CITY OF SAN DIEGO RETIRED EMPLOYEE ASSOCIATION
BOARD MEETING MINUTES November 13, 2007 
War Memorial Building, 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 and Maggie Smith.

Meeting called to order at 9:30a.m.
Minutes for October 9, 2007 CSDREA Board approved with correction that Lynn Swanson went to Attorney Michael Conger as an individual and not as a Board member of CSDREA.

COMMUNICATIONS: Nancy Acevedo
-Nancy thanked Lynn for reading Nancy's letter representing CSDREA's comments, as a stakeholder, at the Special SDCERS' Purchase of Service Credit meeting.
-Joe announced that the annual award, being given to Bill Sheffler this year, will be presented after Sheffler's  presentation at the General Meeting today.
-Sylvia reported there were 31 reservations for the holiday party. December 5th is the deadline for signing up.

TREASURER'S REPORT- Sylvia Tatum

Grand Total Reserve-Operating Balance on 10/1/07 was $35,177.76
Receipts $1,895.50
Expenditures/Transfers $1,532.00
Operating Fund Ending Balance 10/31/07 was $4,570.66
Grand Total Reserve-Operating Fund on 10/31/07 was $36,480.29
Legal Fund Money Market ending balance on 10/31/07 was $26,823.73

ACTION ITEMS: Nancy Acevedo

RETREAT DATE - Nancy asked Board members to email if they were not able to attend a CSDREA Retreat on January 22nd.

NOMINATING COMMITTEE REPORT- Patricia Karnes, Ross McCollum, Mike Stepner
Ty will remain as Vice-President/Chair of Advocacy.  Board members: Virginia and Ross are replaced by Bob Korch and Alyse Ford. (Alyse has been a greeter for CSDREA and Korch has been attending regularly. Korch retired from Development Services.) Swanson and Casey will continue until Nancy appoints a replacement newsletter editor and a parliamentarian.
Discussion of the structure, duties and length of terms of the CSDREA Board and need for by-law changes. Ross highly recommended changes, as few were willing to serve 3 years at a stretch. He also suggested deciding the President and other duties from among 15 Board members after their election.
Unanimous approval of Lynn's motion to vote on the Board slate as recruited, and also to discuss re-structuring the Board at the retreat.
Ross pointed out the time commitment of monthly General meetings. Joe was concerned about losing the depth of retiree news updates if newsletters replaced some monthly meetings. Ruth Ann was concerned that cutting program to Bi-monthly or quarterly would be the death of the organization. Maggie was concerned that people will drift off if meetings are not regular. Virginia requested a poll regarding cutting the number of meetings at today's meeting. Joe asked to extend the poll to over 900 members who do not attend. Unanimous approval of Ruth Ann's motion  to poll via a newsletter, email at the General meeting today and the Holiday party, results to be evaluated separately. Lynn and Virginia will collect telephone responses. Ruth Ann will take email responses.

CORBETT/13TH CHECK
SDCERS will not hold up the checks, according to Rebecca Wilson at SDCERS. Upon official SDCERS approval, Carmen will notify Joe who will email the news that the checks are coming.

CITY ATTORNEY REQUESTS FOR RETIREE RECORDS-Nancy Acevedo
SDCERS is notifying retirees whose records the City Attorney has requested for excess "415" payments. (An IRS formula limiting individual payments from a pension plan, yet to be determined for SDCERS, if over 90% cap, ages of retirement, etc.)
Lynn noted this area is a quagmire of legal questions.
Virginia said the IRS allows if the Plan Sponsors pick up the payments and pension funds are not used to make the payments. Joe pointed out that the exception to the 90% cap if hired by City prior to 24th birthday.

STATUS OF PROPOSED WATERFALL REVISION- Virginia Silverman reported there is no new date as yet.

LUNCHEON ALTERNATIVE- Jean Hughes
Patti reported Jean decided that retirees don't want to pay $10 for a sandwich.

TELEVISION COVERAGE OF SDCERS COMMITTEE MEETINGS
Patricia pointed out that the City Council Committee meetings are televised and it is difficult to follow SDCERS Board meetings without attending their committee meetings, at least the Business and Governance Committee meeting. The Audit and Investment Committees are also interesting, time permitting.
Unanimous approval of Ruth Ann and Virginia's motion to send a letter to SDCERS asking for televising of Committee meetings.

COMMITTEE REPORTS:
Advocacy Committee- Ty reported on the media coverage at the first Special SDCERS Purchase of Service Credit meeting. Ann Smith, MEA Attorney was brilliant. SDCERS' actuarial numbers were questioned.

Program Committee- Ruth Ann Hageman
Ruth Ann contacted Tracy Jarman/ Fire Department to replace Sheffler s speaker at the Holiday Luncheon.

Programs Scheduled (Presenters):
January 8
February 12   Joan Stein,Deputy DA, Economic Crimes Unit

Newsletter Editor- Lynn Swanson
No "help" so far. Thanks to Lynn for moving us along to the electronic age.

Web Site- John Tsiknas and Alan Hardtarfer
A professional web site would cost $100 hour to set up.
Tsiknas asked Nancy to call Ron Moskowitz  to re-sign up for the mailing list.

Web Posting Board Policy Committee Update- No action yet.

Membership Recruitment- John Casey/Ross McCollum
Sylvia reported 50 new members this year to date.
Ross announced the next retirement seminar is December 13th, the same day as the retiree luncheon.
Ross received good responses from two seminars (40 and 60 attendees) when he asked the future retirees if they had any questions about being retired. CSDREA brochures continue to be available to retirees through SDCERS Counselors.

RETIREMENT BOARD: Carmen Lutes
Carmen was unavailable due to family problems.

CERS Policy Regarding Loaning Funds to City- Patti Karnes
Ruth Ann moved to authorize Patti to speak for our organization and ask the SDCERS Board to re-consider and approve Doug McCalla's request for a hard prohibition against loans to the City in the SDCERS Investment Policy.
Passed with Ross opposed and requesting more background information.

SDCERS Fund Balance was not available.

Adjourned 10:55a.m.
Submitted by P. Karnes December 26, 2007