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Update on the SD County Taxpayers Association Lawsuit and the Alliance of Unrepresented/Unclassified Employees and post-July 2002 Retirees (AUE) Contributed by Association Member Virginia Silverman 03/27/2005 The AUE is an ad hoc alliance of unrepresented and unclassified City employees and recent retirees. It was formed two months ago in response to the lawsuit against the City filed on January 21, 2005 by the Taxpayers Association, to roll back new pension benefits granted after July 2002, because of conflict of interest. Two recent events have changed the situation somewhat: 1) On March 11, the Taxpayers Association agreed to drop its lawsuit at the request of the City, to facilitate completion of the KPMG audit. However Taxpayers Association officials have reserved the right to refile the lawsuit in 90 days. 2) On March 14, the Interim AUE Steering Committee confirmed that sufficient funds had been raised to receive a commitment from their attorney, David Strauss, to represent their legal interests. (The AUE is still short of the $200,000 goal and urges affected persons who have not signed up to do so.) The AUE expects that the lawsuit will be refiled in 90 days, and is also concerned about the proposal by the City Attorney to roll back benefits to pre-1996 levels. Therefore it will continue its work and fund raising efforts. The Attorney will be paid for work done to date and for a small retainer; the balance of the funds will be kept in an AUE Trust Account. The next AUE meeting will be held on Wednesday, April 6th at 5:30 p.m. at the War Memorial Building in Balboa Park. The first part of the meeting will be an update for those still considering joining. The second part will be only for those currently registered. |