City Manager's Office
Reference: Pension Board Recordkeeper Change
To: Mayor Gregory Mills and Members of City Council
Through: Michael P. Martinez, City Manager
Prepared By: Karen Borkowski Surine, Assistant City Manager
Catrina Asher, Finance Director
Date Prepared: April 9, 2025
PURPOSE
To consider amending the City of Brighton Pension Plan Recordkeeper and Trust.
BACKGROUND
The City of Brighton offers generous benefits to its employees, including retirement benefits. Since the City of Brighton opted out of Social Security, City employees rely on the pension plan benefits for their retirement. Under the Internal Revenue Service Code, the City has a qualified deferred money purchase pension plan qualified under 401(a) and an associated trust for all funds invested. Due to opting out of Social Security payments, the City and employees must make mandatory contributions to the retirement accounts.
The sworn benefitted police officers participate in a different retirement plan, but for all other benefitted employees, they contribute 9 % of their salary to this retirement plan. The City contributes 10.5% to each eligible employee's retirement plan account. Employees have a number of options for investing their retirement funds under the plan, and the Retirement Pension Board reviews the options regularly to assure they are sound fiduciary investment options.
The Retirement Pension Board consists of three employees elected by the participants for staggered three-year terms, Finance Director Catrina Asher and Assistant City Manager Karen Borkowski Surine.
The City recordkeeper for the pension plan for non-sworn, benefitted full-time employees has been MissionSquare Retirement (previously known as ICMA Retirement Corporation) since 1998 and last approved in 2019. Changing recordkeepers means transferring assets and making new investment portfolio choices, so it is not done often. However, to review options and be assured that MissionSquare was still the...
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