Scott Huff

Mailing List

Home

Scott Huff

Ohio Police and Fire Pension Fund

As 2013 brings us the changes we needed to preserve The Ohio Police & Fire Pension Fund, the work will still continue to make the fund stronger and stronger. The theme this year will be disability pensions. As we stand, we are one of the few in the country pension funds that offer partial off-duty disability awards. We are also one of the highest awarder of disability pensions in the country with approximately 34% of our retirees being disability grants. The Board of Trustees and the Ohio Retirement Study Council clearly understands that the benefits awarded need to be looked at.

Our process is one of the best in the country. What really becomes the issue is what benefits we pay and what injuries are included in the calculation. Additional factors which increase the benefit also need to be looked at. The Board has added special meetings so that we can timeline these issues and work diligently to make these changes before they are imposed upon us by the legislature. We assure the membership that the Trustees will continue to work toward improving this grant.

On the other end, it may be a little slow on the legislative side so we shouldn't have too much to worry about. We will continue to show the ORSC that we are attempting to make improvements where need be. Our health care stabilization fund is our focus to continue to offer reasonable cost health care for our members and their families. Currently, our health care stabilization fund is healthy and we are looking to keep it that way.

We have recently had a few changes to our administration, John Gallagher is our new Executive Director and Jennifer Harville is our Director of Member Services. John comes to us as the Executive Director of the Chicago Police Pension Fund and has a lot of experience which will help lead our fund moving forward. Jennifer has been with OP&F for some time and is experience in serving our members. Both are great additions to our executive/director staff.

Thank you for your support and please feel free to contact myself should the need arise.

Scott Huff

Cleveland Police

Trustee - Ohio Police & Fire Pension Fund

Last Updated (Monday, 11 March 2013 18:05)

Merry Christmas or Happy Holidays...whatever it is you may celebrate.

Relatively slow month being the last meeting of 2012. Things will rev up in the new year beginning with work on disability grants and the coordinated benefits associated with such grants. We have special meetings planned for February and April to address these issues. We anticipate that the OR5C will address this issue next year so we would like to be proactive in our work and see if we can establish some type of reform. We think that the ORSC will look at all the systems as a whole but ours always stands out when it comes to disability grants. We currently have one of the highest disability grants in the country amongst police and fire pension funds. We believe they will look at the process and coordination of benefits as their priority.

Wachtmann will head up the OR5C for 2013 ...great, he is a knucklehead so who knows what he will be planning. Good news is that he is done after two years as he will be termed out. Keith Faber is out of the OR5C, he will be taking a new role somewhere so he will not be on this committee. There was no OR5C meeting in December as they were in lame duck session. Meetings will start up again in January.

Buck and Associates, our actuary presented us with a "preliminary study" which implemented the changes that will occur from 5B340. The good news that comes from this is that with the changes and the investment returns we have gathered since the downturn we are making significant headway in the right direction. Although we may be a little short of our 30 year funding, we will be very close. We still have to let the changes go into effect and we will revisit this study in 2017 to see where we are at before addressing any further changes. We anticipate our investment returns for 2012 to be in the vicinity of 12+% but of course I will not
know the exact number until January 1st.

Although not in Ohio yet, obviously we are all aware of the right to work initiative that has been passed in Michigan. Kasich was quoted as saying that it was not on his agenda or the legislatures agenda in Ohio for the immediate future. Kasich believes that the 5tate is moving in the right direction and that this does not need to be addressed to move us ahead. With that being said, there is a private group gathering signatures to place this issue on the ballot and it appears that they may have enough to get it there. I know it has nothing to do with the pension system but we have to be aware of this because we may be dealing with it again. AQuinnipiac pole has shown that Kasich's approval rating is at a whopping 42% and with his re-election campaign starting in 2013 it will be important to keep an eye on how he moves along.

We did pass as a board new language for the "anti-spiking salary language" that appears in the changes to 5B340. Moving forward, the process of promotions will not be subject to the anti-spiking elements written in the bill. Natural promotions will have its own language and not subject to any spiking clause. The overtime accrued with promotions will be subject to the cap but if your salary alone puts you over the cap, you would not be subject to the cap. Again, this is only for promotions of rank within or outside of your respective departments. The vote passed closely 5-3 and ,was a very difficult and debated topic amongst the trustees. We will be working on the health care subsidy linked to years of service in 2013 and the parameters surrounding that. I will let you know what we decide for spousal benefits and other items that create issues with this change. We will be addressing this at our special meeting in February. As it still stands, health care will be paid at a rate of 3% per year (member) and 1%per year (spouse) with a total of 75% and 25% respectfully for 25 years of service. This is the cap, so if you work 26 +years it will not be more. This was the last meeting for Bill Estabrook and Kay Penn. They were very good for our fund and will be missed. If you had the pleasure of meeting any of the two or needed them you will know what they did for this fund. John Gallagher and Jennifer Harville will be taking their positions respectively. John will be an excellent fit and Jennifer has been with the fund for 15 years. Both will do an excellent job.

Thanks for your support during the year, 2012 was challenging with the implementation of 5B340 and the changes we had to endure. Although it was not easy at times to swallow and even more challenging being a board member explaining various things, I appreciate the patience and hopefully this will be a good start to a great 2013 for everyone.
Take care,
Scott Huff

Last Updated (Saturday, 15 December 2012 15:12)

Changes in Pension

By now you have hopefully been familiarized with the changes that will occur to your pension in the coming years. If you haven’t you can familiarize yourself by logging onto www.op-f.org and reviewing the recently approved legislation and changes. While over the last few weeks and frankly last few years the board and myself have been getting a little grief over these changes. It is important to keep in mind the reasoning. First, while change is unpopular it is needed to sustain the overall health of the fund. Simply stating, we were paying out more than we were taking in, cost and life expectancies were continuing to rise and we could not simply sustain this trend. While I cannot speak on the proposed changes first being presented to the ORSC and legislature I can speak on the fact that something needed to be done.

I can also assure you at the time, the board that was in place was working with the best interest of the members in mind and that the changes that they chose would impact majority of the members least. Those board members wanted to make changes that would have little or no impact on current retirees, minor impact on those about to retire with the ability for those to make certain adjustments and the most impact to those entering the profession or having ample time to make major adjustments. The bottom line is whether supported or not change definitely had to occur to sustain the overall health of the Ohio Police & Fire Pension Fund. Only time will tell whether these changes will work for a long and healthy retirement fund.

On another note, we have finally hired a replacement for our retiring Executive Director, William Estabrook. John Gallagher was hired and comes to us as the Executive Director of the Chicago Police Pension Fund. He has been with the Chicago Police Pension Fund since 1980 and has been the Executive Director since 2006. He comes to us with a wealth of knowledge and the board is confident he will be an excellent predecessor to Mr. Estabrook.

Moving forward, the next task and issue that should be coming our way is disability pension reform. We believe that the ORSC will make this a pressing issue in the years to come and ultimately look at addressing this growing debate. To date we have one of the highest disability rates in the country with some 30% plus members retiring on disability retirements. While our process is not in question and actually is one of the best in the country, the fact that our members become disabled according to our administrative policy at a high rate needs to be addressed. I am not sure what the solution may be but I believe the board and staff will work with the ORSC to help refine this issue. The reform itself may help the funding of the Ohio Police & Fire Pension Fund for future years.

Thanks for your support and should you have any concerns, comments or needs feel free to email me anytime.
Scott Huff
Trustee/Ohio Police & Fire Pension Fund
This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

Ohio Police and Fire Pension Fund

In the next month or two (depending on when you receive this article) will determine the direction of our pension fund. Although strong we are in need of changes. Recently we have seen the Senate pass bill 340 through swiftly expecting the House to follow. Since that time we have seen the same dog and pony show the legislature continuously portrays while delaying the vote on important legislature. Regardless of how we feel about the bill knowing nothing is perfect, reform is needed. All believe and have relayed how certain parts of the bill are unfair but are willing to accept most of it; knowing that something needs to be done.
There have been some unique features implemented into SB 340 but most items included come from the initial proposals from 2011 recommendations of OP&F Board of Trustees. One item added to the bill will give the board more authority to implement changes without legislative approval for items such as age of retirement and employee contributions. It is important to remember that the board did not ask for this implementation and that whatever the sentiment is; the legislature is on the track to “pass the buck” and decision onto the fund. In our best analysis they do not want to be responsible for decisions regarding our fund in the future.

While all of these items will create change we are still attempting to implement items administratively to do our best to preserve the best we can for our fund. We are studying the implementation of W2 reporting and calculating system as opposed to the current system we use. This system would potentially include items that are now not currently added into our pensionable wages. It is currently used by the Ohio Public Employees Retirement System and appears favorable for the members. We are working constantly to improve the administrative rules for off-duty non-catastrophic disability awards. These “off-duty” awards represent over 20% of all disability awards by the fund. We have had other discussions about potential member favorable changes and keep in mind always that we would consider restoring benefits should economic conditions change.
I promise to keep the membership informed and offer your voice to our board should you have a concerns, questions or comments. Although we do not know if the bill will pass or when it will be voted on; we do know that your fund will remain strong and we will do all we can to preserve it for yourself and future retirees. I appreciate your support and please direct any questions or comments you have to me via email at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it . Take care and be safe.

Scott Huff
Trustee for the Ohio Police & Fire Pension Fund

Last Updated (Monday, 10 September 2012 19:30)

Scott Huff Article

I would like to first thank those O.P.B.A. members for their support in choosing me to represent them as Trustee for the Ohio Police & Fire Pension Fund. I promise to continue to provide updates as they become available and answer any question or concerns you may have regarding your pension fund. It is a crucial time for Ohio’s public pension funds. A challenging economy, change in demographics and public perception, mix in a legislature who is all talk and no action and you make for a poor mixture and ever challenging make-up for public pension funds.
Ohio law which governs public pension funds and the Ohio Police & Fire Pension Fund require a plan to pay liabilities that accrue for a period of 30 years. Our fund which is behind in our 30 year funding made its first proposal in 2008 and continued that process with the hope that the legislature would adopt changes to make our fund stronger and afford us the ability to pay for our future liabilities. To date, our legislature has yet to enact any changes or moved forward in any way with our proposals.
This takes us to where we are today, a 2011 funding proposal that we hope the legislature will pass in order to move us toward funding those future liabilities. Unfortunately, all of our proposals require passage of a bill and we are at the mercy of our elected officials. I assure you your current board of trustee and our staff is working diligently with the legislature to get these proposals passed so that you can be assured that your pension will be around for future generation and that it will provide you with the benefits it is supposed to. We have been assured that the legislature is putting together a bill of what we asked for in 2011 with a few minor adjustments so we are waiting to see the new bill which should be here shortly.
As of this article, here is where we stand…we believe a new bill will be written for all five public pension funds independently and that we have the full support of the Senate. We expect the bill to be written by the end of April and to be passed through the Senate by the end of May. Of course this is all speculation based on what has been told to us by our legislature so we hope that this is the turning point for reform. We have been told that this movement will be supported by the Senate President and Minority Leader so that it will get passage in the House.
We need reform and it is extremely important that this passes sooner than later but be rest assured that you pension fund is strong and approximately 68% funded for future liabilities. We believe in the future the legislature may give us the ability to make necessary changes from the member’s side instead of waiting for legislative approval. Our best scenario is that the changes get through the House before November and that they are implemented by January 1, 2013. Unfortunately, the House is gun shy after Issue 2 so the odds of passing this legislation before the November election are 50/50 at best.
Hopefully this gives you a little background on how we got here and where we are going. We are making progress on other issues for your fund such as a W2 reporting system, improvement in our disability process and administrative changes to make your system easier to use and more effective. I again thank you for your support and I am open to your feedback, feel free to contact me at any time for questions or concerns.
Scott Huff
Trustee/Ohio Police & Fire Pension Fund