2017-02-23-RB-min - Laserfiche WebLink

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Minutes of the February 23, 2017 Retirement Board Meeting Present: Bob Cunha, Joseph Foley, Carolyn Kosnoff, Frederick Weiss, Alan Fields, Marguerite Oliva and Jim Condon Bob Cunha called the meeting to order at 8:00 AM. NEW MEMBERS: (4) Melissa Battite, Director of Recreation; Leann Vitto, SSP; Georgiana D'Auria, SIA; Josepeh Donegan, SSI DEATHS: Carolyn Beckwith, Librarian, 1/22/17 RETIREMENTS: Peter Curro, Building Inspector, 3/27/17 The Board accepted the 13117 Warrant and the January payroll. The December 2016 minutes were reviewed and approved as well as the cashbooks for November 2016. $1,000,000 was redeemed from Hartford and transferred to the PRIT RE fund on 2/1/17. The Board voted on the Cost of Living Adjustment for 3% of the first $13,000.00 for retirees. A motion was made by Bob, seconded by Joe and approved unanimously to approve the FY'18 COLA. There was a brief discussion of the upcoming board election. Board member Bob Cunha's term expires June 20, 2017. Notices of the election need to be posted by March 27, 2017. Stacey Mennino's request to buyback prior non -membership service was granted by the Board. The balance of the OPEB fund held by Vanguard was $9,076, 012.00 as of February 2017, including the $300,000.00 deposit by the Town. There is a White Oak distribution of $233,399 Fossil Fuels continue to hold at just under 5%. Steve gave the Board an update on the fund. He stated the overall performance for year 2016 had a return of 7.3%. PRIT was 7.6%. He suggested looking into bumping up our real estate assets. Currently holding at 6%, but he feels we should build it up a bit higher. Our Public Equity, Fixed Income, and Absolute Return are in line with where we should be standing. Currently, the fund is up 2.1% thru January 2017. White Oak continues to do well in the Fixed Income return sector, while Contrafund is up 2% for the year. Minor discussion on Matthews and there ongoing struggles. Saul Henry from Wellington spoke about the performance of the Opportunistic Fund. He stated we were up 7.0% for 2016, yet the three- year annualized returns came in ata mere 3.3%. Currently, there are no future plans for change in how the fund is handled. The absolute return for 2016 was 12%, the highest they have seen in some time. He spoke of positioning in the Opportunistic sector. We are 3% in with Activist Gov't and maybe want to boost it max of 8%. He feels auto technology will be strong breakthrough due to demand of safety features being offered and created. 6% involved as of Feb. 2017. Strong belief in India as new themed market because of the reforms put in place. Tax reforms, government business on rise, and lack of government corruption is making for increases in productivity and income growth strong.