Municipal Electric Association of Vermont



MEETING MINUTES: 11/02/20Attendance: Doug Conly, Chris Hunter, Sarah Whittemore, Sue Mills, Heather Bollman, Justin Smith, and Bill Humphrey.Meeting called to order at 6:41 pm.Approval of Meeting Agenda: Motion for approval by Doug, seconded by Chris, passed 5-0.Approval of Prior Meeting Minutes: Motion for approval by Chris, seconded by Sarah, passed 5-0.Disconnect Moratorium End or Not: The Disconnect Moratorium ended on October 15, 2020. On the same day, the PUC issued a COVID-19 Emergency Disconnect Rule requiring additional consumer protection language in the Disconnect Notice and approval of the PUC's revised notice. Our revised Disconnect Notice was filed on October 16, 2020, approval by the PUC was received on October 23, 2020. New noticed must be mailed to customers two weeks before disconnects can begin, and waiting a week for approval extended the moratorium an extra three weeks. Disconnects will start in mid-November; however, winter disconnect rules that are temperature sensitive rules also begin in November. Retirement Fund and a Disallowable Distribution Issue: Other than LED, the three companies involved with the Money Purchase Plan are; Touchstone Investment (Touchstone) is the plan custodian, holding monies in participants' accounts, is not responsible for document compliance errors, and is not familiar with the Plan's specific terms. Concept Partners Alliance (Concept) is the intermediary between LED and Touchstone, any communication desired with Touchstone will be sent to Concept, who contacts Touchstone on your behalf. Lastly, Newport Retirement Service (Newport) is the 3rd party administrator of the Plan and is the best source for compliance-related issues. Newport should be consulted before any transaction. In January 2019, through Concept Partners, an employee withdrew the balance of their account and rolled into another retirement plan with a different company. In June of 2019, Newport was made aware of the distribution (after the fact). In July 2019, Newport emailed the employee, informing them a correction was needed by returning the money to the account. In July 2020, Newport again emailed the employee requesting the correction be made. On October 19, 2020, Newport contacted me via email, explaining details of the impermissible withdrawal and stated that if the employee did not comply, they must be amend their 2019 tasx return and pay applicable tax and penalties on the withdrawal monies. Since October 19th, many emails have been exchanged with Newport attempting to determine how this situation happened; why was Newport not contacted through this process; and if any solution other than the full return of monies would remedy the problem. To date, Newport has been unwavering on their position. Returning the monies to the fund will be a hardship for the employee. The outcome is undetermined.Adjournment: by consensus at 6:54 pm. Respectfully Submitted,Bill HumphreyGeneral Manager ................
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