City of San Diego Retired Employees Association
November 13, 2018
General Meeting Minutes

Veterans present were recognized for their service.

Elections for Board members were held, with no nominations from the floor.

M/S/C to elect the following members to the Board: Karen Butler, Brad Jacobsen, Mary Ann Stepnowsky, and Dick Wilken.

M/S/C to elect Karen Butler as Treasurer and Brad Jacobsen as Secretary.

Cynthia Queen of SDCERS announced that both the 13th Check and the Corbett Check were approved and should be deposited on November 30. She reported that the SDCERS Board had a retreat to discuss actuarial assumptions possibly lowering the assumed rate of return but no action was taken. Finally, the SDCERS Annual Meeting will be on November 30 at the Balboa Park Club.

Vice-President for Advocacy Mike Bresnahan informed the members that the first “meet and greet” with council members has been scheduled for December 3 with Council member Chris Ward.

There was a reminder that the Holiday Party will be on Tuesday – December 11 at the Bali Hai. Registration deadline is Friday – December 7. In addition, there will be a special door prize drawing limited to the first 25 members to RSVP!

PROGRAM

The program was Dr Carl Luna from Mesa College, making his annual post-election appearance. On the national level, he felt that the Democrats did as best as they could, but what will they do with the power they now have in the House? He noted that Arizona is becoming a purple state as more young people move there due to housing affordability and jobs, and as older retirees do not migrate to the Sun Belt or die. That said, he believes that the red states are getting redder, but that the Republican Party is becoming a “vanity party” centered on Donald Trump; what will the party do when Trump is gone?

Locally, he stated that affordable housing has to be the #1 priority for the City, the County, and the State. And finally, he opined that the recent “search” for a new Amazon headquarters (that ended up in New York and DC) was really all about the company wanting to be close to Power. If Amazon was really interested in do something, they could have located in a Rust Belt state like Ohio and improve employment conditions there.