CITY OF SAN DIEGO RETIRED EMPLOYEE ASSOCIATION
BOARD MEETING MINUTES   October 9, 2007 
Recital Hall, Balboa Park

Present: President Nancy Acevedo, Ruth Ann Hageman, Joe Flynn, Ty Rogers, Virginia Silverman, Terry Flynn , Robert West, John Tsiknas, Ross McCollum, Sylvia Tatum,  Lynn Swanson, Patricia Karnes.

Meeting called to order at 9:33a.m.
Minutes for September 11, 2007 CSDREA Board approved.

COMMUNICATIONS: Nancy Acevedo
Nancy shared letter she wrote to Bill Sheffler regarding his selection for the Award Recognition at our Holiday Luncheon. Approved motion for Joe Flynn to present the award to Sheffler in December.

Nancy provided copies of her article for the "FREE SPIRIT".

Letter to SDCERS' administrator David Wescoe, signed by Nancy and Ron Moskowitz of the retired police and fire, regarding the fact that 2008 of Medicare premiums were still under $100 (it is $96.40), and asking Wescoe to solve the refund problem.

TREASURER'S REPORT- Sylvia Tatum
Sylvia reported 111 members opted out of snail mail to email last month. She asked if Phoenix's Mail Service had a minimum.

Grand Total Reserve-Operating Balance on 9/1/07 was $34,524.19
Receipts $1,895.47
Expenditures/Transfers $2,169.43
Operating Fund Ending Balance 9/30/07 was $4,207.16
Grand Total Reserve-Operating Fund on 9/30/07 was $35.177.76
Legal Fund Money Market ending balance on 9/30/07 was $25,999.59

ACTION ITEMS: Nancy Acevedo

ANNUAL DUES- Approved keeping current membership dues.

PURCHASE OF SERVICE CREDITS AND DROP ISSUES-Advocacy Committee- Ty Rogers, Virginia Silverman and Lynn Swanson met October 2nd at the Mission Valley Library regarding these issues and presented papers to the Board on their discussion and recommendations.

DROP interest rates for active members will be discussed at the October SDCERS' Business and Governance Committee on the 18th of October. Patti  noted that revision of SDCERS Board's Ethics, Conflict of Interest, Whistleblower policy would be discussed there also.

Purchase of Service Credits will be discussed at a Special Meeting of SDCERS on October 19th at 8:30a.m.
Joe asked for legal citations and history of SDCERS' position. He noted that SDCERS seemed to looking for detailed responses to their general notice. He added that the City's share ceased to be taxpayers' dollars when it passed into SDCERS, like paying at McDonalds. Finally he noted that it does not affect all retirees.

Ross responded that this was an effort to "chip around" benefit by benefit. Ross expressed concern that there was not adequate notice or explanation of the special meeting and we should state our displeasure and lack of communication.  He felt that Wescoe should have communicated in advance with CSDREA. He also pointed out that CSDREA was offered 15 minutes as an organization and 3 minutes as individuals. Copies of presentations should be sent in advance. (Lynn read Nancy's presentation at the Special Meeting.)

Lynn said Purchase of Service were "done deals", as they were part of Corbett and Gleason. Car dealers cannot come back in 10 years and demand more money for the deal, she added. She contacted Conger for a personal inquiry about this issue and not as a CSDREA board member.
Nancy advised to wait and save Conger for an absolute threat.

Ty found the proposed MEA presentation re-assuring.

Virginia was concerned that if they can revisit this, they will revisit other contracts. She wondered who did the calculations?
Virginia had questions regarding SDCERS' actuary, Cheiron's numbers: where were the terms defined? What do figures mean?, Where was the 8% interest in these figures? Cheiron's chart (which she found on Pat Flannery's Blog) left  more questions than answers.
(Later at SDCERS' October Special Meeting the Retired Fire and Police (RF&P) expressed the same concerns about confusion in understanding Cheiron's numbers. Note: SEC oversight, Mr. Keller reported to the City Council that he is hiring outside a pension actuary to review Cheiron's numbers for disclosure purposes.)

INFORMATION-DISCUSSION ITEMS:

STATUS OF PROPOSED WATERFALL REVISION: Virginia Silverman
This item is not appearing on the City Council's agenda.

LUNCHEON ALTERNATIVES-Jean Hughes
No action/discussion  this month on discontinuing lunches in January 2008 as Jean was not available. Jean Hughes was to research food providers in the Balboa Park area, including subway type sandwiches..

BIRTHDAY /ANNIVERSARY RECOGNITION- Nancy Acevedo, Patti Karnes
Statements of month/date/year can contribute to identify theft issues, but some retirees enjoy the recognition.

TELEVISING CERS COMMITTEE MEETINGS- Patti Karnes
A letter from our CSDREA Board to SDCERS Board requesting televising SDCERS committee meeting would allow members to see/hear more meaty discussions of SDCERS issues.

CHARTER REVIEW COMMITTEE AND SDCERS BOARD- Joe Flynn and Patricia Karnes
Motions to change SDCERS Board composition were tabled for now.

COMMITTEE REPORTS:

NOMINATING COMMITTEE UPDATE- Patricia Karnes, Ross McCollum, Mike Stepner
Ross reported people are reluctant to make a commitment to be President. The three outside candidates he contacted were not interested at this time. He suggested that the President should come from within the Board. Options brought up included: Rotate every 6 months, selection by vote, and shared Presidency.
We have treasured Nancy's neutrality and West pointed out that Nancy came from outside the Board and has done a great job.
Nancy agreed to keep contacts with SDCERS, Mayor's office, etc., do the agenda and run Board meetings. The Board will take over articles in the newsletter and running the General Meeting. Ruth Ann suggested pulling in new people via "presenters" who would also run the General Meeting also.
Nancy requested the need for a Parliamentarian  and a Newsletter editor on the Board.
Additional questions for future discussion: Additional Board Members? Change General Meetings  to quarterly? Newsletter quarterly?

Web Posting Board Policy Committee -John Tsiknas, Alan Hardtarfer, Ruth Ann Hageman, Virginia Silverman, Lynn Swanson , Patti Karnes, and Joe Flynn.
No meetings were scheduled.

Program Committee- Ruth Ann Hageman
Oct 9 - Veronica Glen, Southern Caregivers Resource Center, presenter Virginia Silverman.
Nov 13 - Bill Sheffler, SDCERS Board and private actuary, presenter Joe Flynn instead of Ross.
Dec 13 (second Thursday)- Holiday Party- Jean Hughes


Other Continuing Issues:
*Healthcare funding by the City.
*SEC issues. Keller has hired a specialized CPA to exam SDCERS as more work needs to be done on SDCERS' internal controls for reporting pension debt.
*IRS decisions on SDCERS tax-compliance and Voluntary Corrections program.
*Technical Compliance Ordinance(s) requiring the Council's approval.
*City Council will be voting on the split of SDCERS assets as conversion to a Group Trust continues.
*Conflict of Interest: 1090 Lexin policy until further notice according to Chris Waddell at SDCERS.
* McCalla's request for a hard prohibition against loaning money to the City.

NEWSLETTER EDITOR -Lynn Swanson
No report.

ACTIVE EMPLOYEE ASSOC. REP. -Lynn Swanson
(See Advocacy for Purchase of Service.)

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.
No report.

RETIREMENT BOARD: Carmen Lutes
No report.(See Carmen's report on CSDREA's web site.)

SDCERS Fund Balance , closing as of October 8, 2007, was $5.2 billion, up $236 million since last month).

Meeting adjourned at 11:00 a.m.

Revised and Submitted by P.Karnes November 11, 2007