Chairman, vice chairman named for pension fund task force

Springfield Mayor Jim O'Neal on Wednesday named a chairman and vice chairman to lead the Police and Fire Pension Fund citizen's task force.

The group is charged with coming up with a solution to the fund's $190 million shortage.

Jerry Fenstermaker - who is not one of the 15 members initially named to the task force - is chairman. He will serve as a nonvoting member and will be responsible for facilitating the group's work, according to a city news release. Fenstermaker is CEO of Freedom Financial Group and has 30 years of financial management experience.

Jerry Harmison is vice chairman and a voting member of the task force. He is an attorney with Harmison & Pearman specializing in compensation and public school law; his legal work includes pension-benefit cases, according to the release.

The other members of the task force are: Mary Beth Daniels, Kenneth Homan, James Jeffries, Robert L. Jones, Peggy Kubicek, Charles Munsey, Craig Wagoner, Lloyd Young, Lorenzo Baldwin, Gordon Elliott, Carl Herd, Bob Horton, Danny Hyde and David Trippe.

The task force likely will hold its first meeting early next week, O'Neal said, and he expects they will meet twice weekly for the first few weeks. O'Neal's goal is for the group to present one or two proposals to City Council by July 31, according to the release.