DeKalb County seeks appointee to pension board after death of longtime member

DeKalb County officials told the IRPS committee that the December death of long-serving pension board member John McMullen left a vacancy on the nine-member board that oversees the county—s employee pension fund.

Staff said the pension board manages approximately $1.6 billion in assets and that the plan is about 62% to 65% funded. The committee discussed the appointment process, qualifications commonly sought for appointees and next steps for soliciting and vetting candidates.

Benefits staff said the pension board comprises nine positions: the county chief executive officer (or designee), the system director, the finance director, three elected individuals, one retiree representative elected by retirees, two active-employee-elected representatives, and two Board of Commissioners appointees; the ninth member is elected by the board members themselves. Ed Wall is the current pension board chair.

Staff described the board—s core responsibility as monitoring the financial health of the plan, working with advisors and money managers, placing underperforming managers on watch lists and recommending manager removals if benchmarks are missed. Staff said the board meets bimonthly and that typical appointees historically have professional backgrounds in investment consulting, securities or banking.

On next steps, staff told the committee that IRPS has jurisdiction over interviewing and recommending candidates to the full Board of Commissioners. Committee members asked staff to prepare a short position description or duties document and to circulate it by early next week to give the committee a starting point for identifying qualified candidates. Staff agreed to provide that document.

No candidate was appointed at the meeting; staff will follow up with a qualifications document for the committee and said candidates would be interviewed by this committee before full-board approval is sought.