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

The minutes for the January 2018 meeting and the January Treasurer’s Report were approved.

Jim Baross informed members about our upcoming tour of San Diego Airport (already full) and a future tour of Balboa Park (date undetermined).

Yesi Miranda from SDPEBA, our umbrella organization for additional insurance benefits, introduced herself; she will have an information table at all of our meetings.

Cynthia Queen of SDCERS encouraged members to register with the SDCERS member portal; the pension summary page has been revised and upgraded. She informed members that the new CEO, Gregg Rademacher, is officially on board and is familiarizing himself with SDCERS staff. In addition, Marcelle Voorhies Rossmann has been named Deputy CEO.

PROGRAM

The program was Michael Zucchet, General Manager of MEA, making his annual appearance. He reported that the Prop B litigation is in the endgame. The California Supreme Court accepted MEA’s appeal, which it does for only 2-3% of appeals so this is a very good sign that the Supremes are concerned about the 4th District’s apparent willingness to overturn/ignore over 50 years of state labor law. He noted that 40% of current MEA members and 50% of Fire/Life Safety Department members were hired after Prop B passed. MEA is also watching cases at the US Supreme Court that could have serious detrimental impacts on public employee unions. Other issues MEA is working on are: negotiating new death and disability benefits; salary increases; and recruitment and retention. He said that there is a distinct feeling of underappreciation among current employees, most of whom see employment with the City as temporary employment, not a career.