Posted by Jim on September 20, 2019
| Deferred Compensation Plan Recordkeeping Transition and Timetable
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All 457 Plan Participants will be receiving notifications from OLR/DCP concerning upcoming improvements and changes regarding the new recordkeeper, please be sure to keep this information. The Plan will be transitioning from FASCore to Voya Financial. Members will be receiving new PIN numbers in November and instructions on how to set up a username and password. Be aware that from November 5 through November 11, while the transition takes place, members’ accounts will be inquiry only. Note that beginning November 8, the previous recordkeeping system will reflect a $0 balance. This is only to indicate that FASCore is no longer the recordkeeper. By November 12, you will be able to confirm your balance with Voya once you have established access to your accounts. Additional information will be available at www.nyc.gov/deferredcomp. A detailed description of changes and dates to be aware of is below.
The Plan’s recordkeeper maintains the individual participant balances and issues quarterly statements. Through the telephone or the Plan’s website, participants can access their accounts to obtain information and make changes. As Account Access goes directly to the recordkeeper’s website, the change will mean a new look and feel for Plan participants when they access their accounts online. Participants will also be issued new Personal Identification Numbers (PINS) in order to access their accounts through the new recordkeeper.
An exciting new recordkeeping feature that is expected to be available at the end of the year is a mobile app. The mobile app, which participants will be able to download from their preferred app store, will allow participants to access their accounts and make changes through their smartphones and tablets.
Communications Campaign
Beginning in September 2019, the Plan is conducting an extensive communications campaign detailing the transition timeline to ensure that participants have all the information they need. There will be notices on the Plan’s website, http://nyc.gov/deferredcomp, home mailings, an introductory video available on the Plan’s website, and finally a reminder email blast.
The October and November 2019 Calendar
October 18th – Any form received by the Plan’s office after that date will be held and processed after the transition is completed in November.
November 5th – After 4:00 p.m. on that day, participant account access will be restricted to inquiry only and participants will not be able to make any changes to their accounts through November 11th. During this transition period, November 5th through the 11th, the Client Service Center at 22 Cortlandt Street, 18th floor, will be closed and no forms will be accepted, including distribution forms and hardship applications.
Participants will be reminded that it is important for them to review and consider their current investments BEFORE the transition period begins on November 5th, because although fund balances will remain invested at all times during the transition, participants will not be able to make changes.
The first week of November – Participants will be receiving a new PIN in the mail along with instructions on how to set up a username and password to access their accounts online with Voya beginning November 12th.
Of special note is that beginning November 8th, if participants view their accounts on the previous recordkeeping system, they will see a $0 balance. The $0 balance only indicates that FASCore is no longer the recordkeeper for their accounts. Beginning on November 12th, they will be able to confirm their balance with Voya once they have established access to their accounts.
November 12th – The Client Service Center will reopen and the new recordkeeping system will be operational.
Quarterly Statements
The date that participants receive their 3rd quarter statements will be slightly different. The statement period will cover July 1st through November 8th and will be mailed to participants at the end of November.
The 4th quarter statements will be issued by Voya and will cover the period November 9th through the end of the year. History of balances and transactions that occurred prior to the transition will be available to participants and they will be able to access their previous account with FASCore for a period of 3 months after the transition is completed.
Participants scheduled to receive a periodic payment in the first or second week of November 2019 will see that monthly installment expedited, so that they will receive them two weeks early – between October 15th and the 31st. They will be sent a Form 1099-R from FASCore for this distribution and all distributions made before November 5, 2019. For all distributions after November 11, 2019, they will receive a Form 1099-R from Voya.
For more information, participants will be able to visit the Plan’s website at http://nyc.gov/deferredcomp and click on “Transition Timeline” to view key dates, newsletters and FAQs. |
Posted by Jim on
HERE’S THE OFFICIAL LINEUP OF BANDS:
MAIN STAGE
12pm -1:30pm – Padraig Allen & McLean Avenue Band
2pm – 3:30pm – The Canny Brothers Band
4pm – 5:30pm – Unforgettable Fire
6pm – 8:pm – Celtic Cross
8:30pm – 10pm – SHILELAGH LAW
TRAD STAGE
12pm – 1:30pm – The Brooklyn Bards
2pm – 3:30pm – The Susan and Gerard Irish Band 2‐3:30
4pm – 5:30pm – JAMESON’S REVENGE
Master of Ceremonies: Mr. Sean Ruane
*Buckley School of Irish Dance
*O’Malley Irish Dance Academy
Posted by Jim on
Michel Barnier has ‘done an incredible job over the last three years’, Coveney says
Barry Roche. Irish Times. Dublin. Friday, September 19, 2019
Ireland is not attempting to make a bi-lateral deal on Brexit with the UK, Tánaiste [Deputy prime Minister] and Minister for Foreign Affairs, Simon Coveney has said.
Mr. Coveney was speaking in Cork after comments by Taoiseach Leo Varadkar at the ploughing championship.
Mr. Varadkar said on Thursday he would meet British Prime Minister Boris Johnson at the UN General Assembly in New York next week to discuss Brexit. He also said “there is now a real willingness to find a deal”.
Asked whether the comments might create an impression Ireland was trying to do a bi-lateral deal with the UK, Mr. Coveney insisted Ireland was happy for the EU to negotiate on Brexit.
“Let’s be crystal clear, we do not have bi-lateral negotiations with the UK – that does not mean we do not have conversations with them – of course we do, we’re close neighbours, we know each other well,” he said.
“Everybody is trying to find a way forward that works for both sides but the negotiations take place in Brussels and are led on our side by Michel Barnier and his task force – he’s done an incredible job over the last three years.”
He said the EU position has also been crystal clear, consistent and “respectful of the British decision to leave”.
“That is the way it will stay and we will continue to work as part of the EU team through Michel Barnier in his negotiations.”
‘Lose/lose’
Mr Coveney said Ireland would do everything it can to try to avoid a no-deal Brexit which would be “a lose/lose” for all sides. But he stressed, again, that the British government has to come up with credible alternatives if it wants a deal.
He said people need to be “honest and clear” and there has to be “a dose of realism” about proceedings.
All the talk about “compromise and mood music” did not address the fact that there is a still a gap between both sides, he said.
“Let’s not pretend we are solving a problem through the impression of effort and dialogue and lots of meetings when actually the proposals coming from the UK side don’t match the needs coming from the EU side – yet,” he said.
“Maybe that gap can be closed and that was what President Juncker was referring to yesterday and it’s what the Taoiseach was talking about in terms of his hopes, but really it’s the British side that needs to move to get us there.”
Asked if he had any concerns about British media suggestions Mr. Juncker was showing signs of movement when he said he had “no emotional attachment “to the ‘Backstop’, Mr Coveney said he had every confidence in the EU team.
“President Juncker has said very clearly and we agree with him – if there are alternatives to the “Backstop” that do the same job, then that’s fine – we aren’t obsessed about the name that is the “Backstop” in a deal.”
Guarantees
Mr. Coveney stressed the EU was insistent that the guarantees which the previous British government gave both verbally and in writing that Brexit would not undermine the Good Friday agreement was honored.
He pointed out that under the “Backstop” guaranteed there would not be a need for border infrastructure and related checks and control that would undermine the all-island economy which has helped re-enforce the peace process.
“We know the “Backstop” does that, and if the British side wants to remove the “Backstop”, they have to come forward with proposals that do the same job and they haven’t been able to do that, and that is the gap that has to be closed.”
Speaking in Cork where he announced a 100 job expansion at Irish owned construction firm MMD Construction, Mr. Coveney was reluctant to comment on calls by UK Brexit secretary, Stephen Barclay on both sides to “take risks”.
“Really he (Mr Barclay) has to defend his own comment – Ireland’s position is clear – we want to be fair in terms of trying to get a deal but I think we also have to ensure the onus and the responsibility is focused on where it needs to be.
“And that is on London, because it is London that is seeking the change that is creating a whole new series of problems to solve so the onus has to be on London to actually solve those with credible proposals.”
He siad it did not matter what the solution was called “ as long as it is consistent with the withdrawal agreement and Ireland gets the guarantees we are not going to face the prospect of Border infrastructure in the future”.
Posted by Jim on
North already diverges from many significant laws enacted across the rest of the UK
Olive Callan. Irish Times. Dublin. Monday, September 16, 2019.
(Oliver Callan is a writer and satirist).
The Northern Ireland-only “Backstop” is on the agenda again after it was abandoned at the behest of the DUP, instead extended UK-wide, leading to the Brexit impasse.
The NI-only option is increasingly the solution to Britain’s crisis, best summed up as a mad effort to turn an emotional referendum result into a technical and diplomatic arrangement.
The House of Commons may find that the only way out is to vote for a Northern-only backstop, if not by October 31st then perhaps by the end of next January. It would prevent a hard border through regulatory alignment, kicking in if no trade deal was agreed between the UK and EU by December 2022.
The DUP and hardline Tories’ beef [problem] with the “Backstop” is based on hysterical claims that if triggered, the North would be separated from the rest of the UK, effectively uniting Ireland under EU rules no longer applicable in Britain.
Their point of principle is rather bankrupt when it’s pointed out that the North already diverges from major laws enacted across the rest of the UK.
The examples most often cited are the North’s moribund bans on abortion and equal marriage, legalized in Britain in 1967 and 2014 respectively. However, the North practices regulatory divergence in many other areas and actively campaigns for more, even while it condemns the backstop’s alleged threat to pluck it cruelly from the bosom rules of the United Kingdom.
Some of them we can see with our own eyes on the roads and in the pubs. Northern Ireland has a different car registration system from the rest of the UK, based on the original 1904 number plate system of letters followed by numbers.
The code has been upgraded several times in Britain, as recently as 2001, but the North has not followed. The North has different bank holidays. By including St Patrick’s day and the Twelfth of July, it enjoys ten public holidays compared to the eight in England and Wales.
The North shares the same railway track gauge as the Republic for obvious reasons, which at 1600mm is wider than the British system of 1435mm. The North also uses a similar standard measure of spirit alcohol as the south, 35ml, compared to the standard single shot of 25ml in England, Scotland and Wales.
The British Gambling Act 2005 doesn’t apply in Northern Ireland. The cut to the top stake in fixed odds gambling terminals, announced in the UK’s 2019 Budget, didn’t apply in the North.
The Defamation Act 2013 isn’t applicable in Northern Ireland either. Nor is it covered by the Equality Act passed in the Houses of Parliament in 2010. This has left the North accused of having the poorest protections against racial discrimination in the UK.
The DUP’s other main objection to the backstop is that regulatory alignment would create a Border down the Irish Sea. The Good Friday Agreement already created such a Border in a number of areas in a spirit of North-South cooperation. For this reason, the promotion of tourism, trade and business development, as well as regulation of languages, lighthouses, waterways and food safety is done on an all-island basis, with a line firmly down the Irish Sea. In the case of Safefood, the staff responsible for the operation across Northern Ireland is based in Cork.
Even before the North-South implementation bodies were created in 1998, Northern Ireland diverged from the rest of Britain in its system of public service. Since partition, it exists as an entirely separate entity from the United Kingdom Civil Service. As a result, the North, with its population of 1.9 million, has 35,000 workers in the civil service, compared to Scotland’s 50,000 working for a population of 5.4 million. If you add in local government and quangos, a third of the entire Northern Ireland workforce is employed in public service.
Far from decrying this vast, and often beneficial, divergence from the rest of the UK, the DUP has lobbied to separate its constituents from even more British rules it doesn’t fancy. It has called for the North to have its own corporation tax rate, cut to 12.5 per cent, to put it on level pegging with the Republic.
It wants to abolish Air Passenger Duty in NI, even though it already charges different airport taxes on long haul flights into Belfast compared to the rest of the UK. And the DUP called for a Northern-only cut to VAT rates on hospitality after the Republic brought in a special nine per cent rate to boost tourism during austerity.
The “Backstop” would not only protect the Border and its daily use by people, goods and services, it would guarantee the all-island institutions set up under the Good Friday Agreement that have been lauded on both sides of the divide. The DUP’s show of fear and angst about regulatory divergence from Britain, and claims that backstop alignment might create a tacit united Ireland, are phoney.
There is already Northern separation from Britain when it comes to car number plates, bank holidays, tourism, languages, gambling, defamation, anti-discrimination laws, spirit measures, railway lines, lighthouses, waterways, the civil service, abortion and equal marriage.
The backstop, if ever needed, would merely continue a trend already celebrated by many in Northern Ireland, including the DUP.
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150TH ANNIVERSARY – LADDER COMPANY 104On Friday, September 20, 2019 at 11:00 AM, the officers and members of Ladder Co. 104 will conduct a ceremony in quarters at 161 South 2nd Street, Brooklyn, NY, to commemorate their 150th Anniversary. All active and retired members and their families are invited to attend. Parking will be limited so please utilize mass transit options if available.
ALBANY WALL MEMORIALThe 22nd Annual New York State Fallen Firefighters Memorial Ceremony will take place on Tuesday, October 8, 2019, at 11:00 AM inside the Empire State Plaza Convention Center in Albany, New York. The ceremony will honor twenty-three firefighters who gave their lives in the line of duty. For a list of names to be added to the Memorial Wall this year, and for more information, visit www.dhses.ny.gov/ofpc/memorial/.
STEUBEN ASSOCIATION SCHOLARSHIP GOLF OUTINGOn Monday, September 30, 2019, the FDNY Steuben Association will be hosting the Annual Scholarship Golf Outing at the Forest Park Golf Course in Glendale, Queens, NY. The participation fee of $150 includes 18 holes of golf, golf cart, free parking, breakfast, refreshments, and dinner at the Moose Lodge, 72-15 Grand Ave., Maspeth. For reservations contact: John Louthan 646-327-2773. All proceeds benefit the FDNY Steuben Scholarship Fund. For further information, visit www.fdnysteuben.org.
RANGERS FIRST RESPONDERS NIGHTThe UFA has partnered with Madison Square Garden once again to provide special access to discounted tickets for the upcoming Rangers First Responders Night on October 29 vs Tampa Bay at 7:30 PM. All attendees will receive a limited edition First Responders Night t-shirt with their ticket purchase. For every ticket purchased through the link https://tinyurl.com/Rangers1stRespondersUFAOct29, $10 will be donated to the UFA Widows & Children’s Fund.