Pension audit discussion looming

Town Manager Bruce St. Denis notified the Longboat Key Town Commission in an e-mail Friday the Firefighters’ Pension Board will discuss its controversial forensic audit at its 1:30 p.m., Wednesday, Nov. 17 quarterly meeting.

The commission has an issue with the pension board’s decision to most likely hire Benchmark Financial Services at the meeting to perform an audit at a cost of $50,000. Taxpayers would fund the money used to pay for the study.

Knowing the commission has issues with the study being performed, St. Denis has asked that the meeting be advertised as a Town Commission meeting, which would allow commissioners to speak.

The pension board, comprising a majority of firefighters, wants to analyze all the decisions made by the board, its attorneys and its actuaries. Pension board chairman Keith Tanner said the study needs to be performed because suspicions about the under-funded pension plan have continued to grow and its members want closure on what caused the issues.

Contact Kurt Schultheis at [email protected].