City of Allentown Aggregate Pension Fund - Lehigh County - Compliance Audit Report - 05 29 08

Dept. Of The Auditor General

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CITY OF ALLENTOWN AGGREGATE PENSION FUND   LEHIGH COUNTY     COMPLIANCE AUDIT REPORT   FOR THE PERIOD   JANUARY 1, 2005, TO DECEMBER 31, 2006

             

               

   

 

 

CITY OF ALLENTOWN AGGREGATE PENSION FUND   LEHIGH COUNTY     COMPLIANCE AUDIT REPORT   FOR THE PERIOD   JANUARY 1, 2005, TO DECEMBER 31, 2006

 

 

CONTENTS

  Page   Background ......................................................................................................................................1 Letter from the Auditor General ......................................................................................................3 Status of Prior Findings ...................................................................................................................5 Findings and Recommendations: Police Pension Plan ................................................................................................................7 Finding No. 1 – Noncompliance With Prior Audit Recommendation – Plan Provisions Not In Compliance With The Third Class City Code...................................................................................................7 Firemen’s Pension Plan ........................................................................................................10 Finding No. 2 – Noncompliance With Prior Audit Recommendation – Plan Provisions Not In Compliance With The Third Class City Code.................................................................................................10 Finding No. 3 – Noncompliance With Prior Audit Recommendation – Arbitration Award And Memorandums Of Understanding Grant Benefits Not Authorized By The Third Class City Code.................................................................................................13 Supplementary Information...........................................................................................................16  Report Distribution List .................................................................................................................27    

 

 

 

BACKGROUND

    On December 18, 1984, the Pennsylvania Legislature adopted the Municipal Pension Fund Funding Standard and Recovery Act (P.L. 1005, No. 205, 53 P.S. §895.101, et seq.). The act established mandatory actuarial reporting and funding requirements and a uniform basis for the distribution of state aid to Pennsylvania’s public pension funds. Section 402(j) of Act 205 specifically requires the Auditor General, as deemed necessary, to make an audit of every municipality which receives general municipal pension system State aid and of every municipal pension fund and fund in which general municipal pension system State aid is deposited.   Pension fund aid is provided from a 2 percent foreign casualty insurance premium tax, a portion of the foreign fire insurance tax designated for paid firefighters and any investment income earned on the collection of these taxes. Generally, municipal pension funds established prior to December 18, 1984, are eligible for state aid. For municipal pension funds established after that date, the sponsoring municipality must fund the fund for three fund years before it becomes eligible for state aid. In accordance with Act 205, a municipality’s annual state aid allocation cannot exceed its actual pension costs.   In addition to Act 205, the City of Allentown Aggregate Pension Fund is also governed by implementing regulations adopted by the Public Employee Retirement Commission published at Title 16, Part IV of the Pennsylvania Code and applicable provisions of various other state statutes including, but not limited to, the following:    Act 147 - Special Ad Hoc Municipal Police and Firefighter Postretirement Adjustment Act, Act of December 14, 1988 (P.L. 1192, No. 147), as amended, 53 P.S. § 896.101 et seq.      Act 317 - The Third Class City Code, Act of June 23, 1931 (P.L. 932, No. 317), as amended, 53 P.S. § 35101 et seq.      Act 362 - The Third Class City Code, Act of May 23, 1945 (P.L. 903, No. 362), Article XLIII-A, Optional Retirement System for Officers and Employes, as amended, 53 P.S. § 39371 et seq.   The City of Allentown Police, Firemen’s and Officers’ and Employees’ Pension Plans are single- employer defined benefit pension plans locally controlled by the provisions of Articles 143, 145, and 141, respectively, of the city’s codified ordinances, adopted pursuant to The Third Class City Code. The plans are also affected by the provisions of collective bargaining agreements between the city and its police officers, firefighters and nonuniformed employees, as well as Act 111 interest arbitration awards.  

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                    The Honorable Mayor and City Council City of Allentown Lehigh County Allentown, PA 18101   We have conducted a compliance audit of the City of Allentown Aggregate Pension Fund for the period January 1, 2005, to December 31, 2006. The audit was conducted pursuant to authority derived from Section 402(j) of Act 205 of 1984 and in accordance withGovernment Auditing Standardsby the Comptroller General of the United States., issued   The objectives of the audit were:   1.   To determine if municipal officials took appropriate corrective action to address the findings contained in our prior audit report; and   2.   To determine if the pension fund was administered in compliance with applicable state laws, regulations, contracts, administrative procedures, and local ordinances and policies.   Our audit was limited to the areas related to the objectives identified above. The City of Allentown contracted with an independent certified public accounting firm for annual audits of its basic financial statements which are available at the city’s offices. Those financial statements were not audited by us and, accordingly, we express no opinion or other form of assurance on them.   The Department of the Auditor General (Department) is mandated by state statute to calculate state aid provided to municipal pension funds and to audit municipal pension funds having received such aid. State aid is calculated by an administrative unit that is not involved in the audit process. The Department’s Comptroller Office then pre-audits the calculation and submits requests to the Commonwealth’s Treasury Department for the disbursement of state aid to the municipality. The Department has implemented procedures to ensure that Department audit personnel are not directly involved in the calculation and disbursement processes. The Department’s mandatory responsibilities are being disclosed in accordance withGovernment Auditing Standards.  

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          City officials are responsible for establishing and maintaining an internal control structure to provide reasonable assurance that the City of Allentown Aggregate Pension Fund is administered in compliance with applicable state laws, regulations, contracts, administrative procedures, and local ordinances and policies. To assist us in funding and performing our audit, we obtained an understanding of the city’s internal control structure as it relates to the city’s compliance with those requirements. Additionally, we tested transactions, assessed official actions, performed analytical procedures and interviewed selected officials to the extent necessary to satisfy the audit objectives.   The results of our tests indicated that, in all significant respects, the City of Allentown Aggregate Pension Fund was administered in compliance with applicable state laws, regulations, contracts, administrative procedures, and local ordinances and policies, except as noted in the following findings further discussed later in this report:   Police Pension Plan   Finding No. 1 – Noncompliance With Prior Audit Recommendation – Plan Provisions Not In Compliance With The Third Class City Code   Firemen’s Pension Plan   Finding No. 2 – Noncompliance With Prior Audit Recommendation – Plan Provisions Not In Compliance With The Third Class City Code     Finding No. 3 – Noncompliance With Prior Audit Recommendation – Arbitration Award And Memorandums Of Understanding Grant Benefits Not Authorized By The Third Class City Code   The accompanying supplementary information is presented for purposes of additional analysis. We did not audit the information and, accordingly, express no form of assurance on it.   The contents of this report were discussed with officials of the City of Allentown and, where appropriate, their responses have been included in the report.       January 18, 2008

JACK WAGNER Auditor General

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CITY OF ALLENTOWN AGGREGATE PENSION FUND STATUS OF PRIOR FINDINGS  

    Compliance With Prior Audit Recommendation   The City of Allentown has complied with the prior audit recommendation concerning the following:   ∙ Police Pension Benefits Modified Without Prior Cost Estimates   An actuarial cost study was prepared by the plan’s actuary which indicated that the benefit improvements contained in the arbitration award and Memorandum of Understanding increased the plan’s actuarial accrued liability by $28,525,981 and the 2007 minimum municipal obligation by $3,179,084.     Status Of Prior Audit Recommendation   Police Pension Plan   ∙ Arbitration Award And Memorandum Of Understanding Grant Benefits Not Authorized By The Third Class City Code   In an attempt to correct the terms of the Memorandum of Understanding, the city filed a civil action with the Court of Common Pleas of the Lehigh County Pennsylvania Civil Division. The September 5, 2006, order of the court stipulated that the annual pension benefits for the police officers who retired on or after July 20, 2005, were to be adjusted in accordance with the terms of the court agreement. During the current audit period, it was determined that the city has been following through on the terms of the court agreement.   Although our Department respectfully recognizes the city’s attempt to rectify the impact of the Memorandum of Understanding, we will continue to monitor the pension plan’s benefit provisions prospectively. We further recommend that the city comply with the Third Class City Code upon the expiration or renegotiation of the arbitration award. To the extent that the city is not in compliance with the Third Class City Code and/or is contractually obligated to pay benefits to existing retirees in excess of those authorized by the Third Class City Code, the excess benefits must be reflected in the Act 205 actuarial valuation reports for the plan and funded in accordance with Act 205 funding standards. Furthermore, such benefits will be deemed ineligible for funding with state pension aid. In such case, the plan’s actuary may be required to determine the impact, if any, of the excess benefits on the plan’s future state aid allocations and submit this information to the department.    

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