City of San Diego Retired Employees Association
February 14, 2017
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, Karen Butler, Charles Hogquist, Brad Jacobsen, Ted Myrus, Ty Rogers, Mary Ann Stepnowsky, John Tsiknas, Dave Twomey, and Janet Wood

Guests Present: Art Brown, Joe Flynn

AGENDA: There were no changes to the agenda.

MINUTES: The minutes of the November 2016 and January 2017 Board meetings were approved.

TREASURER’S REPORT: Karen reported that some of our insurance costs have gone up. These will be reflected in the February report. The cost of the gift radio awarded at the Holiday Party will be moved to Awards and Recognition.

There was great discussion about establishing a Contingency Reserve fund and the appropriateness of have proposed expenses exceed proposed income in the budget.

M/S/C (7-3) to adjust the budget so that income and expenses are equal.

M/S/C to approve the budget with a new Contingency Fund line item containing an amount equal to income less expenses

M/S/C to approve the January Treasurer’s Report.

COMMUNICATIONS: We received a request from an outside party that looked a lot like a phishing expedition.

RETIREMENT BOARD REPRESENTATIVE’S REPORT

Charles Hogquist introduced himself. He reported that there is a Retirement Board retreat coming up so not much to report yet. Actuaries are preparing new assumptions which could affect retirement programs nationwide; a report is coming in March. He also reported that City retirees are unaffected by any changes to the CalPERS rules.

DISCUSSION/ACTION ITEMS

  1. It was proposed that in light of last month’s failure to achieve a quorum, the Bylaws may need to be amended to count the Officers as Board members.
  2. It was noted that we somehow failed to recognize that Clay Bingham’s position was unfilled during the recent elections.
  3. There was some discussion about the efficacy of moving our email to a Microsoft format. The Advocacy Committee will investigate.

INFORMATION ITEMS: Oral arguments on Prop B will be held on March 7 at the 4th Court of Appeals downtown.

COMMITTEE REPORTS

Advocacy: The next meetings are February 23 and March 23, 9:30am, at the Mission Valley Library.

Retiree Issues Task Force (RITF): Topics of discussion were differences/changes in Medicare and Social Security, and why some insurance plans by the same provider include Silver Sneakers and others don’t.

Other Retired Public Employee Associations: No report

Active Employee Associations: No report.

Communications: No report.

Membership: Membership is at 1446.

Sunshine: No report.

Newsletter: Deadline for next issue is February 20

General Membership Programs: City Attorney Mara Elliott has confirmed for August. It was suggested that we move the speaker on Social Security to May (prior to benefits enrollment) and the Zoo speaker to September.

ADJOURNMENT

The meeting was adjourned at 10:50am.

Respectfully submitted,

Brad Jacobsen
Secretary