bserver O LONGBOAT
You. Your neighbors. Your neighborhood.
NEWS
Longboat Key taxable values to drop for fifth year. PAGE 7A
OUR TOWN
Thursday, MAY 31, 2012
INSIDE
DIVERSIONS
Sculptor Ofra Friedman creates life-size people using wire mesh. INSIDE
number crunch
Longboat Key graduates share the places they will go. PAGE 17A.
by Robin Hartill | City Editor
Proposal defines pension meeting Discussion shifted to a plan transitioning firefighters to 401(a) accounts throughout the May 23 Firefighter Pension Board meeting.
Bradford Saivetz
Courtesy photos
Fiscally sound. It’s not a phrase typically associated with any of the town’s three pension plans. But the Longboat Key Firefighter Pension Board’s actuarial consultants said at the board’s Wednesday, May 23 quarterly meeting that it’s an appropriate
+ Vets knighted for service Recently at a ceremony held in Pinellas Park, six World War II veterans received France’s highest honor for their service liberating France. They were deemed knights in the National Order of the Legion of Honor. Longboat Key Resident Bradford Saivetz was one of the men honored.
description for the firefighter pension. The town spends an amount equivalent to 60% of firefighter payroll on its required contributions to the firefighter pension. However, Doug Lozen, of Foster & Foster, told the board that the required contribution for
IN MEMORIAM
its 8% assumed rate of return is, in fact, sustainable. Throughout the four-hour meeting, discussion often turned to the proposal Town Manager David Bullock presented in early May to firefighters and general employees, to transition them to defined-contribution, 401(a) plans.
a new hire is only 16% of his or her salary and that the town’s required contributions would fall as its unfunded liability decreases. He estimated that half of the plan’s unfunded liability would go away within 12 years. Joe Carter, of Morgan Stanley Smith Barney, told the board that
SEE PENSION / PAGE 2A
by Robin Hartill | City Editor
End of watch
Longboat Key Police Chief Albert ‘Al’ Hogle was remembered at a public funeral as a private man, public servant and mentor to other law-enforcement officers.
Murf Klauber and Bill Kelley
+ Who wore it better? Longtime Colony Beach & Tennis Resort owner Murf Klauber and artist Bill Kelley have been friends for a long time. In fact, the Colony’s dining room walls were lined with Kelley’s artwork. On May 17, Klauber was present at Kelley’s studio for a show — and wore the same printed shirt as Kelley! Katie and Michael Moulton were also present, and happy memories were shared.
SEE OT / PAGE 2A
Turtle tracks Week of May 20 through May 26
Nests...............................35 False crawls.....................24 2012 2011 Nests 75 34 False crawls 42 34
Police Chief Albert Hogle’s casket is lifted out of the hearse Thursday at the Sarasota National Cemetery. Longboat Key Police Chief Albert “Al” Hogle hated being in the spotlight. But on Thursday, May 24, photos of Hogle flashed across a projector screen in the Robarts Arena as hundreds of people gathered to celebrate his life. Pallbearers carried Hogle’s flag-draped coffin through the arena.
Hundreds of uniformed law-enforcement officers from throughout Southwest Florida saluted; many civilians placed their hands over their hearts. Bradenton police chaplain, the Rev. Don Sturian,o told the audience how Hogle’s family had described him: He was a private man. He refused to let anyone throw him a party.
“This,” he said, drawing laughter from the crowd, “is the Lord getting back at him.”
...
Pete Cumming, a Longboat Key police captain who was appointed acting chief after Hogle’s death last week, always laughed when he saw his chief ringing the Salvation Army bell at the Key’s Publix
Rachel S. O’Hara
around the holidays. “He looked like a big kid up there,” he said. “I always chuckled when I saw him.” Cumming was one of six law-enforcement officers to eulogize Hogle. He said that Hogle loved children, before spilling what wasn’t exactly a secret: that
SEE HOGLE / PAGE 3A
INDEX Bridge Bites....... 24A Briefs....................4A
Classifieds ........ 26A Cops Corner..........9A
Crossword.......... 25A Opinion.................8A
Real Estate........ 18A Weather............. 25A
Vol. 34, No. 44 | Two sections YourObserver.com