City of San Diego Retired Employees Association
January 8, 2019
General Meeting Minutes
The minutes for the November 2018 meeting were approved.
Jim Baross informed members of recent activities undertaken by the Board, including investment of
money from REA’s Legal Defense Fund. More information about Board activity will be forthcoming.
Cynthia Queen of SDCERS reported that the SDCERS Board will be meeting this week with a focus on
amortization and actuarial issues. She also told members that they will be receiving a letter informing
them of Medicare reimbursement. Finally, 1099s will be mailed out around January 31.
Joan McNamara informed members that the next REA outing will be a two-hour guided tour of the
Japanese Friendship Garden in Balboa Park on February 27; cost is $10.
PROGRAM
The program was the annual talk from Mike Zucchet, General Manager of MEA. He gave a brief recap of
the saga of Proposition B stating that the City Council has approved an appeal to the US Supreme Court
alleging that Mayor Sanders’ First Amendment rights were violated by the California Supreme Court’s
ruling against Prop B. Once this is over, the affected parties can craft a solution.
When asked if there could be a new Prop B, he opined that even if Prop B’s supporters attempt this,
we’re in a very different political climate now and we now have evidence that it didn’t work: the panic
over pension funding is gone; we’ve tried Prop B and seen its impacts on recruitment and retention –
there are 2450 staff vacancies out of a budgeted workforce of over 12,000; and despite proponents’
arguments that it would be a vanguard, no other city in California has done away with defined pensions.
He also stated that the recruiting and retention problems have spread to the Police Department, which
has finally drawn some attention to the issue.