The recently established Ethics, Compliance and Oversight Office plans to investigate the legality of a pension fund created to serve staff of the Police and Fire Pension Fund.
The Senior Staff Voluntary Retirement Plan gained attention through City budget discussions of the fund and in a July 30 article in The Florida Times-
Union.
The article, along with discussions between City Council members and Council Auditor Kirk Sherman, has resulted in ECO Director Carla Miller opening an investigation into the legality of the fund.
“There is a lot of discussion right now about the Police and Fire Pension Fund. This is exactly the type of function that the Ethics, Compliance and Oversight Office was created to handle,” said Miller.
Now that the office has been established, it can begin to look into issues allowable under the City’s municipal code, she said. Funding for the office was approved in March, nearly a year after it was created to replace the City’s Ethics Office.
“We are finally beyond the stage of getting the office up and running, and I think this the type of issue the citizens would expect that office to look into,” said Miller.
She informed the Ethics Commission on Monday that she would look into the matter and present commission members with a list of questions she plans to ask.
At the bottom of the list was a statement: “I will coordinate my efforts with the council auditor who will be auditing the fund in the near future. In requesting the above information, I would emphasize that no conclusions have been reached and no
allegations have been made.”
Miller’s questions will
include:
• Has the City’s General Counsel given a binding legal opinion that allows the Police and Fire Pension Fund to create the
plan?
• Have actuarial statements been filed in a timely manner?
• Has the fund ever had an independent audit? If so, did the audit include the retirement plan?
Under the City’s Ethics Code, the
ECO office can, “investigate, review, and report on City issues and past, present and proposed programs, activities, accounts, records, contracts and transactions all as related to the prevention and remediation of conflicts of interest, fraud, waste and
corruption.”
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