Southern Ca Public Safety Retiree Medical Trust

“There are five trustees, four of whom are selected by the members of the alhambra police officers association and one of whom shall be appointed by the board of directors of the alhambra police officer association. No more than one trustee may be a retiree. Elections and appointments shall be according to the by-laws of the alhambra police officers association for its election of its governing board and its appointments, provided, however, that the board of the alhambra police officers association may set special election rules for trustees.”

“The trust agreement reserves limited authority for the plan sponsor to make decisions regarding changes to the composition of the board of trustees and to receive notice or approve of mergers, terminations and trust agreement amendments.”

“The trust has no separate committees.”

“The chairperson of board of trustees reviews the form 990 for completeness and accuracy and compares the amounts to the third party administrator's internal report for consistency before signing and filing with the irs.”

“The trustees are required to discharge their duties and administer the trust in such a manner as to comply with erisa and applicable internal revenue code sections. The trust's conflict of interest policy requires all trustees sign an acceptence and disclosure form where the trustee agrees to abide by the legal requirements and regulations, to disclose any relationship or ownership that may create a conflict of interest, and to inform the board when a possible conflict of interest arises prior to any discussion or voting on any transaction or contract related to the possible conflict. The trustees are required to review erisa and applicable statues at least annually during their board meeting.”

“The trust's documents retention and destruction policy is covered in article vi, section 11 of the trust agreement.”

“No compensation is paid to any trustees or officers by the trust for service on the board of trustees. The trust has no employees.”

“The trust's governing documents, financial statements, form 990 and form 5500 are available to participants upon request.”

“The trust requests exemption from any applicable requirement to disclose form w-2 compensation information from related organizations for the trustees for the following reasons: 1. The members of the board of trustees serve on a volunteer basis as trust fiduciaries. Except for reimbursing lost vacation time used to attend the trust's education seminar, they do not receive any compensation from the tax-exempt organization (a veba), any sponsoring organization, or any contributing employer for their services on the trust's board of trustees. In fact, the trustees pay dues to the sponsoring organization, the alhambra police officers association. 2. The irs instructions provides that a contributing employer to a veba is a related organization. Here, the city of alhambra is a contributing employer to the trust, which is organized as a veba. However, the trustees are police officers employed by the city of alhambra, and the city of alhambra only pays the trustees in connection with their duties as public safety officers, not for their duties as trustees. The general salary schedule for police officers of the city of alhambra is a matter of public record, depending upon their job and rank classifications. 3. Most importantly, the form 990 seeks the disclosure of highly sensitive personal information in a public record. It is likely that requiring the disclosure of compensation will dissuade police officers from volunteering to serve on the board. The trust would then have to spend trust assets to hire a professional trustee. Please contact the trust office if you would like further information, and/or would like to discuss this further. The trustees want to be cooperative with the irs, but requesting this compensation information is problematic for the reasons stated above.”