Board members who oversee Omaha's troubled police and fire pension system remain divided on whether they should travel to conferences, including one in San Francisco next month.
“I just don't feel it's appropriate,” City Councilman Tom Mulligan, a pension board member who recently tried to curtail the board's spending on travel, said Friday. “We've got a $600 million unfunded pension liability. If you're strapped for cash, you've got to cinch your belt up.”
But Vice Chairman Michael Henrich, an Omaha fire captain, said pension board members gain valuable information when they attend conferences. Taxpayers, employees and retirees benefit, he said, because board members then know more about the best ways to manage the fund's money.
“It's a classic case of being penny-wise and pound-foolish,” he said of Mulligan's efforts to block travel spending.
So far, however, none of the seven pension board members has submitted a travel request to attend the conference.
“I wouldn't be surprised if nobody went,” Mulligan said.
The pension board voted 4-3 last month to allow members to attend the Guns & Hoses conference in San Francisco, to be held Dec. 11-14. The event is part of a broader meeting organized by the Public Fund Boards Forum. It features sessions on dealing with underfunded pension plans, balancing investment portfolios and evaluating actuarial reports.
City Finance Director Pam Spaccarotella estimated the possible cost at $2,000 to $3,000 per person for conference registration, airfare, hotel and meals.
Mulligan was joined by Spaccarotella and City Human Relations Director Richard O'Gara in voting against attending the conference.
Voting to let members attend were Henrich, pension board chairman James Sklenar, George Merithew and Robert Mooney. Sklenar and Merithew are Omaha police officers; Mooney is a lawyer.
In September, Mulligan had proposed halting all travel indefinitely because of the pension fund's shortfall, noting that Omaha taxpayers were paying millions of dollars in higher taxes to help close the gap. His motion failed to pass after the board split 3-3, with Mooney absent.
A month later, with Mooney present, the vote was 4-3 in favor of the San Francisco event.
Henrich said he probably will not attend because of family obligations. But he said it would have been worthwhile, judging from his experience at a similar meeting in Las Vegas in May — a month after he joined the pension board.
Over the years, he said, board members have learned things at conferences that have earned or saved “hundreds of thousands of dollars.” For example, he said, the board now tracks class action lawsuits to ensure that the pension fund gets its share of possible settlements.
Last year, Henrich said, the board spent $12,700 on conferences, memberships and related travel. That's not a trivial sum, he said, though not out of line with the board's responsibility for more than $400 million in pension assets.
The pension board already pays experts to invest the fund's money and hires other consultants to help oversee those fund managers. But Henrich, who holds a master's degree in finance, said board members need to be actively engaged in setting investment goals and practices — and well informed about current trends in pension fund management.
Going to a conference, he said, gives board members a chance to hear from dozens of experts and to learn from the experiences of pension boards in other cities.
Spaccarotella said she agrees that board members need ongoing training. But she said it can be more cost-effective to provide that training in Omaha, perhaps through Web-based seminars.
“I don't think we have to travel to San Francisco to be educated on investments,” she said.
Contact the writer:
444-1114, paul.goodsell@owh.com
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