City of San Diego Retired Employees Association
October 9, 2018
Board Meeting Minutes

NOTE: All votes were unanimous unless otherwise noted

Call to Order: The meeting was called to order by President Jim Baross at 9:35am.

Board Members Present: Jim Baross, Mike Bresnahan, Karen Butler, Shirley Hall, Joan Hernandez, Charlie Hogquist, Brad Jacobsen, Joan McNamara, Ty Rogers, Mary Ann Stepnowsky, John Tsiknas, Dave Twomey, and Janet Wood

Guests Present: Chris Brewster, Dick Wilken

AGENDA: There were no changes to the agenda.

MINUTES: The minutes of the September 2018 Board meeting were approved.

COMMUNICATIONS: None.

TREASURER’S REPORT: Karen noted that the Legal Fund Obligation line item has been moved to the Income section of the report.

M/S/C to accept the October Treasurer’s Report.

The Investment Committee reported that the rate of return on the Russell 3000 fund is 11.86%.

M/S/C to accept the Investment Committee report.

RETIREMENT BOARD REPRESENTATIVE’S REPORT

Charlie reported that there will be a 13th Check but that the exact amount has yet to be determined. He also stated that Gregg Rademacher sat in on meetings with the City Council as they discussed the ramifications of the Prop B decision; SDCERS will help the Council but will not take a leading role in developing a solution.

The SDCERS Board will hold a special meeting on November 5 to discuss changing the amortization schedule from 30 years to 20 years. Doing so would increase the City’s payments which could have some negative PR ramifications, and the actuary is advising against the change.

M/S/C to oppose changing the amortization schedule and authorizing Jim or Mike to express our position and our comfort with the actuary’s current amortization schedule to the SDCERS Board.

DISCUSSION/ACTION ITEMS

  1. It was decided to honor Ann Smith at the Holiday Party but to also give recognition of the financial contributions of other organizations in the Prop B litigation.
  2. There are still issues with new members not providing their full social security number when applying for membership. The culprit seems to be the old membership applications (requesting only the last four digits) that are still in circulation.
  3. The Nominating Committee presented a slate of candidates for the Board: Brad Jacobsen, Secretary; Karen Butler, Treasurer; Mary Ann Stepnowsky, Member; and Dick Wilken, Member (replacing Ted Myrus).

M/S/C to approve the slate of candidates and to present it to the general membership.

INFORMATION ITEMS

  1. Our permit for use of the War Memorial Building is being processed by Park & Rec.
  2. The Board Retreat will be December 7 at Mission Trails Park.

COMMITTEE REPORTS

Advocacy: The next meeting is October 25.

Retiree Issues Task Force (RITF): There was much discussion about reimbursement for
Medicare Part D, which did not exist when the current reimbursement system was put
into place. The issue affects retired employees whose gross annual income (from all
sources) exceeds a certain amount. Retired Police & Fire is considering asking the City
Attorney to opine on whether reimbursement for Part D is already an obligation of the
City or whether an ordinance to provide reimbursement needs to be introduced. There are
some negative PR ramifications for doing the latter. The Board decided not to get
involved at this point.

Other Retired Public Employee Associations: Chris reported that the Retirement Issues
Roundtable met and discussed the Prop B decision. The Roundtable members are keeping
an eye on Carl DeMaio, as his ballot initiative to repeal the gas tax increase is raising his
statewide profile. Chris also said that the Roundtable has caught the collective eye of
other public retiree associations around the state and that the Roundtable will be making a
presentation at an upcoming conference of statewide county retiree associations.
A PDF of the County’s pamphlet on retirement security is attached electronically.

Active Employee Associations: No report.

Communications: No report.

Membership: No report.

Sunshine: No report.

Newsletter: Deadline for the next issue is October 20.

General Membership Programs: No report.