:01:27 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) 14 of 20 GERS Retirement System (Board of Trustees) · GERS Monthly BOT·s meeting 09/22/22 comes up that meets the qualification for executive session then somebody can move to go into executive session i mean there was nothing based on the document that was circulated that would suggest a need to go into executive session if trustee russell or somebody else wanted to discuss particular cases of members or individuals then at that point of the meeting based on you know a proper representation that it met the requirement to go into executive session then an appropriate motion could have been made for that to happen so they always are handling okay now i have been uh trusted dorsi that we need to have a legal opinion yesterday was two different interpretations um i'm stealing or getting settled here today Yeah, Mr. Chairman, we need a legal opinion here. 2:03:35 Okay, so frame the question that we're going to put to the council. He's already writing the memo. What was that? No, I said, Mr. Chair, all of this was discussed. And I suggested yesterday that he writes a memo and Kathy writes a memo and then bring it to the board. the board is not satisfied i go for outside opinion okay okay yeah i just i'll just say this that we might get these two opinions and they still come in separate it's just going to prolong the process we could just get to the point get our outside third party council and just get a point get a position we go from there okay attorney Russell you want to form a motion trustee Russell yeah well i i i i go along with um what trustee smith and you said but i i would i would prefer initially that um katie um attorney smith and attorney williams really trash that issue out i i don't think it is that difficult to resolve and we could do it in house because um and that's why we we were um i think mr naves expressed it well you know we i don't think we reached that point for outside console yet we let's deal with in-house in-house and then when we reach cross that bridge 2:04:10 if we if we have to cross the bridge of getting outside console because you trustee russell trustee russell you heard the two positions yesterday trustee russell they're not going to be any different it's only gonna be in writing that exist in the code and exist in our rules and regs and it might influence them to change their mind so let's do this let's let's have let's have it to it to cause you submit the position and if it's not resolved then we'll figure out for the next step yes what do we expect an outside council would see that we would be willing to accept i i i don't know i mean well what do we expect a judge to say anything no what but the point i'm trying to make is either the the outside council would go along with either one of the two yes so i mean let us let us let us get an opinion from the attorney general no if anything no okay we're not gonna happen and it's not gonna happen soon the attorney general takes ages to go through this yeah um and attorney general mr leger and members listen we have a very competent council they were talking to the committee directly and and i i i prefer that if they start to review the actual legalities of it in the code in all rules and regs in any any written document that we have i think they could resolve it i i really believe that of course i i would i would go along with what the chairman said uh it's an issue that has to be resolved because we have to have committee meetings and in committee meetings we have to discuss issues that will carry us in an executive session? Sure. But let legal counsel appoint on it and let's take it 2:06:03 from there. I think we can move on, you know? Trustee Russell, let me say this, right? You just got to find out that and I guess it's just the messenger in this case. You just got to find out that it's been done wrong, Trustee Russell, and we're just trying to get it right. This is just what it is. it's been done wrong so we're trying to get it right okay all right motion um okay my my motion hello my motion is that we get we we we can do what the chair indicated we can hear the two positions see the two positions in writing but if the two positions come back the same opposing each other then we go out and get a third council that's my to resolve our issue that that's that that's what i'm suggesting i don't think we need a motion for that i just i just need i just need for the included in the opinion is i need to caution i wanted to answer the question one question i want answered is is there any legal way given the law yes given the law that the board could hold a meeting with more than four with more than four in one and four with a quorum present and and discussed can you repeat i didn't hear you i'm not i didn't finish i'm kind of stuck in my own thought oh your mouth was open i'm sorry 2:08:33 yes sir we mr mr boy we face that with the legislature and we call it a carcass meeting and we didn't have to invite the public i'll tell you well well i think trusty don't say an emotion for we i'll second emotion how are we going to place this thing today okay and in addition to that do i have community meetings if if if if everything has to be a board meeting so every committee meeting will have to be a board meeting yeah so i i don't see the sense in having committee meeting then exactly that's what exactly that is what's being challenged uh member smith because you're merging you're merging committee meetings to board meetings and that's not that that should not happen so we need a legal opinion uh pedro i mean attorney williams and attorney smith because it don't make sense that every board meeting got a margin to a committee i mean uh every committee member smith is right trust trustee russell you're forgetting you're forgetting one thing trustee russell you just came from the senate some years ago and in the senate you had different committees yeah and from those committees you came to the full body to vote it up or down I'm just saying that from my position being on this board this short time and hearing from our council, four more people, it's a board meeting, right? We just have to get 2:10:35 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) 15 of 20 GERS Retirement System (Board of Trustees) · GERS Monthly BOT·s meeting 09/22/22 that right. Now maybe we can change some things and say, okay, we'll still have a policy committee, a budget committee board meeting, and we'll just be dealing with those topics at that time. We can do it similar to how the senate is set up on a rules committee uh oversight uh budget uh government operations committee we can we can look at it from that standpoint as well let me ask a question i don't know if i'm oversimplifying this could we solve this problem by advertising the committee meetings public notice and if if we have anything that we want to let me be quite here for for executive session we're going to executive session i would say yes i don't know the council would say i mean that that that that's that's kind of counter to what what Kathy said the consultant is advised that you don't want to open up committee meetings to put for public you want a situation you could hold a meeting that on topics that not not not right for public view I I guess in which case the committee could go into executive session, I guess. 2:12:23 Well, Mr. Chair, without previewing what the member, that the opinion would say, in my opinion, you basically have two choices. One, the committee will be complies of no more than three trustees, or you do what you just suggested. If it's four more trustees, then you have to comply with the requirements of the statute by giving notice, because then it will be a board meeting. 2:14:01 Suppose non-committee members show up. because the non-committee members can show up, but they don't have a vote. What you're looking at is voting members. If you have a policy committee of three voting members, only those three individuals could vote. All the trustees can show up, all the trustees can talk, but they can't vote. And the point is, if you have four or more members, they can make a decision that binds the agency. if you only have three members who could vote that's not a quorum so they cannot do the same thing they can't bind with the board that's the distinction we could have a three a three member finance committee and and six members attend but only three as long as only three members vote right because they're the all they're the members of the committee don't only they have a right to voting committee any member can show up but they don't have a right to vote in a committee meeting and we could we could have full discussions and we could go into executive session and the committee could go into executive session that i will reserve on my instinct would tell me as long as it meets the criteria of the law most likely but i've never researched that particular aspect of it so i'm not going to give you again i'm kind of you know going and getting ahead of myself but my sense is there's probably there's got to be a way for committee to go to some sort of objective session but i will resolve on that issue yeah but listen miss attorney williams 2:14:33 the issue is whether a committee of the grs system has to be made public because no no i don't think that's that that's not that i mean why why why not whether it's committee if you can have to me why don't you do this um trustee wesley why don't you craft the question to put towards um pedro and kathy for them to apply now okay okay and they they they they they they attorney williams i i don't know no not no not now okay i mean in writing yeah okay yeah okay you know yes and have them provide their opinion yes okay i will okay all right we go from trustee russell share that uh everybody yeah so we can get it right thank you with everybody yeah okay Alright. So where were we on the agenda? The last track. Ted, just report. Ted, just report. 2:16:22 Damn. good I said I said we understood from yesterday's discussion go ahead go ahead mr. German okay this is the treasurer's report for the Government Employees Retirement System for the month ending August 31st, 2022. Our total collection for the month was $14,327,764, consisting of employer contribution of $8,742,499, employee contributions of $4,699,564. Our year-to-date collections is $244,610,873. 2:18:03 um disbursements total 25 million 915 900 year to date 268 million 581 551 of which annuity payments in the month of august was 22 million 194 271 hello somebody somebody's somebody that's not trusty wasley you need to move to mike administrative expenses was one million seven hundred and eleven thousand seven hundred and 70 and a refund of contributions one million nine hundred and eighty eight thousand five hundred and one and we have a net cash deficit for the month of august of eleven million five hundred and eighty 38,136, year-to-date cash deficit of $23,970,679. Our fiscal year 21 compared to 22 comparative for the loan repayments, you can see. 2:19:12 In fiscal 2022, we collected thus far, posted on a V3 system, 8.6 million. In fiscal 2021, around the same time, it was 13 million. So our loan is reducing. Our loan portfolio is reducing. Our year-to-date withdrawal from their portfolio is 120 million. This is as of August 31st, 2022. Moving on to our Haven site. 2:20:44 For Haven site, our total collections for the month of August is $471,341. Year-to-date, $3,365,147. Our expenses were $122,158. Year-to-date, $2,408,903. We have a net cash surplus of $349,183. 2:21:17 Year-to-date cash surplus is $956,244. so our year to date um haven site mall expenses were 71 percent of the budget for the month of august up to the month of august there ends the reading of the generous report um board chair any questions on that okay um i had a question yeah i have a question i have a question for miss jeremiah miss jeremiah can you go 2:21:51 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) 16 of 20 GERS Retirement System (Board of Trustees) · GERS Monthly BOT·s meeting 09/22/22 back up to what we had brought down the 120 million for the year from our fund so as of august we drawn down 120 so so we would be including the the first payment with that amount to which covered the annuity payment so far the payment from the note sorry 89 89 million remember if you look at the top this is 89 million that is included here it went to state street it went to the investment bank so it didn't come into the grs coffers oh i got you i got you right okay so we're gonna get the 158 where the 89 is now so that's going to increase by 158 right correct okay but that's going to state street so we're still going to be drawn down from where we're at with our cash position basically are we still at 15 million a month or where we're at it's averaging 15 million every other month it's not every month every other month okay okay is the gap getting smaller it's just about the same the same yeah we are collecting the same amount there's nothing change in our collections okay so okay okay all right thank you thank you so tell i'll make a motion to approve the treasurer's report second move on secondary roll call yes trusty dorsey yes trusty liger trusty liger yes trusty mcdonald absent trusty russell trusty russell yes yes yes yeah yeah yeah yeah yes trustee smith yes chairman barry yes six years one option uh trust um chairman um what's this what happens to the motion that was made that got the second a a few minutes ago. What happens to that at this point? 2:23:49 Which motion is that now? The motion I made that was seconded by Trustee Smith. What happens to that motion at this point? Which motion is that? That was a motion in reference to having the two councils come up with their position, which you had stated, then depending on where they at if they're still on different sides then we would go forward with outside counsel so we got a second okay I was asking you what happens to it because you didn't do anything else you went on to something else I think we agreed we agreed that that trustee Watson is gonna we're going to draft the the question to propose to the two council pedro and kathy to to to to resolve the issue that we had i guess that that's that that is correct what you're stating i was just asking what happens to the motion is there some other administrative process we're supposed to do or you should have done i don't know the chairman basically indicated that that was a consensus so there was no need for a motion nobody objected and said well I still think we need to have a vote so I mean one of two things could happen either you accept that or you could withdraw the motion okay then I withdraw the motion then I was just trying to figure it out thanks again okay okay so the next item them is the approval of the of the contract mr nibs yes it is yeah so 2:25:34 who's going to introduce that it's on the screen it's just a matter of this has been before the board before and Makita agreed to all the provisions in Exhibit B which shows the all the language was approved the only problem was the member was the fee and we proposed the fee the board accepted it and we sent it to Makita and they accepted it as shown on the on the screen. One other issue was they wanted to set a fee for after August 31, 2025. We told them, no, what we said is GRS would like to extend the agreement for a subsequent term. The annual fee will be negotiated and they accepted that so we send this to the board to finally approve the entire contract okay so so you're representing to the board that this contract represents the the the conditions and the requirements that we're starting that's correct when you're recommending approval yes with the changes that were made obviously any questions any comments from i i have a comment here um what mr nibs left out and it was the reason why i voted against this extension was makita indicated they had five strategies that's supposed to be what we call insurance in the financial industry to protect the system's money and they never fully presented 2:27:53 that i think that those five strategies and now today he's talking about two or three strategies and he's also indicated that it wouldn't be the representative today but someone else within his company that would be presenting those strategies but i think at least something should have been in here indicating that unless i missed it in this document something should have been in there however you guys already voted for this to go forward but i'm just indicating that that was not part of it that should have been part of it because i'm not voting on something that i have no knowledge of he's just making proposals to us he mentioned it he lined item it in his agenda he never went into detail he was supposed to do it a second time he still didn't do it makita representative and i asked again today and now today he's saying it's going to be somebody else who's going to present it in a next meeting at some time in the future so i'm going to have the same position on it okay thank you i move that we i move mr chai move that we um ratify you accept the fifth amendment to the investment consultant and advisory agreement between grs and nakita investment group incorporated iso mo second we're going to second that call call trusty carwood yes trusty dorsey no trusty lyger yes trusty mcdonnell absent trusty russell yes trusty smith yes chairman yes six yes six five yes sorry one no one absent okay motion current 2:29:50 new business data they changed for our board meeting who speaks to that good afternoon mr chairman i can speak to that uh when we originally did the board calendar it was not anticipated that all the trustees would be attending the ifebp conference but since they are it falls on the date that the board meeting would be held. So, the travel for IFABP is October 20th to the 27th. So, I'm requesting that we change the October board meeting so that trustees can attend. So, it would be either October 19th, which is the week before, or October 28th or October 31st. 2:31:50 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) 17 of 20 GERS Retirement System (Board of Trustees) · GERS Monthly BOT·s meeting 09/22/22 Ms. Koli, question. Yes. We can have the meeting in some place like when we're going to the conference and just schedule it, let the participants, if they want to participate, members retirees, Zoom and just do the meeting as you schedule it? No, because most people would be traveling on the 27th. 2:32:52 oh okay so yeah okay okay yes okay well the 28th or the 31st works for me so so what that would entail people joining by zoom from our father on the 28th no no october never traveling they're traveling back that's the end of the comments yes the conference begins on the 21st and ends on the afternoon of the 26th so most people would be traveling on the 27th okay so actually is it 28th the 28th 31st or you can do it before the conference which would be the 19th october 19 can you probably be jet lag yeah for the 28th so i i i will um recommend that we go up to 19 if everybody's available yeah i like the 19th too 19 19 for me okay so look we have i think assuming the 19th works for me see a motion yeah mr chair i move that we reschedule a october regular board vision of the grs board to october 19th 2022. I so move. 2:33:20 Second. Second. Trustee Smith. Trustee Calward. Yes. Trustee Dorsey. Trustee Dorsey. Yes. Yes. Yes. Trustee Liger. trustee liger yes trustee mcdonnell absent trustee russell yes trustee smith yes chairman barry yes six yes one absent okay that was easy okay so the next item is the approval of the grs fy 23 budget oh you guys I just I read into the record the the budget committee report so you have any questions or how you want to approach this okay I want to add to the budget the $30,000 for our trustees to travel to Washington DC before the election to approach our delegate and the president's team to get this additional funding for DRS I came up with a budget and I submitted a letter to everybody so you could see it and so i want to just include that in the budget it's a specific budgetary request and it will be included in the budget as you have it but it's a line item for travel to dc 2:35:15 second i make a motion to include that budget in this budget uh and and who second it I second it okay thank you so just to be clear we will fit it into the numbers that's right here right we just yes what exactly exactly exactly and how many how many how many people you talking about eight people the six trustees and two staff most likely mr nibs and Kathy Smith you know I mean you know the people that know so what everybody don't have to attend but that that budget includes everybody attending it includes a six-day plan for dealing with the delegate and whatever you the gentleman that um mr nip identified kim because we we're not tapping into the federal government's budget we're tapping into money that's owed to the virgin islands and it's worth a try okay so i want to include it just pick it put it into the budget wherever you could fit it mr bory thank you we have a motion for that uh before we move the motion i have a question um um trustee russell yeah you you included you said mr nips and and uh attorney smith i included two staff members uh and i would allow mr nips to choose that because he he knows that but we need we need staff and i think we need staff to be supportive of of the measures that we you know who have an idea of you know or financial woes going forward so we 2:37:20 need but but but would would you would you would you agree that if we are going out like this we may need counsel with us uh katie smith is our council no problem i didn't i didn't i didn't include i included it we could we could add another member and and revise the budget accordingly but i i did it for eight You see, Attorney Russell, sorry for cutting you, but a lot of decisions we as a board would be making, we need our counsel there to make sure decisions we make is a right decision. 2:39:19 Because if he's not there and we make decisions and it's not a right decision, then how would he be able to to to uh defend us i mean not to be a thing but me if you're going to the delegate to talk to to convince the president what what kind of decisions going to win women make i don't know no only only one decision mr liger that we want the president to consider the executive order to return a portion of the gasoline excise tax to shore up the grs and for whatever reason the territory might need the money most likely to to move to renewable energy or something like that some big ticket item but we are promoting the grs shore up the system uh and that's that's the only issue. We're trying to get people on board, Mr. Liger. We don't need a really illegal opinion. The only thing we might need is to apprise the president's team as to the deficit we have moving forward and how the gasoline excise could cover that deficit. Because it's a very straightforward presentation. They either want to approve it or they they don't want to and we could deal with you know the delegate mr kim we could deal with the department of interior we have um basil athlete there we got people that we need to contact and i think all of the board members should attend because everybody have a different way of saying things to persuade miss smith been in the board long you've been on the board long you you guys are very persuasive so i i think you know we send up a strong team i think it's what our effort and it's not a big budget item so you're saying we do not need we don't we do not need counsel with with us we don't have any legal issues um to resolve we we have to promote 2:40:08 our platform uh because it's straightforward we're going we're going to sata beg them to give us back the excise tax to show up the system and it's our money it it the money is dissolving of the territory it's just whether we do it they will do it or not you know that's it okay but but has this matter been um somebody was saying something go ahead what i was asking was this has this might have been being discussed and approved by the board that's why that's why he's asking for now right yeah yeah uh trustee liger the the document was circulated some time back um trustee russell I guess you 2:42:27 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) 18 of 20 GERS Retirement System (Board of Trustees) · GERS Monthly BOT·s meeting 09/22/22 would have to circulate the document again. Because, Trustee Dorsey, I heard you mention this morning, while the document was circulated, it has not come up on the agenda. That is correct. That is correct. That's what I mentioned this morning. So then, therefore, we need to first approve that idea before we could approve finance to finance it I think I think I think trustee like abide by approving it as a budget item in effect approving the idea yeah there's not a reason to include that in the budget if you're not if you're not in agreement with it I don't think I don't think you need I think the most one motion we'll cover we'll cover it that's your opinion sir okay trusty carwood no trusty dorsey yes trusty liger i'm not voting on this not voting trustee mcdonnell absent trustee russell yes trustee smith yes uh chairman barry no three yes two no one not voting one absent so the motion pass okay good thank you very much motion pass yeah yes and i said thank you very much and we're moving forward 2:43:38 okay so we need to approve the budget yeah i make a motion to approve the budget as amended i so move second i submitted in in the budget committee report yes okay yes trusty carlwood yes trusty dosi yes trusty liger yeah trusty mcdonald absent trusty russell yes trusty smith yes chairman barry yes six yes one absent okay i would like to make a motion to move into executive session sure um and this portion of the meeting will be closed to the public for matters pertaining to trade secrets or financial or commercial information or personal or legal matters or matters whose premature disclosure will frustrate the implementation of the proposed agency action i will i will i will second that uh with the other Sorry? Oh, okay. 2:45:45 Mike Colwood. Trustee Colwood? Yes. Trustee Dorsey? Yes. Trustee Liger? Yeah. Trustee McDonnell absent. Trustee Russell? Yes. Trustee Smith? Yes. Chairman Bari? Yes. Six yes, one absent. Okay, so I'm going to read to executive position. Yep. Good take. 2:47:19 Chairman, Chairman Boris. Yes. Mr. Nibbs is going to be part of this, right? Chairman Boris. Chairman Boris. You can report out now. Okay, so do you want to report out, Mr. Nurse? okay so and to report out in an executive session the board approved a contract extension for for for the position of for mr nibs in the position of administrator c i missed straight to ceo uh for the grs um contract extends a new contract would be extended from october 1 to 2022 to september 30th 2023 um motion to adjourn second trusty carlwood yes trusty dorsey yes trusty liger yes trusty mcdonald absent trusty russell 2:47:49 trustee russell he left he left yes absent trustee smith yes jaman barry yes five yes two absent thank you all thank you thank everybody um good meeting good day everybody good goodbye i'm gone 2:49:50 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. 7x Trustee Andre Dorsey heard in this transcript as: Dorsey 7x Trustee Ronald Russell heard in this transcript as: Russell 6x Trustee Leona E. Smith heard in this transcript as: Smith 6x Trustee Vincent Liger heard in this transcript as: Liger 2x Senator Fred Gregory the surname alone also matches: Donna A. Frett-Gregory; Donna Frett-Gregory 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) 19 of 20 GERS Retirement System (Board of Trustees) · GERS Monthly BOT·s meeting 09/22/22 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. Act 8473 Act 8473 · September 17, 2021 · An Act amending Act No. 8365, as amended by Act No. 8411; and Act No. 8451; amending Act No. 8451, section 2(a); amending Act No. 8347, section 1, relating to the fiscal year 2021 operating budget for the Government of the Virgin Islands, to appropriate $24,423,321 to several departments and agencies to pay outstanding obligations; and providing for other related purposes = Act 8365 Act 8365 · An Act providing an appropriation from the General Fund of the Government of the Virgin Islands for the operation of the Government of the Virgin Islands during the fiscal year October 1, 2020 through September 30, 2021 Re it enacted by the Legislature ofthe Virgin islands: SECTION 1. The sum listed, or so much thereof as shall be sufficient to accomplish the purposes specified, as set forth, are appropriated and authorized to be paid from any funds in the General Fund of the Treasury of the Virgin islands, which amounts shall be available for the fiscal year October 1, 2020 to September 30. 2021. FY 2021 0100 GENERAL FUND A. ORG 110 DEPARTMENT OFJUSTICE PERSONNEL & FRINGE BENEFITS $ 12,063 Act 8411 Act 8411 · December 11, 2020 · An Act amending Act No. 8365, relating to the fiscal year 2021 operating budget for the Government of the Virgin Islands to increase the funding for wage adjustments from $2,623,000 to $9,760,658, to appropriate $18,000,000 to the Single Payer Utility Fund; to reduce the operating expenses for the Department of Finance from $2,091,757 to $1,591,757; to reduce the budget for the Department of Education from $167,807,284 to $164,180,173; to increase the Department of Public Works· appropriation for the Abandoned Vehicles Programs in St. Croix, and St. Thomas from $25,000 to $75,000; to appropriate an additional $75,000 for a St. John Abandoned Vehicles Program, and $400,000 for addition road w Act 8451 Act 8451 · May 4, 2021 · An Act amending Act No. 8365, relating to the fiscal year 2021 operating budget for the Government of the Virgin Islands to appropriate S3,533,333 to the Department of Justice to pay the settlement agreement of Joe Harold Vanrerpool d/b/a Vanterpool Enterprises v. Gorennnent of the Virgin Islands; to appropriate S2,000,000 to the Department of Labor for the payment of outstanding Worker·s Compensation payments to medical providers; to reduce the line item for Department of Education Interscholastic Sports from $125,000 to $1 10,000; amending Act No. 8411. to appropriate $40,000 to Clean Sweep Frederiksted for the beautification of the town of Frederiksted; to appropriate $15,000 to the Depar Act 8347 Act 8347 · An Act providing an appropriation from the Internal Revenue Matching Fund for the fiscal year October 1, 2020, through September 30, 2021 ---0 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) 20 of 20