Flexible Compensation Benefits Committee

Thursday, June 26, 2003

3:00 pm

103B Seretean Wellness Center

Members Present:  Blackburn, Cooper, Fox, Lehenbauer, Payne, Poole, Raff, Reed, Shull, and Stromberg

Members Absent:  Harrison, Hare, Morris,   

Ex Officio, Ad Hoc Members and Guest:  Matoy, Oehrtman

Terry Lehenbauer called the meeting to order.

The agenda was approved

The motion was made by Fox and seconded by Cooper to approve the minutes of the March 27 meeting as corrected and approved the minutes of the April 10 and April 24 meetings as written.  Passed.

Review of membership.  Since this meeting marks the beginning of membership terms and there are new members, Lehenbauer asked the members to introduce themselves.  Peter Shull will replace Sally Henderson and Lionel Raff will serve the remainder of John Wilguess’ term.  Greg Fox was reappointed as staff representative.  Louisa Payne’s seat is in the process of being filled by Staff Advisory Council.

Lehenbauer briefly reviewed the committee’s charge from the university and the structure of the taskforces.  There was also a clarification of the chain of responsibility.  Although the committee usually asks for a campus review of any recommendation, it reports to the Vice President of Administration and Finance and Controller (Dr. Bosserman) and not to either Faculty Council or Staff Advisory Council.  It is considered the responsibility of the senior staff and faculty representative (the third year member) to act as liaison to their respective council.

Lehenbauer gave a brief overview of the progress made by the Retirement Taskforce.  President Schmidly asked the Board of Regents to approve changing the OSU retirement program from the 7/11 formula to a flat 11%.  In addition, present employees who were under the pre-1993 retirement program will be given the option to return to that plan. Recent legislative changes to OTRS include lowering the mandatory age for participation from 55 to 45, lowering the vesting period from 10 years to 5 years, and allowing interest to be paid on withdrawn contributions during the first seven years.

Still on the legislative table for next year is making membership in OTRS optional and fixing the inequities in the benefit formulas.

Oehrtman stated that retirees are concerned about whether the formula fixes will be retroactive.  Matoy stated that the present sample bill calls for a recalculation of retirees after 1993.  

Legal Counsel is still reviewing the option for the pre-1993 plan.  If approved, the option period will probably be in the fall of 2003.  Human Resources plans to set up an interactive calculation program to be used by employees.  The employee would key in information to determine which scenario would be to their advantage.  People who opt for it will be retro-ed back to July 2003.  HR is asking Legal Counsel about the possibility of an annual option to return to the current OSU retirement plan.

Maternity/Family Leave Recommendation.  Lehenbauer stated that he was concerned about possible delays in the passage of this recommendation if it remained part of the Cafeteria/Leave Taskforce’s first recommendation (Phase II).  He will write a letter to Dr. Bosserman recommending passage by the administration.

Reed moved that, since Phase I of the taskforce’s recommendation had been reviewed by both Staff Advisory Council and Faculty Council, it be sent forward to administration with comments from councils. Fox seconded. Discussion followed.  Passed.

Changes to the sick leave cap.  Matoy recommended that the issue be turned back to administration for a workable plan.  There is a good possibility of future long-term disability premium rate hikes.  The current plan does not always promote good health or productivity.

Vendor choice.  Matoy stated that added vendor choice for retirement plans should be no problem. The committee simply needs to submit a recommendation.  One potential roadblock would be that at least presently, the State of Oklahoma is unable to submit contributions electronically (something required by most retirement plans.)  Matoy will invite a representative from TIAA/CREF at the next meeting.

The new officers will be Sandy Cooper as Vice Chair/Chair Elect and Billie Blackburn as Secretary.

Panhandle State has recently adopted a shared leave plan that was approved by the Board of Regents.  Lehenbauer will forward the details to the members.

Matoy offered to share a Big 12 survey on shared leave.

Next meeting date will be July 21, 2003 at 3:00 pm in the Wellness Center Conference Room.

Meeting adjourned.