Santa Monica Firefighters Health Benefit

“there are five trustees, three of whom are elected by the members of local 1109 and two of whom are appointed by the board of directors of local 1109. in the event of early termination of appointment, resignation, or death of a trustee, the board of directors of local 1109 shall appoint a successor trustee for the remainder of the term. the appointment of a trustee may be terminated, at any time, by the entity which originally made the appointment, according to such entity's internal rules, procedures, or practices.”

“form 990 was reviewed by the trust administrator and distributed to all trustees prior to filing.”

“trustees are required to notify the trust of any changes in their interests that could give rise to conflicts.”

“the trust document, conflict of interest policy, and financial statements are maintained in the trusts' office and are available upon request.”

“the trust does not have information regarding the compensation received by the employed trustees from the city of santa monica. all but one retired trustee are paid city employees. they are employed by the city of santa monica and receive all their compensation solely connected to their duties as city employees. in their role as trustees, they are fiduciaries and subject to legal prohibitions against self-dealing. they serve on a volunteer basis as trust fiduciaries; they do not receive any additional compensation from the city of santa monica or any other party for their services on the board of trustees. further, the trust has a conflict of interest policy, which requires trustees to disclose any financial arrangements that would create a conflict of interest. section 7(a) of the conflict of interest policy of the trust, effective January, 2009 and as amended thereafter, states the following. 'a trustee shall have a duty to disclose to the board any conflict of interest as soon as it is discovered by the trustee. in particular, the trustee shall disclose a conflict of interest prior to any board or committee decision on the matter related to the conflict of interest. 'the policy also requires disclosure in written form of 'any entities in which you, or a relative, presently have a direct or indirect payment arrangement that may present a conflict of interest with the trust.'note also that the disclosure of compensation requested on the form 990 would cause additional administrative burden by requiring the trust to collect this information annually, since the trustees' compensation as city employees varies from year to year, and from trustee to trustee. finally, and very importantly, the form 990 is public information. it is likely that requiring the disclosure of compensation will dissuade city employees 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.”