Hollywood Police Officers' Retirement System

Hollywood Police Officers' Retirement System

The City of Hollywood Police Officers' Retirement System was created in 1976 to provide retirement, disability, and survivor benefits for sworn officers of the Hollywood Police Department. Unlike municipal workers folded into the statewide Florida Retirement System, Hollywood's officers operate a stand-alone defined-benefit plan governed by a locally appointed Board of Trustees. Chairman David Strauss and Secretary Paul Laskowski lead the board alongside trustees Jeffrey Marano, Christopher Boyd, Justin Schweighardt, and Van Szeto; day-to-day administration runs through Plan Administrator David M. Williams. The fund's trustee education is anchored by the Florida Public Pension Trustees Association, where several members hold Certified Public Pension Trustee (CPPT) designations. The fund's investment strategy splits across three lanes: passive public equity via vehicles like the RhumbLine S&P Mid Cap 400 Pooled Index Fund, a multi-manager real assets sleeve, and a private-markets allocation channeled through external managers. Real estate commitments dominate the private side. The fund has placed capital with TerraCap Management's commercial real estate funds, Intercontinental Real Estate Corporation's investment vehicles, and American Realty Advisors' portfolios, alongside an Affiliated Housing Impact Fund targeting residential and mixed-use projects in South and Central Florida. The real assets exposure spans core U.S. commercial properties and regional workforce-housing development, reflecting a preference for tangible, income-producing assets. Private-market commitments follow both fund-of-funds and direct fund access, touching buyout, growth equity, and venture strategies. In 2024, longtime trustee Cathy Marano retired from her role as board secretary, marking a transition in the fund's governance composition. Investment consulting support comes from Mariner Institutional, where Brendon Vavrica acts as the fund's investment consultant, assisting with manager selection, asset allocation reviews, and performance monitoring. The fund's footprint remains concentrated in the United States, with a pronounced geographic tilt toward its home state across the private real estate portfolio. The Hollywood Police Officers' Retirement System represents a mid-sized municipal pension that maintains full investment autonomy without the governance umbrella of a larger state system. Its structure — a trustee-directed board with an external consultant — is common among Florida municipal plans, but the fund's heavy overlay of regional real estate commitments alongside passive equity indexing distinguishes it from peers that default to broad, nationally diversified fund-of-funds approaches. The Trump-era federal tax overhaul catalyzed an Opportunity Zone-linked investment wave in South Florida, and the fund's Affiliated Housing Impact Fund LP vehicle, focused on mixed-use and residential projects in South and Central Florida, aligns with that capital-allocation theme.