2018-12-27-RB-min - Laserfiche WebLink

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Recap of the December 27, 2018 Retirement Board meeting: The Board accepted the 123118 Warrant and the December payroll. The November minutes were reviewed and approved, as well as the cashbooks for October 2018. Board member Carolyn Kosnoff was absent for this meeting. Bob Cunha reviewed the December agenda with the Board members and staff. There were two (2) requests for which each required a Board vote. Ms. Denise Houser was employed with the Town of Lexington full time from August 28, 2017 thru June 30, 2018. She then began employment with the Town of Arlington in September. Our office processed her transfer and sent it to Arlington. Ms. Houser has requested to purchase 3 %years of prior Lexington service through Arlington. She has provided all the payroll records,job titles, and the part time hours worked each year from February 2012 to June 2017. Will Lexington accept the liability if Ms. Houser is approved to do this buyback through Arlington? After a brief explanation by Jim, Bob Cunha made a motion to approve the liability,which was seconded by Fred, and unanimously approved by Joe and Alan. MA Teachers' Retirement System submitted a liability request to our office on behalf of Ms. Marilyn Friedman. She worked for the Lexington Public School system, less than part time,from September 2004 to June 2006 as a substitute Instructional Assistant. Bob Cunha made a motion to deny the liability,which was seconded by Fred, and agreed upon by Joe and Alan. The denial is based on the fact that part time substitute teaching is not subject to liability. Steve McLennan presented the update on the Custodian search for the Lexington Retirement Board. Meketa informed us that three (3) Custody Banks have responded to the RFP. People's United Bank, Comerica Bank, and Amalgamated Bank are the prospective clients. Steve mentioned People's United is the front runner of the three. They have a dedicated team that supports twenty two (22) other Massachusetts Public Pension Plans. People's Bank is headquartered in Bridgeport, CT and has its Client Service location in Beverly, MA. After Steve presented the three banks, he left it to the Board to vote. Bob Cunha motioned to select People's United Bank, which was seconded by Fred, and unanimously approved by Alan and Joe. State Street Bank will remain our custodial until further notice. Henry Juang presented the Meketa performance update. He spoke briefly regarding the markets latest downturn. Our portfolio is still in very good shape. The portfolio balance as of November 30, 2018 was $165,751,072.00, up 0.5%for the year. It was up$1.2m from the previous months balance. Henry mentioned we should think about moving away from commodities. Those portfolios have been having subpar performances. Henry will do some research on this and report back at the January 2019 Board meeting. Alan mentions we should be looking toward Asian markets.The best emerging markets are in Asia and outperforming the European markets lately. Fred suggests we make a monetary move and pull from our Acadian International fund and invest more into Matthews Tiger fund. After a discussion, Bob Cunha made a motion to transfer$3,000,000.00 from Acadian to Matthews. Joe seconds the motion, and it's unanimously approved by Fred and Alan. While speaking on the performance of Wellington Enduring vs. Contrafund, Fred mentions we should discuss moving funds out of the underperforming Contrafund. The Contrafund has been down for the last quarter, and Fred sees it as a nice defensive move during the markets turbulence of late. After a