Fund legal counsel Christopher Timmons told the Retirement Fund board last Friday about the “productive meeting” with Gary Sword of Express Electronics Ltd.
Timmons said the Fund reviewed the contract with Express Electronics Ltd. and detailed report on the deficiencies of the software and conveyed these to Sword last Thursday.
“We presented the report showing all the deficiencies….He [Sword] acknowledged that work needs to be done,” Timmons said.
He communicated to the board that Sword committed “to take the report back to his programmers, review it and come back with an implementation plan within 10 days that will have dates certain for taking the corrective actions to have an automated pension system that works in accordance with our RFP.”
“We told him we will hold off on any action pending his response within 10 days and we will bring that response to the board,” Timmons told the trustees.
The Variety earlier reported that the Fund had been expecting a report from R&R Associates regarding the pension system software. R&R Associates was earlier requested by the board to provide a detailed analysis and time frame to fix the pension system software’s problems.
The board’s decision on the software hinged on this analysis of the pension software that was supposed to be completed in 2008 and which was reported to have been paid 90 percent of the full amount.
The pension software contract price was reported to be close to $450,000.
Variety inquired with Express Electronics but failed to get a response yesterday.
PSS vacating building
In other news, the Public School System has indicated its intent to vacate the second and third floors of the Retirement Fund building first week of August.
Fund legal counsel Christopher Timmons reported to the board PSS made known its intent to leave and was requesting to be allowed to stay through August at the contract rate of $1.33 per square foot.
Timmons said PSS asked the Fund to consent to their remaining through the first week of August at the original $1.33 rate rather than the holdover rate of $1.66 per square foot.
The Fund board decided last Friday to charge PSS the holdover rate of $1.66 per square foot; however, PSS will get a rebate of 30 cents per square foot “upon satisfaction of expenses incurred.”
PSS lease expired on April 30 this year. Timmons said, “We allowed them a couple of months to hold over with our consent at the current rate.”
In his report to the trustees, Timmons said PSS was behind $300,000 in rent and utilities “and have since brought those amounts up to date at the end of May.”
He said PSS requested a new lease at a much lesser rate before they brought the payments current. “We responded with a proposal at the rate they requested but requiring them to first come current and to pay a deposit — three months rent — and either separate out utilities with separate metering or to pay a deposit on the utilities.”
Timmons told the trustees that the Fund had not received a response from PSS until they saw an RFP for office space for PSS in the newspaper.
“Pursuant to the board’s instruction, we responded to their RFP with the same proposal we have given them in the past and we also advertised our space as being available,” Timmons said.
He said PSS countered the Fund’s proposal in response to their invitation for bids.
He also told the trustees that the agency is moving to a PSS-owned property.
Timmons also acknowledged that the PSS made a good faith effort to settle its $300,000 arrears with the Fund.
The school system’s monthly rent amounts to $20,000 while utilities cost $12,000 a month.
In an earlier interview, Chairman Sixto K. Igisomar confirmed to Variety that PSS made a “substantial” payment to the Fund on June 24.
