Longview parks director to leave for consulting position

Longview News-Journal
By Yoleyne Romero yromero@news-journal.com
Jan 26, 2023 
Updated Jan 27, 2023

Longview Parks and Recreation Director Scott Caron is set leave the city at the end of February for a job in the private sector.

At Thursday’s City Council meeting, City Manager Rolin McPhee announced Caron’s departure, adding that he will be a fulltime recreation consultant.

“He’s been consulting on the side since 2017, and a really interesting opportunity arose for him,” McPhee said. He added that the person who offered Caron his first internship while in college is retiring from a company he owns.

“Scott is actually getting to replace his mentor,” McPhee said.

Caron became parks director in 2015 and has overseen numerous additions, bond projects and new events and activities across the department.

McPhee said Caron’s efforts have helped increase sports tourism and revitalize city parks in recent years.

“No doubt, Scott, we’ll really be missing you, but we thank you for your service, and you’ve been a huge asset to bring us forward from where you started to where we are today,” Mayor Andy Mack said. “We’ll always be grateful for you. So thank you so much, and best of luck to you, and we know you’ll do great.”

McPhee said Caron will remain in Longview with his family.

Also during Thursday’s council meeting, Lindsey Redman of actuary Foster & Foster gave a presentation on the status of the Longview Firemen’s Relief and Retirement Fund.

In May, city voters approved a $45.6 million bond measure to address unfunded liabilities in the Longview Firefighters’ Relief and Retirement Fund. According to Redman, funds were deposited two months later.

Redman said the most important issues were the funded status and unfunded liabilities. To facilitate that, she said city contribution rates have been increased, benefits have decreased and a two-tier structure has been implemented.

She said that had action not been taken, the plan was projected to run out of money within 30 years. Additionally, with a significant decline in the stock market through this past June, the timing of the deposited funds are set to have a better than expected outcome than if they were deposited and invested at the beginning of the year, she said.

A major point of Redman’s presentation was that valuation rates from December would not be made available until around July. Therefore, the projections and impact of the bond measure and investments won’t be known until that report is ready, she said.

After the city decreased its contributions to the pension fund, the total contribution rate is estimated to be 27% to 29% of annual payroll, Redman said. The normal cost, or the cost of accruing benefits throughout the year, is set to decrease as Tier 1 members retire and are replaced with Tier 2 members, she said.

Redman also said the net cash flow is negative, which means that the contributions coming into the fund don’t cover the annual benefit payments coming out of it..

District 1 Councilman Tem Carpenter asked how the city could be operating at a negative net cash flow despite investing $45.6 million from the bond measure. Redman explained that the net cash flow was just the percentage of payroll coming in.

”When I say the net cash flow is negative, it’s not taking into account any investment returns. It’s not taking into account the pension obligation bond value,” she said. “it’s just taking into account strictly what is being put into the fund through the flat contribution rate and also ... any benefit payments that are being paid out.”

Carpenter then asked when the city would know what all of the investments were actually doing, and Redman and other council members responded it wouldn’t be until July when the finalized asset statements were done.

District 4 Councilwoman Kristen Ishihara said the actuary does reports annually, so investments are reviewed monthly and reported quarterly and that Kolby Beckham, chairman of the pension board, could answer any questions related to investment return.

District 6 Councilman Steve Pirtle asked specifically how much the city was losing/gaining per month, and Redman said she would have to go back and check the figures.

Ishihara responded that the better option for those types of questions is the investment adviser.

”The actuary is projections and looking at the future and telling us if the bond is solvent, so if we wanna have the investment person ...” Ishihara said before being cut off by Pirtle, who said they were looking at what is happening now.

She continued that the actuary is not the right person to ask and suggested Pirtle attend one of the monthly pension board meetings.

Pirtle said he believed the investment adviser should come to a council meeting to answer his questions.