City of San Diego Retired Employees Association
September 12, 2017
General Meeting Minutes
The minutes for the August 2017 meeting and the August Treasurer’s Report were approved.
Joan McNamara announced an upcoming backstage tour for REA members at the Old Globe on November 13. Details will be in the newsletter. (On the First Page of this Newsletter)
Cynthia Queen of SDCERS announced that the Board voted to reduce the assumed rate of return on investments from 7.0% to 6.5% over a two-year period. She said that the Mayor and City Council want the system to remain stable, and that despite what naysayers like Carl DeMaio are saying, the system is both stable and secure. Finally, she announced that Mark Hovey, CEO of SDCERS, is retiring.
PROGRAM
The speaker was Mike Stone, a proponent of the Soccer City development to reuse the Qualcomm Stadium property. Stone emphasized the growing interest in Major League Soccer in both southern California and the US, especially among college students. Soccer City would include a soccer stadium within a mixed-use development that will also have housing, retail, and commercial elements as well as a hotel and a riverside park. He said that traffic impacts will be spread throughout the day, unlike the 11,000 vehicles that current exit the parking lot all at once. He asserted that the project would be a good deal for the City, eliminating the $12 million spent per year on upkeep for Qualcomm while spending no tax money for the construction of Soccer City.