Board Meeting Minutes - 5/9/2017

City of San Diego Retired Employees Association
May 9, 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 9:30am.

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

Guests Present: Art Brown, Chris Brewster, Jonathan Hays

AGENDA: There were no changes to the agenda.

MINUTES: The minutes of the April 2017 Board meeting were approved.

COMMUNICATIONS: None.

TREASURER’S REPORT: Karen pointed out a $20 expense to file with the State as a 501(c)(7) organization. This covers a two-year period. The final report of the Audit Committee will be presented at the next (July) Board meeting.

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

RETIREMENT BOARD REPRESENTATIVE’S REPORT
Charles reported that due to the appointment of new members, Friday’s SDCERS meeting will have a full board. COLA is on the agenda.

DISCUSSION/ACTION ITEMS

The By-Laws amendment clarifying the definition of a Board quorum will be voted on
at the General meeting.
Mike Bresnahan reported that SDCERS is unwilling to allow payroll deductions for insurance premiums to Pacific Group Agencies; however, SDCERS currently has a working relationship with Jonathan Hays and Integrated Labor Solutions (ILS), who currently handle supplemental insurance options for MEA as well as REA’s dues. Michael Zucchet has proposed creating a new MEA subgroup called San Diego Public Employees’ Benefit Association (PEBA) that would comprise all MEA and REA members who wish to participate in the supplemental insurance program; an MOU between the two organizations will be needed to implement this. In addition, MEA will indemnify REA.
1. Jonathan Hays informed the Board that ILS will serve as point of contact for members’ complaints, concerns, or questions; will create the PEBA website and update REA’s to reflect the changes; and will do these at no additional cost to REA. He also assured the Board that there will be no member-information sharing between REA and MEA.
2. An informational brochure about the PEBA will be mailed to all REA and MEA members. SDCERS may include this in their annual health care mailing in the future, but want time to see how this venture works out.
3. M/S/C [1 abstention] to work with Integrated Labor Solutions to create a Public Employees’ Benefit Association with MEA and to offer additional insurance benefits to REA members
Chris Brewster presented additional information about his proposal to move half o REA’s Legal Fund from a stable but low interest-producing Money Market account into a more aggressive Exchange Traded Funds (ETF) investment with a far better return rate. He also proposed that REA rebalance the ETF portion of the investment periodically to maintain a 50/50 balance between the two investment strategies. This would keep at least half of our Legal Fund in a liquid account.

M/S/C to approve a policy of maintaining an investment of approximately 50% of the REA legal fund in the SPDR Russell 3000 ETF, with the other 50% in a money market fund, investing gradually at approximately 12.5% per quarter over the next year until the 50% target is reached and then rebalancing the fund quarterly thereafter to approximately 50/50 whenever either fund declines below 45% of the total.

Thank you, Chris, for the wording of that motion!

Karen Butler, Chris Brewster, and Dave Twomey were delegated to set up the account and oversee investment of the funds going forward.

INFORMATION ITEMS:

We will once again have a fabulous presence at the SDCERS Health Fair. Mike will coordinate volunteers and Mary Ann will again bring cookies.
Mary Ann and Jonathan Hays reported that updates should make our website faster to upload, and that changes in its look are forthcoming.
It was suggested that we post reminders of deadlines significant to retirees (ie, when to enroll in Medicare, minimum distributions) on our website. It was agreed that this is a good idea but we need to decide how to implement this and who would be in charge of keeping it up to date.

COMMITTEE REPORTS

Advocacy: The next meeting is May 25.

Retiree Issues Task Force (RITF): All retirees who were affected by SDCERS’ error adjustments have been notified. However, SDCERS has identified additional adjustments unrelated to miscalculation; these are being corrected.

Strength of the Past, Voice of the Future

Board Meeting Minutes – 5/9/2017