PIC forms pension committee

Longboat Key’s Public Interest Committee has formed a pension committee of five residents who have been investigating the town’s three pension plans since November.

PIC Co-President Ann B. Roth said the committee will make a short presentation to the Town Commission at a special pension meeting scheduled for 1 p.m. Monday, Feb. 7, at Town Hall.

“This is meant to educate our community,” Roth said. “We found the best people to analyze the pension plans and find potential solutions to help the underfunded plans.”

The committee is made up of committee Co-Chairman Ed Adams, Co-Chairman Dick Antoine, Bill Forcht, Larry Linhart and Randy Clair.

Adams declined to divulge the group’s findings until the Feb. 7 meeting.

“We have hundreds of man hours of time invested in understanding the town’s financial statements and actuarial reports,” said Adams. “We discussed the information we gathered in broad form, trying to understand the situation and reach some conclusions and determine what, if any, solution might be available to the problem we see in the current situation.”

Roth sent a letter to Mayor George Spoll dated Jan. 22, explaining that the committee has conducted an in-depth study of Longboat Key’s three pension plans.

Commissioner David Brenner directed Town Manager Bruce St. Denis to allot the committee 20 minutes to make its presentation.

PIC has also tentatively scheduled a pension committee presentation forum at 7 p.m. Wednesday, March 9, at the Longboat Island Chapel, 6200 Gulf of Mexico Drive.

COMMITTEE MEMBERS
• Co-Chairman Ed Adams — retired partner and former managing partner of Cincinnati-based Frost Brown Todd LLC; visiting professor of business bankruptcy in Russia, Hungary and the Czech Republic.

• Co-Chairman Dick Antoine — retired global head of human relations for Proctor & Gamble

• Bill Forcht — retired vice president of Woolworth Corp.

• Larry Linhart — former CEO of AmeriLink and former president of Radio Shack Inc. Service Program

• Randy Clair — former town commissioner and former corporate attorney with Amoco

Contact Kurt Schultheis at [email protected]