Police and Fire Pension Fund Year-End Report Released

The year end actuarial valuation report for the Police and Fire Pension Fund has been released.

A City of Springfield News Release states, in part:

As of June 30, 2009, the plan's market-value funded ratio is 35.5 percent.

"The Plan's funded status is steadily and significantly eroding," the report states, suggesting that the funded status would be improved by increased contributions, improved investment returns, reduction in future benefit liabilities or a combination.

Read the entire report here.

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City Announces Redesigned Web Site

In a Tuesday news release, the City of Springfield announced the launch of its redesigned Web site. The address is the same as the old Web site but, it might prove to be more user friendly. We'll find out with practice, huh?

To view the "new" digs, click this.

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Police & Fire Pension Task Force to Hold Two Town Hall Meetings

The City of Springfield just issued a news release about two upcoming Town Hall meetings hosted by the Police and Fire Pension Task Force. I would have just posted a link but, the news release is not yet available at their Web site:

July 10, 2009

News Release

For Immediate Release

The public is invited to attend two town hall meetings hosted by the Police-Fire Pension Fund Citizens' Task Force on Tuesday, July 21, and Thursday, July 30, 2009. The Task Force is seeking citizen input on a list of possible recommendations before it begins drafting a final report in August.


The July 21 meeting will be held from 6:30-8:30 p.m. in City Council Chambers at Historic City Hall, 830 Boonville Ave. This meeting will be televised live on CityView on Mediacom channel 23, digital channel 80. The July 30 meeting will be held from 6:30-8:30 p.m. in the auditorium at the Springfield Art Museum, 1111 Brookside Drive. The airtimes for this meeting will be announced. Video from both meetings also will be posted on the City Web site.

The City Council formed the Pension Fund Task Force to conduct an in-depth study of possible methods to fund the more than $200 million shortfall in the Police-Fire Pension Fund. The group consists of 15 voting members and a non-voting chairperson, Mr. Jerry Fenstermaker. It began meeting in late April. As part of its work, the task force formed three subcommittees to study issues from three perspectives. The subcommittees examined possible recommendations
on what would be in the best interest of the Pension Fund and its beneficiaries, the taxpayers, and the City itself.

Fenstermaker and the chairs of the three subcommittees will discuss all of the possible recommendations the task force is considering thus far and how they arrived at these conclusions, then lead discussion about the recommendations. Other members of the task force also will be present at the town hall meetings.

Citizens can learn more about the Task Force's work and the Pension Fund by visiting the Pension Fund page on the City's Web site....

Here's the link to the Pension Task Force's Web site, Police-Fire Pension Fund Citizens' Task Force

Springfield Police Academy Begins

Hallelujah!

Police Academy Begins July 6

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Nuts and Bolts: City Council Zone 3 Candidate Selection

Each of the nine candidates vying for the Zone 3 City Council seat were given 5 minutes to address the City Council in a special meeting in Council chambers at noon on Wednesday. The meeting took about an hour's time, in total.

The City sent out a news release regarding the meeting. If you were unable to attend but, would like to listen to the candidates for yourself, the news release indicated it will air on "...the City's government access channel, Mediacom Channel 23, at 8:30 p.m. tonight; 3 p.m. Friday, May 1; and 4:30 p.m., Saturday, May 2." The meeting has already been posted at TV23. Click the "City Council link" from this page, then click the April 29, 2009 meeting link to view the meeting in its entirety.

Mayor Jim O'Neal outlined the process of selection. He said each Council member should form questions to be asked of the top three candidates, and submit the questions to City Clerk Brenda Cirtin's office. Then he, the City Clerk and the City Manager will go over the questions looking for commonalities, one assumes, so that the same question(s) will not be repeated.

Each Council member will vote for their top 4 picks from among the 9 candidates and turn their choices in by noon on Friday. After tallied, the top 3 candidates will be chosen from those 4. The Council will vote from among those 3 top candidates at the upcoming City Council meeting on May 4, after the Council's questions are asked of each of the 3 candidates. That meeting will start at 6 p.m. instead of the usual 7 p.m., to accommodate for the questioning and action of the Council on that issue.

It will require 5 votes for a candidate to be approved for the seat. If no candidate receives the required 5 votes, the candidate scoring the least votes from among the three will be eliminated from the contest, and a new vote will be taken from among the top two. It is unclear what will transpire if each of those two, remaining candidates were to receive 4 votes each from the Council. Without the Zone 3 Council member, there is an even number of voting members remaining. In total, eight members will approve the candidate.

The candidate who wins the seat will be sworn on May 18, at the following Monday night, scheduled Council meeting. Mayor O'Neal wanted to allow the new Council member time to advise and include family and friends at the ceremony. O'Neal suggested, however, the new member will be expected to get right to work after his approval at the meeting on May 4.

Most of this information is available to the public through City news releases. If you would like to receive them, you can subscribe to them at the City's Web site.

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Saving Our Springfield (SOS) Citizen Coalition Spokesman Chappell: "We need time to make a good choice."

SOS spokesman Darin Chappell penned a letter to the Springfield News-Leader which was published as a "Voice of the Day" column in yesterday's paper, "...there have been a few questions and critiques raised that deserve to be answered directly. As one of the spokesmen for the coalition, I would like to do so here," Chappell wrote.

One of the issues Chappell addressed was the true intent of the plan. He noted he felt it was unfair to discount or dismiss the plan based on the fact that it will not bring the plan to a 90 or 100 percent funding ratio for more than twenty years. To be honest, I'm not sure that the 1/4-cent sales tax the group has proposed would provide the momentum, on its own, to ever create enough funding that it would reach the 90 to 100 percent funding level needed in order for the pension system to become self-sufficient but, I don't think that was SOS' intent.

Chappell spelled it out more eloquently, and concisely, in his letter to the public than I could summarize:

"We need not fund the pension at 100 percent (or even 90 percent ), unless the city anticipates a mass retirement of the officers and firefighters in the immediate future. What we do need immediately is to fund the pension at the state-mandated level of 60 percent, thereby giving our City Council the opportunity (and the responsibility) to take further steps to make the fund permanently solvent. We need time to make a good choice, not just the easiest one."

The best I can tell, this alternative solution will simply shore up the plan, protecting our City from action on the part of the State. You see, the State has the ability, if the pension plan is funded below 60 percent, and if the City does not make a full actuarial recommended contribution once in every five years, to seize 25 percent of the City's sales tax revenue (which the State handles) and contribute it to the pension plan on behalf of the City.

SOS' plan, I think, is intended to keep the pension plan funded above the 60 percent level to ensure the State can't take action against the City while other options are considered in a more deliberate way.

Deliberate, good. Rash, bad.

I have no inside knowledge about SOS' alternative plan. Oh, I was aware discussions were being held. Heck, Jericho said as much on his show. I wasn't privy to any of those discussions so, I'm learning about SOS' alternative plan along with everyone else.

I like the idea of slowing things down and taking a more deliberate approach, and besides we don't know what is going to happen tomorrow, let alone between now and April 7, or now and at any point in the future of our City.

Today, the City of Springfield released news that there has been another telecommunications settlement, this time between the City and AT&T Mobility. The City will receive $10.22 million from the settlement.

Here are some details from that news release*:

"Under the settlement agreement approved in a closed City Council session on Tuesday, March 2, AT&T Mobility will pay the City of Springfield $10.22 million, which includes back taxes owed as well as taxes paid under protest that will be released. AT&T will voluntarily pay the gross receipts tax on wireless service going forward.

Mayor Tom Carlson said he will recommend to City Council that the $10.22 million settlement be applied to the Police/Fire Pension Fund. That amount would equal the amount the City underfunded the pension plan during four years from FY2004 to FY2007, plus interest."

So, there's another $10.22 million for the fund that, yesterday, we had no idea we'd have, and according to the release, "Litigation continues with AT&T (landline company that was formerly SBC) and Alltel." (I intend to look into the news release's claim that this takes care of the "interest," on what the City failed to contribute in the past.)

These settlements are good news for the pension fund.

I had some questions about information Mr. Chappell shared regarding the CIP in his letter published in the News-Leader. I have asked questions of the City regarding that particular aspect. I am told I should have answers within 24 - 48 hours of asking them. That's a rule of thumb, according to the Public Information Office's Director, for dealing with "citizen journalist's" requests for information because, citizen journalists are not generally on a "deadline." I wouldn't argue with that. I have no deadline here.

As a disclosure, I recently made the decision not to continue to contribute to the Community Free Press. Their publisher once told me, "I have no magic formula for how I pay people." That was the truth, folks. There was no consistency in how I was paid for my work, and no agreement was forthcoming in regards to my compensation so, with no pending agreement, I made a decision to look at, and for, other options.

Now I have to wait for information from the City, just as every other citizen who has a query has to wait. That simply means I won't be getting preferential treatment because I'm on a deadline. That's okay. I'm among good company. Besides, it usually took 24 - 48 hours to get answers to my more involved questions anyway so, I probably won't notice much of a change.

*For a list of City government news releases from the past 30 days, click on this link.

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Stolen Peephole Mystery Solved?

I don't normally publish the City's news releases at JackeHammer because any one who is really interested in the City's news releases can sign up to receive them in their own email box at the City's Web site.

The news release below is an exception to the rule because I'm thrilled that an alleged serial rapist has been arrested and charged but the release below also clears up a mystery.

Some time ago, the police department issued an alert that hotels and motels were reporting the exterior portion of door peepholes were coming up missing. Police asked that the public be alert and notify police if they had any information regarding missing peepholes. It was a strange request to me and to most of the people who commented to me about it. Now, it appears the missing peepholes, at least in some cases, might have been related to these crimes. Anyway, here's the city's news release in its entirety:

Over time, law enforcement has seen many helpful advances in the use of DNA (Deoxyribonucleic acid) as evidence, mostly due to the technological development of equipment used to gather DNA profiles. It is widely believed that DNA will continue to play an increasing role in the effort to bring suspects to justice. A recent case highlights this trend.

With information developed using DNA, the Springfield Police Department made an arrest Wednesday for a rape that happened in October of this year. After further investigation and interviews with the suspect, police now believe the same individual is responsible for at least five rapes that have occurred in Springfield since January of 2000.

Initially, just two assaults from January ‘07 and Mar ’08 appeared to share similar characteristics. The victims in each case reported similar details, however the suspect’s face was concealed in each incident. This combined with little recovered evidence left police few leads to follow, except for the fact that sometimes the victim’s front door was missing it’s peephole. At the time, at least 150 peepholes had been discovered missing at various locations throughout the city, so the police department issued an alert asking the public to be aware of the trend.

One more rape occurred in October ‘08 at 664 S. Kentwood. In this case, DNA evidence was seized from the crime scene.

Detectives checked the DNA sample against a statewide database and found it matched a DNA profile taken from an unsolved rape in Fulton, MO. This was the first solid piece of evidence that linked the rapist to more than one assault, but detectives still did not have a named suspect. Numerous persons of interest had been identified up to that point, however they had all been cleared through investigation.

After discovering the suspect had attacked a woman in Fulton, detectives matched their notes with details learned during that investigation. By combining the information and checking it against department resources, police were able to identify a possible suspect that could have been responsible for assaults in both cities.

Detectives identified a possible suspect and began performing surveillance. After recovering additional evidence, police took Bobbie Andrew McGhee of Springfield into custody on Wednesday morning. Later that day, detectives developed evidence that he was also responsible for two additional rapes, one from January ‘00 and the other, from July ’08.

McGhee, 46 years old, has since been charged with fifteen criminal counts including Forcible Rape, Forcible Sodomy and 1st Degree Burglary. There is no bond set for McGhee.

The following is a breakdown of incidents in which McGhee has been charged.
January 2000 - 1772 S. Glenstone – (Lamp Lighter Inn)
January 2007 - 1772 S. Glenstone – (Lamp Lighter Inn)
March 2008 - 2750 N. Glenstone (Hampton Inn)
July 2008 - 1364 E. McDaniel
October 2008 - 664 S. Kentwood

Police investigation is ongoing, and detectives are currently examining past unsolved sexual assaults to determine if any connection to McGhee exists. Anyone else with information about the incident is encouraged call 417-864-1810 or make an anonymous report at 417-869-TIPS (Crime Stoppers).

SPD Case Number: Assorted

Media Contact: Police Chief Lynn Rowe, phone: 417-864-1782; Release
authorized by: Major Kevin Routh

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