City of San Diego Retired Employees Association

November 12, 2019

General Meeting Minutes

 

The minutes for the October 2019 meeting were approved.

Elections for the Board were held. There were no nominations from the floor. By voice vote, the following candidates were elected as a slate:

President – Dick Wilken;
Vice President for Advocacy – Mike Bresnahan;
Vice President for Programs – Dave Twomey;
Directors – Chris Brewster, Joan Hernandez, and Ty Rogers.

MEA and REA are working on the issue of the City’s miscalculation of payments to employees who were in both SPSP and Deferred Comp. Members who believe their compensation should be corrected should contact Risk Management’s savings line.

Cynthia Queen of SDCERS announced that the “13th Check” s coming but is beingrebranded as the Supplemental Benefit check.

Brenda Bothell-Hammond of the City’s AgeWell Division presented a survey for city residents over 50 to assess how age-friendly the city is. The survey can also be taken online.

PROGRAM

The program was the annual visit by Dr Carl Luna on all things political. Luna noted that San Diego has become Democratic faster than anyone would have imagined 20 years ago, and the County is also starting to lean left. On the national level, he feels that the strong economy favors Trump. Looking to the future, Luna warned that income inequality and diminished competition in industry are harbingers of rough times for democracy. In the tech world, innovation has fallen by the wayside as consumers only have a choice between Microsoft and Apple, whereas in Japan and Korea there is more competition that creates innovation. There are also too few people with too much money/power, with the gap between those at the top and those at the bottom widening.