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HomeMy WebLinkAboutOrdinance 8674~N n. ORDINANCE NO Q /J AN ORDINANCE ABOLISHING THE EXISTING BOARD OF TRUSTEES OF THE EMPLOYEES' RETIREMENT FUND OF THE CITY OF FORT WORTH, AND AMENDING SECTION 16 OF APPENDIX C OF THE FORT WORTH CITY CODE (1964), AS AMENDED, BY CREATING AN INTERIM BOARD OF TRUSTEES TO ADMINISTER THE EMPLOYEES' RETIREMENT FUND OF THE CITY OF FORT WORTH FOR A PERIOD OF TWO (2) YEARS OR UNTIL SUCH TIME AS A COMPREHENSIVE REVISION OF THE EM- PLOYEES' RETIREMENT FUND IS ADOPTED AND BECOMES EFFECTIVE, WHICHEVER OCCURS FIRST REPEALING ALL ORDINANCES AND PRO- VISIONS OF THE FORT WORTH CITY CODE IN CONFLICT HEREWITH MAKING THIS ORDINANCE CUMULATIVE OF ALL PRIOR ORDINANCES NOT IN CONFLICT HEREWITH PROVIDING A SEVERABILITY CLAUSE AND NAMING AN EFFECTIVE DATE WHEREAS, Section 36 of Chapter XXVII of the Fort Worth City Charter provides that the Employees' Retirement Fund shall be governed by a Board of Directors composed of such members and selected in such manner as may be provided by ordinance of the City Council and WHEREAS, Section 16 of Appendix C of the Fort Worth City Code (1964), as amended, provides that the Board of Trustees of the Employees' Retirement Fund of the City of Fort Worth shall consist of seven (7) trustees, one of which shall be the City Secretary, two of which shall be appointed by the City Council, and four of which shall be members of the Fund elected by the employees of the City of Fort Worth who are also members of the Fund and WHEREAS, because of certain actions by the Board of Trustees relating to the election of Place 2 to the Board, a dispute has arisen among the members of the Fund and the Board of Trustees which will likely result in litigation and WHEREAS, the existing dispute and a resulting lawsuit would be divisive and injurious to the Fund, as well as damaging to the morale of its members who are employees of the City and WHEREAS, the City Council finds that, in order to resolve this dispute and avoid potential litigation, it is in the best interest of the Fund and the City employees to abolish the existing Board of Trustees of the Employees' Retirement Fund and create an interim Board of Trustees to administer the Employees' Retirement Fund for a period of two (2) years or until such time as a comprehensive revi- sion of the Fund is adopted and becomes effective, whichever occurs first NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT ORDAINED BY THE CITY COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF FORT WORTH, TEXAS SECTION 1 That the Board of Trustees of the Employees' Retirement Fund of the City of Fort Worth, as it now exists under Section 16 of Appendix C of the Code of the City of Fort Worth (1964), as amended, is hereby abolished, effective the date this ordinance is adopted SECTION 2 That Section 16 of Appendix C of the Code of the City of Fort Worth (1964), as amended, is hereby amended in its entirety, and, following such amendment, Section 16 of Appendix C shall read as follows, to wit "Sec 16 Administration "(1) Board of Trustees The fund created by this ordinance is a trust The fund shall be administered by a board to be known as the 'Board of Trustees of the Employees' Retirement Fund of the City of Fort Worth ' The board shall consist of eight (8) trustees designated as Place 1, Place 2, Place 3, Place 4, Place 5, Place 6, Place 7 and Place 8 Trustees shall be selected as follows (a) Employee members Five (5) trustees who are mem- bers of the fund shall be appointed by the City Council to serve in Places 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5, respectively No department of the City shall have more than one employee as a member of the Board of Trustees at any ane time (b) City Council members Two (2) members of the City Council shall be appointed by the City Council to serve in Places 6 and 7, respective- ly In the event a trustee for Place 6 or Place ? shall discontinue his or her service on the City Council, the City Council shall replace that trustee by appointing another City Council member to complete the unexpired term of that trustee -2- (c) City Secretary to serve in Place $ The City Secretary of the City of Fort Worth shall serve in Place 8 on the Board of Trustees "The term of the trustees for Places 1 , 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 and 8 shall be for a period of two (2) years, com- mencing on November 1, 1982, and ending on the expiration of October 31, 1984, or at such time as a comprehensive revision of the Retirement Fund is adopted and becomes effective, whichever occurs first Thereafter, the Board of Trustees, as created hereunder, shall cease to exist and have no further power or authority "The board shall serve without remuneration and shall meet not less than once a month, and may meet at any time that the business of the fund shall require it The board shall elect its own chairman, and he shall have the power to call a meeting at any time that is necessary in order to carry out the business of the board "Five (5) members of the board shall constitute a quorum to transact any business, but it shall require not less than five (5) affirmative votes to carry any matters before the board The board shall have full power to make any and all rules and regulations pertaining to the retirement fund not inconsistent with this ordinance, the Constitution and laws of the State of Texas or local civil service regula- tions The board shall be the trustee of the fund and shall have full power, at its sole discretion, to invest and reinvest the assets of the fund, including undistributed income In acquiring, investing, reinvesting, exchanging, retaining, selling, supervising and managing the funds held hereunder, the board shall exercise the judgment and care under the circumstances then prevailing which men of ordinary prudence, discretion and intelligence exercise in the management of their own affairs, not in regard to speculation but in regard to the permanent disposition of their funds, considering the probable income therefrom as well as the probable safety of their capital Within the limitations of the foregoing standard, the board is autho- rized to acquire and retain every kind of property, real, personal or mixed, and every kind of investment, specifi- cally including but not by way of limitation, bonds, debentures and other corporate obligations, and stocks, preferred or common, which men of ordinary prudence, dis- cretion and intelligence acquire or retain for their own account provided that no securities of any one corpora- tion shall ever be purchased if such purchase would result in the total securities of such corporation held by the fund having a value in excess of five per cent (5~) of the total value of the fund, nor shall more than five per cent (5~) of the outstanding securities of any one corporation ever be purchased for or retained as an asset of the fund The Board of Trustees of the fund are specifically prohibited from purchasing for the fund bonds, warrants, obligations or securities of the City of Fort Worth The previsions of the Texas Trust Act are expressly incor- porated in this ordinance by reference the same as if set out herein verbatim -3- In administering the fund, the decisions of the board shall be final and conclusive The administrator shall make available to the Board of Trustees all infor- mation and records pertaining to the fund requested by the board in the form specified by the board (2) Administrator The administrator, who shall supervise the administrative affairs of the retirement fund, shall be appointed by the city manager subject to the approval of the Board of Trustees The city manager shall include in his annual budget recommendations for the number of personnel required to assist the administrator in carrying out his work The duties of the administrator shall in- clude, but not necessarily be limited to the following (a) Maintaining all records necessary in the adminis- tration of the fund and the disbursement of benefits therefrom (b) Determining eligibility for benefit payments (c) Computing benefits payable (d) Authorizing the city treasurer to disburse bene- f its and (e) Advising members annually of their standing in the fund with respect to benefits thereunder (3) Investment review committee The City Council shall appoint an investment review committee consisting of three (3) qualified persons to be selected from the trust de- partment of the banks of the City of Fort Worth Such per- sons shall be experienced in securities and investment matters The investment review committee shall be appointed for a two-year term Such committee shall (a) Review the investments of the fund to determine their suitability and desirability for the fund (b) Review the investment procedures and policies being pursued by the board in the administration of the fund and {c) Submit an annual report of its findings and recommendations to the governing body of the City of Fort Worth Such annual report shall be made avail- able to the board and each of the members of the fund "(4) Administrative expenses Expenses of the board or the administrator necessary for the operation of the fund shall be paid from the retirement administration budget appropriation and must be recommended by the city manager and approved by the City Council SECTION 3 It is the finding and express intent by the City Council that this amendment to Section 16 of Appendix C of the Fort Worth City Code (1964), as amended, is for the purpose of eliminating an exist- -4- :. ing dispute and potential litigation that would be divisive and injurious to the Fund and damaging to the morale of its members, and that this eight member board is an interim Board of Trustees created to administer the Employees' Retirement Fund of the City of Fort Worth for a period of two (2) years from the date this ordinance is adopted, or until such time as a comprehensive revision of the Fund is adopted and becomes effective, whichever occurs first Upon the expiration of two (2) years after this ordinance is adopted, or at such time as a comprehensive revision of the Fund is adopted and be- comes effective, whichever occurs first, this eight member interim board shall cease to exist and shall no longer have the power and authority granted hereunder SECTION 4 This ordinance shall repeal every prior ordinance and provision of the Fort Worth City Code in conflict herewith, but only insofar as any portion of such prior ordinance or provision shall be in con- flict, and as to all other ordinances or provisions of the Fort Worth City Code not in direct conflict herewith, this ordinance shall be and is hereby made cumulative SECT ION 5 It is hereby declared to be the intention of the City Council that the sections, paragraphs, sentences,, clauses and phrases of this ordinance are severable, and, i.f any phrase, clause, sentence, paragraph or section of this ordinance shall be declared unconstitu- tional by the valid judgment or decree of any court of competent jurisdiction, such unconstitutionality shall not affect any of the remaining phrases, clauses, sentences, paragraphs and sections of this ordinance, since the same would have been enacted by the City Council without the incorporation in this ordinance of any such un- constitutional phrase, clause, sentence, paragraph or section -5- .~ SECTION 6 That this ordinance shall be in full force and effect from and after the date of its passage, and it is so ordained APPROVED AS TO FORM AND LEGALITY City Attorney Date , ~ '_ g - g ~ ADOPTED ~ f -~ - ~' L._ EFFECTIVE j~-~-g'Z. -6- ~1 .. r ro _~ Ma or :~~ ~ T~1 City of Fort Worth, ?exas and Council Communication oATE REiERENCE suuECT Ordinance Amending Section 16 IA6E MuM~ER (Administration) of Appendix C (Retiremen 1 11/1/82 G-5470 Ordinance of the Fort Worth Cit Code ~ w (1964) as Amended In the recent election of the Board of Trustees of the Employees' Retirement Fund Bill Otto a nominee for Place 2 on the Board received 1075 votes Bruce Cox, who was not a nominee for Place 2 on the Board received 1662 write-in votes for Place 2 Despite the fact that the City Attorney rendered written legal opinions (copies attached) informing the Board of Trustees that it did not have the authority to canvass the election results and that write-in votes could not be considered in determining election to the Board the Board of Trustees voted to ignore the City Attorney's advice and to recognize Bruce Cox as the trustee elected to Place 2 Moreover the vote by the Board of Trustees was in violation of the Open Meetings Law in that the posted agenda announced that there would be only "Discussion of the Board of Trustees-Election " By reason of the v~a~~'~•action a dispute has arisen among the members of the Fund and the Board of Trustees which will likely result in litigation The continuation of this dispute and a resulting lawsuit would be divisive and injurious to the Fund as well as damaging to the morale of our City employees This is particularly unfortunate since a committee of the City Council and various groups of City employees have been working for almost a year on a com- prehensive revision of the Fund In order to resolve this dispute and to avoid divisive and damaging litigation involving the Board and members of the Fund it is in the best interest of the Fund and the City employees that the City Council abolish the existing Board of Trustees and create an interim Board to administer the Employees' Retirement Fund until such time as a comprehensive revision of the Fund is adopted and becomes effective :~-~~:~y ~u.~rc~,~ as-,yen the authority to take this action under Section 36 of xti.; Chapter XX~Y~ o'°'F`"~Ck'~'."Gq Charter which provides that the Employees' Retirement Fund shall be governed by a Board of Directors composed of such members and selected in such manner as may be provided by ordinance~ ~ ~ R~~~~ C ry Council TT ~~ // ( ~' An ordinance abolishing the existing Board of Trustee~~9i~1 Ct.~i~~•-an interim Board to administer the Fund has been prepared an~s atta e o yo ie an ~ - consideration GG~~~ Recommendation ~ ~ i (~ ~, It is recommended that the City Council adopt the ~~:~.t '`'`~~' a~~c ~lishing the a ry Ci eesnt existing Board of Trustees of the Employees' Retire ~~ ~ City of Fort Worth, and creating an interim Board of Trustees to administer the Fund until such time as a comprehensive revision of the Fund is adopted and becomes effective Attachment ADOPTED ORDINANCE NO ~G ~ W~ ITTED iOR tlrt + + CITY MANAGER'f f ~ 1 1 E Rr S DI»~iT10 14 0 MOCEfSEO RY ~ ` ~,~.v OF Ic ArM1 ED OIIIGiNATING [~ OTN[R (DEiDRItE) DEPARTMENT NEAR: Robert L Herchert CITY sECRETARY fOR ADO~TIONAL INiOR'MATION CONTACT Wade Adkins Ext 7623 PATE G-5470 approved as amended -limiting interim boardWmembexs to terms ending Oct 31, 1984 & appointing ante~im board members Bruce Cox D W Branson, Jr Ralph Johnson, James Griffith Bbll Otto, Dick Newkirk, Bert Williams, ~ Jack W Green