Ocala General Employees Pension Board Selects Resource Centers for Plan Administration

On June 29, 2026, at 2:00 PM, the Ocala General Employees Pension Board met to interview three third-party plan administration firms and select an administrator for the city's general employees pension plan. Trustees present in the room were Anthony Ortiz, Lynn Cole, Barney Hirsch, and Charlie Varney; Trustee Hope participated remotely after the board unanimously approved remote participation due to exigent circumstances. The agenda and minutes were not provided with the source transcript. After hearing presentations from Foster & Foster, HYN Consulting, and Resource Centers, the board voted unanimously to direct staff to negotiate and execute a contract with Resource Centers.

Vendor Presentations

Foster & Foster

• Presenters Farrell Jenny and Candace Moss described Foster & Foster's plan administration division as established in 2013, with 22 staff members dedicated solely to third-party administration, over 115 Florida plans, and no terminations as an administrator in more than 14 years.
• They proposed a $7,916 monthly retainer that includes quarterly board meetings, member portal maintenance, and no processing or copy fees; the fee is guaranteed for three years, with CPI increases averaging about 2% not starting until October 2027. A 10% discount would apply if other city pension boards also hire the firm, and the presenters said the discount would be honored if two boards rather than all three selected them.
• The proposal included quarterly financial statements prepared by their asset team at $30,000 per statement.
• They stated the firm does not cut pension checks as a policy and would work through the custodian, currently Principal.

HYN Consulting

• Caleb Henson and Frank Mega described HYN as a small boutique firm with about 30 plans, emphasizing direct member relationships rather than a 1-800 call center.
• They quoted a $4,400 flat rate for four dedicated board meetings, with a built-in 4% cost increase or retainer described as a way to avoid frequent fee renegotiations. Special projects outside regular meetings would require advance board approval and could incur additional costs or travel.
• They said benefit checks would be processed by the custodian, with HYN authorizing payments and collecting member data; implementation typically takes about a month.

Resource Centers

• Scott Bauer, with more than 30 years in plan administration, presented Resource Centers as a small, Florida-based, employee-owned firm focused exclusively on plan administration.
• He highlighted the ability to pay benefits directly through the board's existing local accounts as an option, which he said could provide continuity and help avoid a separate benefit-payment transition. He said the firm currently processes about 4,500 recurring benefit payments per month and has a roughly 3-to-1 support-to-front-line staffing ratio.
• The monthly fee for benefit payment and invoice processing is $1,525. Resource Centers could also offer local member-facing support through Mike Summer under a separate contract, but the board would not be required to use him.
• Bauer acknowledged losing some clients around 2018-2019 during a realignment, including personnel-related losses after 15-18 years without a client loss.

Discussion & Deliberation

• Trustees compared the three proposals closely, focusing on cost, check processing, and member service. They noted the city currently pays benefits in-house and wants to move that work, and that an administrator must still coordinate changes even when a custodian mails the checks.
• Bonnie, the board's consultant, reached out to Carl Hutchinson at Principal and reported a Principal quote of $1.75 per check for benefit payments; trustees calculated Resource Centers' bundled fee at about $1.83 per check, or $1,525 per month divided by 835 payments.
• Trustees noted roughly 835 monthly benefit payments, about 176 vested deferred members, and about 76 active members remaining.
• Some trustees expressed concern that HYN was small and less organized, and that Foster & Foster was almost double the cost of other proposals and would still require separate actuary and contract administration fees. Others liked the one-stop approach of Resource Centers, which bundles administration, member support, and payment issuance.
• A trustee raised concern that local contractor Mike Summer sometimes appeared to suggest benefit choices rather than only explaining options; any future contract would need to limit his role to information and education. Discussion of a separate Mike Summer contract was deferred to the next quarterly meeting.

Key Outcomes

• Motion to direct Bonnie to negotiate and execute a contract with Resource Centers for administration of the general employees pension plan passed unanimously.
• The board agreed not to rush the transition for July; implementation will target August 2026.
• Resource Centers must provide the financial and actuarial data needed for the city's ACFAR reporting; a trustee requested a hard date, and Bonnie agreed to provide one the same day, with delivery needed by mid-December.
• The potential separate local-support contract with Mike Summer was deferred to the next quarterly board meeting to avoid overlapping with Resource Centers' duties.