CITY OF SAN DIEGO RETIRED EMPLOYEE ASSOCIATION
BOARD MEETING MINUTES   August 14, 2007 


Present: President Nancy Acevedo, Ruth Ann Hageman, Joe Flynn, Ty Rogers, Carmen Lutes, Virginia Silverman, Maggie Smith, Terry Flynn, Alan Hardtarfer, John Tsiknas, Ross McCollum, Sylvia Tatum, Bob West, Lynn Swanson, Patricia Karnes.

Meeting called to order at 9:30a.m.
Minutes for July 2007 CSDREA Board approved.

COMMUNICATIONS: Nancy Acevedo
Nancy reported on meeting with David Wescoe, Chief Administrator of SDCERS. He noted PacifiCare sent out a list of Northern California doctors to Safety retirees who were converting to PacifiCare. Nancy noted that CSDREA will watch carefully if General retirees are changed to PacifiCare also. Wescoe liked the idea of CSDREA having an "Appreciation Event" for SDCERS' staff.
E-mail from Mike Conger thanking CSDREA and offering to help with the Corbett/13th Check situation. He added that he hoped our retirement can, one day, return to what it was supposed to be and any challenge to employees' well-deserved and paid-for pensions will cease.
Bob West is compiling CSDREA Board's history as he goes through old records.

TREASURER'S REPORT- Sylvia Tatum

Grand Total Reserve-Operating Balance on 7/1/07 was $32,687.44
Receipts $1,889.48
Expenditures/Transfers $2,157.69
Operating Fund Ending Balance 7/31/07 was $4,208.54
Grand Total Reserve-Operating Fund on 7/31/07 was $33,327.27
Legal Fund Money Market ending balance on 7/31/07 was $24,044.36

ACTION ITEMS: Nancy Acevedo

Holiday Luncheon
Correction: Dessert will be included, so no cake will be needed.

Revised costs: over $20, after tax and tip. Sylvia will check with Jean Hughes, regarding costs, in September, when Jean comes for a second deposit for Tom Ham's Lighthouse. Guests must be figured into the cost also.

Ross moved, Virginia seconded, to subsidize total costs up to $500 to keep reservation cost down. Unanimously approved with an amendment by Nancy and Ross to include a report from Jean in September discussing how $500 would be spent: $2 subsidy  per person, radio already included, and possible decorations. Joe will research the radio cost.

Established Award Recognition Committee- Nancy Acevedo
Ruth Ann, Terry, and Maggie were appointed.

Web Posting Board Policy- John Tsiknas, Alan Hardtarfer
After receiving opinion pieces that were edited, Alan did some  research of journalism standards and suggested seeking out journalism experts in this area. He distributed a list of questions. Basically, unless there are two sources of facts, the item is attributed to opinion, he said.
He then discussed the situation via a series of questions:
To what extent do we check facts if not obtained from a reputable news source? Do we delay posting of timely information?
Do we post opposing opinions?
Do we subscribe to advocacy journalism?
Do we select a point of view and not balance opinions?
Do we establish guidelines or an oversite committee?
Do we cover City retiree issues or broader issues?
He had concern that we are not checking facts on retiree articles.
What is our correction policy?
Do we establish an archive of past articles?
How to find past articles if we keep an archive?
How to find past opinion pieces?
Where do we go for legal advice?

Ross said that integrity is important. Tsiknas noted there is a disclaimer on our pages. Maggie noted that we have a "tradition of neutrality". Nancy added that retirees have no consensus of view. Joe finds viewpoint articles help further goals of retirees and fill the void regarding issues that are not being dealt with in the media, yet.

Nancy appointed a web posting committee to develop a recommended policy: John, Alan, Ruth Ann, Virginia, Lynn, Patti, and Joe.

INFORMATION-DISCUSSION ITEMS:

NOMINATING COMMITTEE UPDATE- Patricia Karnes, Ross McCollum, Mike Stepner
The Committee will meet at Stepner's office on August 22nd. Send candidate information to the committee. Ross will coordinate the Web site postings.

The committee is recruiting a President and Program Chair. Patricia would be interested in the Program Chair if a secretary can be found.

Advocacy Vice-President position: Patricia requested we review the composition of this position for the next election. So many issues have sprung up that it is now difficult for one individual to keep track of every issue, and new committee members need to be recruited to fill vacancies. No one is interested in volunteering to cover every issue important to retirees. Patricia suggested considering Joe's suggestion that we split up the Advocacy Committee by issues. He added that we might be more successful in recruiting volunteers to follow issues if they know it is of a limited scope.

(Additional Notes not from August's  Board meeting:
VOLUNTEERS ARE NEEDED!
In fact the Advocacy Committee is already split up and many of the members are burning out.

Topics of interest to City retirees currently covered by Board members:
1) Trial issues- Ty, as Chair of the Advocacy Committee and Virginia.

2) Waterfall- Virginia, Joe, and Lynn.

3) Health Care- Joe and Nancy.

4) Aquirre's list for rolling back pensions, etc. - All Board members.

Other issues are popping up at SDCERS and City Council meetings:

5) SEC issues. At Sept. 4th Council meeting, Mr. Keller made his first of three reports which went to the SEC. The responding July 23rd letter from SEC to the City asked for clarification and time-lines. SEC requested how the City will deal with pensions and if they will be changing benefits. How will the City DISCLOSE pension and health care costs? Keller has hired a specialized CPA to exam SDCERS as more work needs to be done on SDCERS' internal controls for reporting pension debt.
6) IRS decisions on SDCERS tax-compliance and Voluntary Corrections program. Part of this is the IRS' time-line for the City to re-pay SDCERS $100 million for health care.

7) Aguirre not moving forward on SDCERS' technical compliance issues.

8) SDCERS proposed change of SDCERS from a multi-employer trust to a Group Trust. The City Council asked for more information and continued their vote until Sept. 24th. A Group Trust would protect Airport and Port pension funds from being used for City retirees, in case of City bankruptcy. Port and Airport would no longer be subordinate to the City.

9) City Charter Committee's review of the composition of the SDCERS Board. Charter sub-committee met Sept. 7th.
End of special notes)


STATUS OF PROPOSED "WATERFALL" REVISION-Virginia Silverman
Virginia and Joe thought the IRS was O.K. as long as the Corbett and 13th check was included in SDCERS liabilities and retirees would still be paid.
(Note: Patricia wondered what their source was on this.)

REBUILDING TOGETHER SAN DIEGO-Nancy Acevedo
Nancy reported one person was interested in this program.

CHARTER REVIEW COMMITTEE AND SDCERS BOARD- Joe Flynn and Patricia Karnes
Susan Davis, Chair of a sub-committee of the City Charter Committee, had commented on Kroll's recommendation that the SDCERS Board be revised. Joe's research revealed the Kroll recommendation was to include 2 retirees (from the current one retiree representative), 1 Safety employee, 1 General employee and 5 appointees. This would be 9 instead of the current 13 SDCERS' Board members. This would maintain the same appointee dominance.
(Note: Former SDCERS Board President Preovolos has said 13 members were needed to make SDCERS' committee system work.)

COMMITTEE REPORTS:

INFORMATION DISTRIBUTION AD HOC COMMITTEE - Virginia Silverman and Lynn Swanson, with Tsiknas and Alan as technical advisors.

John Tsiknas said go to the web site, look for "bright yellow" and "opt out" of the snail mail newsletter.

Program Committee- Ruth Ann Hageman
August 14 - "2young2retire"with Al Paton's presentation.
Sept 11 - Tom Hebrank, SDCERS new Board President.
Oct 9 - Veronica Glen, Southern Caregivers Resource Center, presenter Virginia Silverman.
Nov 13 - Bill Sheffler, SDCERS Board and private actuary, presenter Ross.
Dec 13 (second Thursday)- Holiday Party- Jean Hughes

Advocacy Committee- Ty Rogers, Virginia Silverman, John Casey, Patti Karnes, Ruth Ann Hageman
An additional person needs to be appointed to the Advocacy Committee.

NEWSLETTER EDITOR -Lynn Swanson
Lynn contacted a web site for CSDREA, but it does not do the type of work so she referred the search back to Alan and John. Alan said he is exploring some possibilities.
The January newsletter will be her last newsletter and she would like three months to train a successor. Nancy noted that the new President should be appointing that successor.

ACTIVE EMPLOYEE ASSOC. REP. -Lynn Swanson
Mea wants to wait until legal issues are resolved before discussing retirees affiliating with MEA. MEA takes a stronger position than CSDREA. MEA'S  Ann Smith includes retirees in her court comments. The topic of affiliating will be dropped from the CSREA agenda, but the liaison with MEA will be kept.

TREASURER /MEMBERSHIP SERVICES REORGANIZATION- Sylvia Tatum, John Tsiknas, Maggie Smith, and Karen Anderson(membership roster)
No report.

RETIREE ISSUES TASK FORCE: Joe Flynn
Ron Moskowitz, from retired Police and Fire, is Chair.

RETIREMENT BOARD: Carmen Lutes
SDCERS' new location is 8 blocks away on "WEST A" at the First National Bank Bldg.

SDCERS Fund Balance , closing as of August 13, 2007, was $4.952 Billion (down since last month).

Meeting adjourned at 11:00 a.m.
Submitted by P.Karnes Sept 10, 2007