Fort Walton Beach Council agenda — 01-22-08 regular agenda — reading text

and IPT will provide seminar speakers, workshop facilitators and handout materials. 4) If there are any leftover funds after program essentials outlined in 3( d) above have been allocated, they may be reallocated as long as the funds are spent for the purpose of the grant. 5) The grantee agrees to furnish a final financial report to the Foundation and IPT as to the expenditure of grant funds. 6) The grantee agrees that records of receipts and expenditures under the grant, and copies of reports submitted to the Foundation and IPT will be retained by the grantee for a period of at least three years following the completion of such receipts and expenditures, and will be provided to the Foundation and IPT upon written request by either party. 7) The grantee agrees that in accepting these funds, they also agree to submit a report within 30 days of event completion that includes at least the following: ways the project and seminar(s) were promoted; examples of publicity materials; total number of attendees at the session( s); and a statement of how the grant funds were used. The parties hereby agree to the terms and conditions of the grant as recited above. Signature: Name: Joyce Shanahan Title: City Manager Dated: City of Fort Walton Beach Signature: Name: Patricia Gould Title: Director Dated: Fort Walton Beach Public Library Signature: y 0" Name: Bonny L. Brill Title: Executive Director Dated: 12 -21 -07 Evelyn Brust Financial Research and Education Foundation Signature: Name: Don M. Blandin Title: President and CEO Dated: 12 -21 -07 Investor Protection Trust 1  CITY COUNCIL MEETING January 22, 2008 Consent Agenda Consideration of a request to authorize the City Manager to execute the agreement between the City and the Firefighters' Pension Board of Trustees, to implement Section 845 of the Pension Protection Act Human Resources Director) Council Action 1 St 2nd Vote: Agenda Item Number: 7  CITY OF FORT WALTON BEACH MEMORANDUM DATE: January 16, 2008 TO: Joyce Shanahan, City Manager FROM: Mark Wiltsie, Human Resources Director SUBJECT: Firefighters' Pension Plan —Retiree Medical Insurance Payment BACKGROUND: In August of 2006, the federal government enacted the Pension Protection Act of 2006 which provided for a variety of changes in public pension plans. As part of these changes, Section 845 of this Act provides that public safety ( Police and Fire) retired employees could elect to pre -tax up to $ 3, 000 in medical insurance payments for premiums that are currently being withheld from their monthly pension payments. DISCUSSION: In December 2007, staff received a proposed agreement between the Firefighters' Pension Board of Trustees and the City which would provide for those employees who retired in the Firefighters' Pension Plan and who also participate in the City' s medical insurance program to elect to have their premiums pre -taxed up to the $ 3, 000 provided for in the Act. Attached to this staff report is a copy of the proposed agreement and the pertinent section of the Act. In addition, attached please find an e- mail received from our Pension Attorney who upon review of this agreement recommended approval. Pension payments are administered by a third party administrator ( Salem Trust) and they have advised that no additional costs would be charged for implementation of this pre -tax election, therefore, the City would not incur any additional cost if this agreement is approved. RECOMMENDATION: Based on the above, Staff respectively requests City Council authorize the City Manager to execute the agreement between the City and the Firefighters' Pension Board of Trustees to implement Section 845 of the Pension Protection Act of 2006. Respectfully submitted: Mark Wiltsie, Hufnan Resources Director ZApproved Denied J yc Shanahan, City Manager  AGREEMENT CONCERNING DEDUCTION FROM RETIREMENT BENEFITS FOR QUALIFIED HEALTH INSURANCE PREMIUMS This Agreement is hereby made by the City of Fort Walton Beach ( "City ")and the Board of Trustees of the City of Fort Walton Beach Municipal Firefighters' Pension Trust Fund ( "Pension Fund "). The purpose of this Agreement is to efficiently implement the provisions of Section 845 of the Pension Protection Act of 2006. The Pension Fund agrees to begin to or continue to deduct premiums from retired members for qualified health insurance premiums. For purposes of Section 845 of the Pension Protection Act of 2006, the City agrees to serve as the Pension Fund's intermediary to make payment of the premiums deducted from a member's retirement benefit by the Pension Fund directly to the provider(s) of the qualified health insurance plan. The City agrees that the City will not pay any such deducted premium to a member instead of directly to the provider(s) of the qualified health insurance plan. Dated this day of ) 2007. CITY OF FORT WALTON BEACH No CITY OF FORT WALTON BEACH MUNICIPAL FIREFIGHTERS' PENSION TRUST FUND By: . As Chairman ATTEST: By: ' As "Secretary  Page 1 of 1 Mark Wiltsie rom: Glenn Thomas [gthomas@llw- law.com] Jnt: Friday, December 21, 2007 9: 51 AM To: Mark Wiltsie Cc: Jim Linn Subject: Firefighters Pension- pre -tax retiree medical Mark, I have reviewed the materials you sent and they appear to appropriately implement section 845 of the Pension Protection Act of 2006. The documents provided by Mr. Dehner accurately reflect the provisions of the Act allowing retired police officers and firefighters to make direct payment (through deduction from their retirement benefit) of health insurance and long -term care premiums of up to $ 3, 000 annually in pre -tax dollars. It is my opinion that it would be appropriate to go forward with execution of the agreement. Please call if you have any additional questions. If I don' t speak to you before then, I hope you have a wonderful holiday and I look forward to working with you in 2008. Glenn E. Thomas Lewis, Longman & Walker, P.A. 2600 Centennial Place, Suite 100 Tallahassee, Florida 32308 850) 222 -5702 THE INFORMATION CONTAINED IN THIS ELECTRONIC MESSAGE IS ATTORNEY WORK PRODUCT AND ATTORNEY /CLIENT PRIVILEGED AND CONFIDENTIAL INFORMATION INTENDED ONLY FOR THE USE OF THE IVIDUAL OR ENTITY NAMED ABOVE. IF THE READER OF THIS MESSAGE IS NOT THE INTENDED RECIPIENT, YOU HEREBY NOTIFIED THAT ANY DISSEMINATION, DISTRIBUTION OR COPYING OF THIS COMMUNICATION IS STRICTLY PROHIBITED. IF YOU HAVE RECEIVED THIS COMMUNICATION IN ERROR, PLEASE IMMEDIATELY NOTIFY US BY TELEPHONE OR EMAIL AND DELETE THIS MESSAGE. THANK YOU. 12/ 21/ 2007 SEC. 845. DISTRIBUTIONS FROM GOVERNMENTAL RETIREMENT PLANS FOR HEALTH AND LONG -TERM CARE INSURANCE FOR PUBLIC SAFETY OFFICERS. a) IN GENERAL.— Section 402 of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 ( relating to taxability of beneficiary of employees' trust) is amended by adding at the end the following new subsection: 1) DISTRIBUTIONS FROM GOVERNMENTAL PLANS FOR HEALTH AND LONG- TERM CARE INSURANCE.— 1) IN GENERAL. —In the case of an employee who is an eligible retired public safety officer who makes the election H. R. 4 -235 described in paragraph ( 6) with respect to any taxable year of such employee, gross income of such employee for such taxable year does not include any distribution from an eligible retirement plan to the extent that the aggregate amount of such distributions does not exceed the amount paid by such employee for qualified health insurance premiums of the employee, his spouse, or dependents ( as defined in section 152) for such taxable year. 2) LIMITATION. —The amount which may be excluded from gross income for the taxable year by reason of paragraph ( 1) shall not exceed $ 3, 000. 3) DISTRIBUTIONS MUST OTHERWISE BE INCLUDIBLE.— A) IN GENERAL. —An amount shall be treated as a distribution for purposes of paragraph ( 1) only to the extent that such amount would be includible in gross income without regard to paragraph ( 1). B) APPLICATION OF SECTION 72. Notwithstanding section 72, in determining the extent to which an amount is treated as a distribution for purposes of subparagraph ( A), the aggregate amounts distributed from an eligible retirement plan in a taxable year (up to the amount excluded under paragraph ( 1)) shall be treated as includible in gross income (without regard to subparagraph ( A)) to the extent that such amount does not exceed the aggregate amount which would have been so includible if all amounts distributed from all eligible retirement plans were treated as 1 contract for purposes of determining the inclusion of such distribution under section 72. Proper adjustments shall be made in applying section 72 to other distributions in such taxable year and subsequent taxable years. 4) DEFINITIONS. —For purposes of this subsection— A) ELIGIBLE RETIREMENT PLAN. —For purposes of paragraph ( 1), the term ` eligible retirement plan' means a governmental plan (within the meaning of section 414( d)) which is described in clause ( iii), (iv), (v), or (vi) of subsection ( c)( 8)( B). B) ELIGIBLE RETIRED PUBLIC SAFETY OFFICER. —The term `eligible retired public safety officer' means an individual who, by reason of disability or attainment of normal retirement age, is separated from service as a public safety officer with the employer who maintains the eligible retirement plan from which distributions subject to paragraph ( 1) are made.  C) PUBLIC SAFETY OFFICER. —The term `public safety officer' shall have the same meaning given such term by section 1204( 9)( A) of the Omnibus Crime Control and Safe Streets Act of 1968 ( 42 U.S. C. 3796b( 9)( A)). D) QUALIFIED HEALTH INSURANCE PREMIUMS. —The term `qualified health insurance premiums' means premiums for coverage for the eligible retired public safety officer, his spouse, and dependents, by an accident or health insurance plan or qualified long -term care insurance contract (as defined in section 7702B( b)). 5) SPECIAL RULES. For purposes of this subsection— A) DIRECT PAYMENT TO INSURER REQUIRED.— Paragraph ( 1) shall only apply to a distribution if payment of the premiums is made directly to the provider of the H. R. 4 - 236 accident or health insurance plan or qualified long -term care insurance contract by deduction from a distribution from the eligible retirement plan. B) RELATED PLANS TREATED AS 1. — All