Puyallup Fire Pension Board Meeting – September 11, 2025
Puyallup Fire Pension Board Meeting – September 11, 2025
The Fire Pension Board met in person at Puyallup City Hall on Thursday, September 11, 2025, at 11:00 AM. Don Pelson called the meeting to order and led a moment of silence in remembrance of the September 11, 2001 attacks, honoring the about 2,900 people who died that morning. The board approved routine items, reviewed the fire pension financial report and calculation, discussed pensioner verification efforts, and set the next meeting date.
Consent Calendar
- The agenda was approved as presented by voice vote.
- The minutes of the June 12, 2025 meeting were approved by voice vote.
Discussion Items
- Fire Pension Financial Report as of August 31, 2025: The finance director reported the fund began with just over $1 million, received a state fire insurance premium tax payment of just over $93,000—more than in prior years—and is projected to have just under $1 million remaining after pension payments by the end of the year. The board approved the report by voice vote.
- Fire Pension Calculation as of July 1, 2025: The finance director explained that Mr. Trout’s pension is the only benefit that changed, because it is based on CPI rather than Central Pierce Fire salary schedules. His adjusted benefit was reported as 429.88. During review, board member Mark noted the backup documentation was missing the battalion chief salary schedule; the finance director acknowledged the omission and said it would be added to the backup going forward. The board approved the calculation by voice vote.
- Other Business: The board discussed an inquiry from Floyd Butler’s wife about potential survivor benefits. The finance director said she had not heard from Mr. Butler, and the board noted remarriage eligibility rules, including a one-year application window, and that she should contact the finance director. The board also discussed sending letters to pension recipients to verify they are still alive; this verification is scheduled for October. Two recipients are out of state, in California and Missouri, and contact has been lost with Dean Farmer’s widow.
Key Outcomes
- The agenda, June 12, 2025 minutes, August 31, 2025 financial report, and July 1, 2025 pension calculation were all approved by voice vote.
- The finance director will correct the pension calculation backup to include the battalion chief salary schedule.
- Pension recipient verification letters are planned for October; the finance director will coordinate with Dana and Dan on the effort.
- The next meeting is scheduled for December 11, 2025, and the meeting was adjourned.
Meeting Transcript
Start with uh we'll call this meeting to the order to order the fire pension board, and that is for Thursday, September 11, 2025. First by I acknowledge this this day is a very somber day in memorial of 9-11, 2001 to your colleagues, uh your uh brethren and uh the loss that they experience in this country experience at that time. Yeah, I thought I was gonna ask if we could take a moment of silence and members of all memory bulls lost their lives of like 2900 people with that morning. I I think that's very appropriate. Let's do that. I apologize for being elected. Thank you. I appreciate it. Good morning. Yeah, my wife was reminding me this morning. She said, Do you realize what this household was like about 24 minutes goal? And I stopped and I thought for them. I said, Yeah, I remember the phones would ring in my radio over that I turned on when I came down to get coffee. Really amazing because I watched walked over, I got a cup of coffee, and she would always have a news on watching it. And I looked and I said, what movie are you watching? She says, I'm not watching a movie, that's the news. I said, I just saw a plane fly into a building. She says, that just happened about that time. Everything lit up. But we had a plane, we had a plane in the air going back there within a couple hours with full passports and rescue people. Wow. Yeah, there's very few times in a person's life where they remember, you know, where they were uh who was around them and the emotions that they were feeling at a particular time. And on that day, I can tell you exactly where I was, exactly what I did. It's like slow motion. Um and that was just um surreal, like you say, something that you would never imagine. So it was very well remembered. Um so hey, welcome here. Good to see you. Um, my name Don Pelson, by the way. Don't ask one pleasure. Thank you for being here, man. Um so let's move on to number two on the agenda. Approval of the agenda. Do we have approval of the agenda as presented? I move that we approve it. I'll second that. In favor, and it keeps saying aye. Aye. Okay, let's move on to number three consideration of the minutes. Approval of the June 12, 2025 um minutes. Do I have approval? I'll make a motion to approve of my bread, and I don't see any. Move and second, those in favor, anything that say aye. Okay, let's move on to number four financial update. Umard 4A, please. Yes. Um, on page four of your packet is the uh fire pension um financial report as of August 31st this year. Um it's it's a similar story to what it's been. We started out with just a little over a million dollars. Um, we did receive our fire insurance premium tax from the state, as we have been for several years, and it was 90 just over 93,000, which is more than what we've gotten in prior years.
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