Policy And Resources Committee - 22/06/2015

At a MEETING of the POLICY AND RESOURCES COMMITTEE held at Dundee on 22nd June, 2015.

 

Present:-

 

Lord Provost Bob DUNCAN

 

Depute Lord Provost Christina ROBERTS

 

BAILIES

 

Willie SAWERS

Helen WRIGHT

Ian BORTHWICK

 

Derek J SCOTT

 

 

COUNCILLORS

 

Ken GUILD

Stewart HUNTER

Lesley BRENNAN

John ALEXANDER

Ken LYNN

Georgia CRUICKSHANK

Jimmy BLACK

Vari McDONALD

Tom FERGUSON

David BOWES

Craig MELVILLE

Brian GORDON

Bill CAMPBELL

Gregor MURRAY

Richard McCREADY

Kevin CORDELL

Kevin KEENAN

Norma McGOVERN

Will DAWSON

Mohammed ASIF

Fraser MACPHERSON

 

Laurie BIDWELL

 

 

Councillor Ken GUILD, Convener, in the Chair.

 

The minute of meeting of this Committee of 8th June, 2015 was held as read.

 

Unless marked thus * all items stand delegated.

 

I DECLARATIONS OF INTEREST

 

Councillor McDonald declared a non-financial interest in Article IV by virtue of being the Council's representative on the Dundee Heritage Trust.

 

Lord Provost Duncan, Councillors Hunter, Gordon and McCready declared a non-financial interest in Articles IV and VI by virtue of being Council representatives on Leisure and Culture Dundee.

 

Councillor Melville declared a non-financial interest in Article IV by virtue of his involvement with the Transport Museum.

 

II MINUTE - PENSION SUB-COMMITTEE AND PENSION BOARD

 

The minute of meeting of the joint meeting of the Pension Sub-Committee and the Pension Board of 1st June, 2015, a copy of which is appended hereto, was submitted for information and record purposes.

 

III ANNUAL TREASURY MANAGEMENT ACTIVITY REPORT 2014/2015

 

On a reference to Article XVIII of the minute of meeting of this Committee of 22nd April, 2013, there was submitted Report No 212-2015 by the Director of Corporate Services reviewing the Treasury Management activities for the period 1st April, 2014 to 31st March, 2015.

 

The Committee:-

 

(i) noted the information contained therein and agreed the limits set out in Appendix 1 of the report; and

 

(ii) approved the deposit limit revision of Money Market Funds in line with Bank Term Deposits to a maximum of 12m (AAA rated).

IV COMMON GOOD FUND

 

There was submitted Report No 249-2015 by the Director of Corporate Services providing details of the Council's Common Good Fund Revenue Budget for 2015/2016.

 

The Committee:-

 

(i) approved the Common Good Fund 2015/2016 Revenue Budget as detailed in Appendix A of the report; and

 

(ii) approved the proposals for use of funds shown in Appendix B of the report.

 

V REPLACEMENT CONTACT AND CASE MANAGEMENT SYSTEM

 

There was submitted Report No 247-2015 by the Director of Corporate Services regarding the purchase and supply of a Contact and Case Management solution to fully replace the Social Work "K2/Event Recording" system and many elements of the Education "Support for Pupils" system.

 

The Committee:-

 

(i) approved the outcome of the Tender Evaluation to procure a Contact and Case Management System (for Social Work and Education Services);

 

(ii) approved the expenditure described in paragraph 3 of the report for the whole cost expenditure over five years; and

 

(iii) approved the purchase, supply and services of Servelec Corelogic as the best value choice for their Mosaic system and supplier hosted solution.

 

VI 3G PITCH - CRAIGIE HIGH SCHOOL

 

There was submitted Report No 240-2015 by the Chief Executive relative to the development of a 3G pitch in the grounds of Craigie High School.

 

The Committee:-

 

(i) agreed to make a contribution of 95,000 towards the development of a 3G pitch in the grounds of Craigie High School; and

 

(ii) remitted to the Director of City Development to arrange a lease to Craigie Community Sports Hub for the land required.

 

VII WORKPLACE CHAPLAINCY SCOTLAND - CONTRIBUTION

 

There was submitted Agenda Note AN153-2015 intimating that the Chief Executive had received a request from Workplace Chaplaincy Scotland asking the Council to consider making a contribution to the charity which supported the workplace chaplain.

 

The Committee agreed that a contribution of 1,000 be made.

 

VIII LOCAL GOVERNMENT PENSION SCHEME 2015 - EMPLOYING AUTHORITY DISCRETIONS

 

After considering Report No 248-2015 by the Director of Corporate Services outlining the discretions available to Dundee City Council, as a local government employing authority, following changes in the Pension Scheme regulations, the Committee approved the recommendations in Appendix A of the report in respect of discretions to be applied for Dundee City Council as employing authority.

 

 

Ken GUILD, Convener.

APPENDIX

 

At a JOINT MEETING of the PENSION SUB-COMMITTEE OF THE POLICY AND RESOURCES COMMITTEE AND THE PENSION BOARD held at Dundee on 1st June, 2015.

 

Present:-

 

PENSION SUB-COMMITTEE

 

Bailie Willie SAWERS

 

COUNCILLORS

 

Jimmy BLACK

Brian GORDON

Gregor MURRAY

 

Kevin KEENAN

 

 

PENSION BOARD

 

Arthur NICOLL

Claire SHEPHERD

Kenny DICK

John KELLAS

George RAMSAY

Nicola LESSELLS

 

Bailie Willie SAWERS, Convener, in the Chair.

 

I DECLARATION OF INTEREST

 

There were no declarations of interest.

 

II TAYSIDE PENSION FUNDS RISK REGISTER

 

There was submitted Report No 226-2015 by the Director of Corporate Services updating the Risk Register for the Tayside Pension Funds.

 

The Sub-Committee and Board approved the updated Risk Register for the Tayside Pension Fund and Tayside Transport Pension Fund.

 

III REVIEW OF ENVIRONMENTAL, SOCIAL AND CORPORATE GOVERNANCE POLICY

 

There was submitted Report No 222-2015 by the Director of Corporate Services whereby reference was made to Article IV of the minute of meeting of the Pension Sub-Committee of the Policy and Resources Committee of 17th November, 2008, reviewing the Fund's current policy on Socially Responsible Investing and recommending an addendum to the policy with regards to the Funds investment in tobacco companies.

 

The Sub-Committee and Board approved the addendum to the policy as outlined in Appendix 1.

 

The Sub-Committee and Board resolved under Section 50(A)(4) of the Local Government (Scotland) Act 1973 that the press and public be excluded from the meeting for the undernoted items of business on the grounds that they involve the likely disclosure of exempt information as defined in paragraphs 4, 6 and 11 of Part I of Schedule 7A of the Act.

 

IV TAYSIDE PENSION FUNDS

 

(a) PERFORMANCE SUMMARIES

 

There was submitted Report No 221-2015 by the Director of Corporate Services relating to Performance Summaries for the quarter, 1, 3, 5 and 10 year time periods to 31st March, 2015 reviewing the investment performance of the Main Funds five Fund Managers (including Property) and the Financing Fund for the period to 31st March, 2015. It also considered the performance of the Transport Fund which invests with three of these managers.

The report compared investment performance of the Funds with the Funds specific benchmarks which consisted of various stock and security market indices.

 

The Sub-Committee and Board noted the information contained therein with regard to the performance of the Tayside Superannuation Fund and Tayside Transport Superannuation Fund and their Fund Managers.

 

(b) SUMMARIES OF INVESTMENTS AND TRANSACTIONS

 

There was submitted Report No 199-2015 by the Director of Corporate Services summarising investments and transactions during the period 1st January to 31st March, 2015 reviewing the investment activities of the Main Funds seven Fund Managers for the quarter to 31st March, 2015. The Transport Fund shared three of these managers and their transactions were included.

 

The report summarised the transactions of each Fund Manager and showed the market values of the Main and Transport Fund.

 

The Sub-Committee and Board noted the information contained therein with regard to the activities of the Tayside Pension Fund and Tayside Transport Pension Fund and their Fund Managers.

 

(c) QUARTERLY FUNDING REPORT

 

There was submitted Report No 225-2015 by the Director of Corporate Services which considered a report reviewing the current funding level of the Funds as assessed by the Fund Actuary.

 

The Sub-Committee and Board noted the report by Barnett Waddingham, the Fund Actuary, further noting that this report was the first quarterly report available since finalising the triennial valuation of 31st March, 2014.

 

V SOCIALLY RESPONSIBLE INVESTMENT SIX MONTHLY REPORT

 

There was submitted Report No 223-2015 by the Director of Corporate Services, whereby reference was made to Article IV of the minute of meeting of the Pension Sub-Committee of the Policy and Resources Committee of 17th November, 2008, reviewing the progress by the Fund Managers regarding the positive engagement policy on Environmental, Social and Corporate Governance.

 

The Sub-Committee and Board noted the information contained within the report with regard to the activities of the Fund Managers during the six month period ended 31st March, 2015.

 

VI TAYSIDE TRANSPORT PENSION FUNDS ACTUARIAL VALUATION AT 31ST MARCH, 2015

 

There was submitted Report No 224-2015 by the Director of Corporate Services which considered a report by the Fund Actuary and updating the Committee on the Actuarial Valuation of the Tayside Transport Pension Fund at 31st March, 2014.

 

The Sub-Committee and Board noted the information contained within the report.

 

VII PRESENTATION

 

Geoff Day, Tony Docherty and Graeme Rutter of Schroders Real Estate Capital Partners gave a short presentation.

 

Geoff Day briefed members on changes to Schroders Real Estate Capital Partners highlighting the depth of experience that the team dedicated to the Fund had, and outlining forecast for future property markets.

 

Graeme Rutter gave an overview of the mandate and portfolio objectives, and it was noted that the UK Portfolio was continuing to out-perform the benchmark and that returns remained stable as sentiment improved within regional markets.

Thereafter, Tony Doherty briefed members on investment within the affordable housing market and key considerations which would need to be investigated prior to investing in this market, in particular the ability to match the investment objective currently set for the fund real estate portfolio.

 

After they had answered questions from members, the Convener thanked Geoff, Graeme and Tony for their interesting and informative presentation.

 

 

 

 

Willie SAWERS, Convener.