Employee Benefit Trust Minutes - 10/23/2006 CITY OF WICHITA FALLS
EMPLOYEE BENEFITS TRUST MEETING
October 23,2006
Present: Bill Sullivan, Chair
Darron Leiker, City Manager
Jim Dockery, Finance Director
David Winney, Director of Human Resources
Gail Garmon,Employee Benefits Coordinator
Frank Bell, ICMA Representative
The meeting was called to order at 2:00 p.m.
Agenda Items:
Approval of Minutes
Darron Leiker made a motion to accept the minutes of the last meeting. Jim Dockery
seconded the motion. Motion carried.
Financial Statement
Jim Dockery gave the financial report stating that through August, 2006, the Trust had
paid expenses totaling 6.8 million dollars. He projected that the fund balance at the end
of the year should be around 300 to 500 thousand dollars in reserve. This will be added
to the $400,450.00 that the Trust already had in reserve at the beginning of the year
It was discussed that we need to work with Blue Cross on developing a set of standard
monthly reports, outlining our expenses for claims, in order to give us a better monthly
picture of what expenses are being incurred and how the claims are running. Gail
Garmon will contact broker Cassie Stennett and Blue Cross account manager, Keith
Brickert to accomplish this.
ICMA Health Savings Plan
Frank Bell, ICMA representative, was present to discuss the Health Savings Plan
available through payroll deduction. He stated that employees could set aside money, tax
deferred, into the Health Savings accounts which could be used for no other purpose
other than to pay for post retirement medical expenses. These expenses could also
include payment of premiums for health coverage. He further stated that the accounts,
once set up by the employee, are irrevocable. He also stated that when these accounts
were first implemented, approximately two years ago, that the IRS did not place any cap
on the amount that could be set aside. However, the accounts have gone through several
changes during those two years, with the IRS placing regulations and restrictions on them
that were not previously there. For these reasons, the accounts had not been as popular as
ICMA had hoped they would be.
It was recommended that the city not implement this feature to its benefit package at this
time.
Discussion of GASB
Jim Dockery reported that under the new GASB regulations, the City will need to hire an
actuary to determine its future liability for retirees. This liability will have to be reported
in the City's annual report and if the liability figure is significant, steps will need to be
taken to reduce it. He stated that he had attended a workshop meeting with the North
Central Texas Council of Governments regarding the GASB regulations. The Council
consists of cities that are combining forces to use the same actuarial firm (Gabriel Roeder
Smith & Company) to determine their individual liabilities. This will be done on a
shared cost basis and should cost around ten thousand dollars per actuarial study (GASB
requires one every two years) for Wichita Falls. He stated that the city could possibly
contract with the same actuarial firm to determine what steps could be taken to reduce or
eliminate the liability.
Jim reported that GASB does not require that the liability be funded in advance, only that
it be recorded annually.
Jim Dockery, Finance Director, David Winney, Director of Human Resources, and Gail
Garmon, Employee Benefits Coordinator will attend a meeting of the NCTCOG on
November 6 for further information on the terms of the councils contract.
Section 125 Plan
Jim Dockery reported that $295,000 had been deducted from payroll and that employees
currently had spent about $5,000 more than that. The total committed deductions were
around $303,000. He stated that administration fees to Alt Benefits would run around
$2,500. to $2,700 \
The meeting was adjourned at 3:00 p.m.
Res ectfully submitted.
Gail Garmon
Employee Benefits Coordinator