Post Retirement Meeting Minutes Online

Section 1. The retirement and social security law is amended by adding a new section 805-a to read as follows:

§ 805-a. Minutes of public retirement system board meetings. It shall be the policy of the boards of trustees of all public retirement systems to make a copy of minutes of any official meeting, subject to the provisions of article seven of the public officers law, electronically available on such public retirement system's website to the extent practicable or otherwise required by law.

§ 2. The education law is amended by adding a new section 506-a to read as follows:

§ 506-a. Board meetings; minutes and records. The board shall keep minutes of its own proceedings and records of its other official actions, and shall make a copy of such minutes electronically available on its website to the extent practicable, provided that any information deemed confidential or subject to the exceptions provided for in article seven of the public officers law may be redacted or omitted from such public postings.

§ 3. Section 13-103 of the administrative code of the city of New York is amended by adding a new subdivision h to read as follows:

EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets

[ ] is old law to be omitted.

LBD01761-04-0

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h. The board shall keep minutes of its own proceedings and records of its other official actions, and shall make a copy of such minutes electronically available on its website to the extent practicable, provided that any information deemed confidential or subject to the exceptions provided for in article seven of the public officers law may be redacted or omitted from such public postings.

§ 4. Section 13-202 of the administrative code of the city of New York is amended by adding a new subdivision h to read as follows:

h. The board shall keep minutes of its own proceedings and records of its other official actions, and shall make a copy of such minutes electronically available on its website to the extent practicable, provided that any information deemed confidential or subject to the exceptions provided for in article seven of the public officers law may be redacted or omitted from such public postings.

§ 5. Section 13-302 of the administrative code of the city of New York is amended by adding a new subdivision h to read as follows:

h. The board shall keep minutes of its own proceedings and records of its other official actions, and shall make a copy of such minutes electronically available on its website to the extent practicable, provided that any information deemed confidential or subject to the exceptions provided for in article seven of the public officers law may be redacted or omitted from such public postings.

§ 6. Section 13-516 of the administrative code of the city of New York is amended to read as follows:

§ 13-516 Retirement board; minutes and records. The retirement board shall keep [a record] minutes and records of all its proceedings and its other official actions open to public inspection and shall make a copy of such minutes electronically available on its website to the extent practicable, provided that any information deemed confidential or subject to the exceptions provided for in article seven of the public officers law may be redacted or omitted from such public postings.

§ 7. This act shall take effect on the sixtieth day after it shall have become a law.

FISCAL NOTE.--Pursuant to Legislative Law, Section 50:

This bill would add Section 805-a to the Retirement and Social Securi-

ty Law and Section 506-a to the Education Law to require the Retirement

Board of the New York State Teachers' Retirement System (NYSTRS) to make

a copy of minutes of any official meeting and records of other official

actions electronically available on NYSTRS's website. Such meeting

minutes and records of official actions made electronically available on

NYSTRS's website will be subject to the provisions of Article 7 of the

Public Officers Law.

The annual cost to the employers of members of the New York State

Teachers' Retirement System is estimated to be negligible if this bill

is enacted.

Member data is from the System's most recent actuarial valuation

files, consisting of data provided by the employers to the Retirement

System. Data distributions and statistics can be found in the System's

Comprehensive Annual Financial Report (CAFR). System assets are as

reported in the System's financial statements, and can also be found in

the CAFR. Actuarial assumptions and methods are provided in the System's

Actuarial Valuation Report.

The source of this estimate is Fiscal Note 2020-16 dated March 2, 2020

prepared by the Actuary of the New York State Teachers' Retirement

System and is intended for use only during the 2020 Legislative Session.

I, Richard A. Young, am the Actuary for the New York State Teachers'

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Retirement System. I am a member of the American Academy of Actuaries

and I meet the Qualification Standards of the American Academy of Actu-

aries to render the actuarial opinion contained herein.

SUMMARY OF BILL: This proposed legislation, as it relates to the New

York City Pension Funds and Retirement Systems (NYCRS), would require

applicable public retirement systems within the State to post public

portions of Board of Trustees' meeting minutes on their respective

websites.

EFFECTIVE DATE: Effective on the 60th day following enactment.

BACKGROUND: Currently, public portions of Board of Trustees meetings

are generally publicly webcasted, but written meeting minutes are gener-

ally only available via request.

The proposed legislation provides that it shall be the policy of all

NYCRS Boards of Trustees to post public portions of Board meetings on

their respective websites. It thereafter specifically makes the posting

a requirement, to the extent practicable, only for the New York City

Employees' Retirement System, the Teachers' Retirement System of the

City of New York, the New York City Police Pension Fund, and the New

York City Fire Pension Fund. For purposes of this Fiscal Note, it has

been assumed that the policy of publicly posting minutes would also

apply to the New York City Board of Education Retirement System.

IMPACT ON BENEFITS: If enacted, this proposed legislation would have

no impact on benefits paid to members.

FINANCIAL IMPACT - ANNUAL EMPLOYER CONTRIBUTIONS: The Employer

Contribution for a fiscal year includes the amount of administrative

expenses paid during the second prior fiscal year adjusted with interest

to the current date. If enacted, this proposed legislation would

increase the amount of administrative expenses and therefore, increase

the annual Employer Contribution.

FINANCIAL IMPACT - SUMMARY: It is estimated, based on information

provided by certain NYCRS and the Office of the Actuary's experience

with Board of Trustees meetings and minutes of such meetings, that if

this proposed legislation is passed, the increase in administrative

expenses paid from NYCRS, and therefore, the increase in the Employer

Contribution, would be de minimis.

ACTUARIAL ASSUMPTIONS AND METHODS: The interest rate for adjusting the

administrative expenses from the date paid out of NYCRS to the date the

Employer Contribution is received is 7%.

RISK AND UNCERTAINTY: The costs presented in this Fiscal Note depend

highly on the realization of the actuarial assumptions used, as well as

certain demographic characteristics of NYCRS and other exogenous factors

such as investment, contribution, and other risks. If actual experience

deviates from actuarial assumptions, the actual costs could differ from

those presented herein. Costs are also dependent on the actuarial meth-

ods used, and therefore different actuarial methods could produce

different results. Quantifying these risks is beyond the scope of this

Fiscal Note.

STATEMENT OF ACTUARIAL OPINION: I, Sherry S. Chan, am the Chief Actu-

ary for, and independent of, the New York City Retirement Systems and

Pension Funds. I am a Fellow of the Society of Actuaries, an Enrolled

Actuary under the Employee Retirement Income and Security Act of 1974, a

Member of the American Academy of Actuaries, and a Fellow of the Confer-

ence of Consulting Actuaries. I meet the Qualification Standards of the

American Academy of Actuaries to render the actuarial opinion contained

herein. To the best of my knowledge, the results contained herein have

been prepared in accordance with generally accepted actuarial principles

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and procedures and with the Actuarial Standards of Practice issued by

the Actuarial Standards Board.

FISCAL NOTE IDENTIFICATION: This Fiscal Note 2020-24 dated April 2,

2020 was prepared by the Chief Actuary for the five New York City

Retirement Systems and Pension Funds. This estimate is intended for use

only during the 2020 Legislative Session.