City of San Diego Retired Employees' Association Newsletter
April 2008
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President's Message
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SDCERS Board Update
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Vol. 15 Issue: #4 April 2008


April 8th Meeting
War Memorial Bldg -Balboa Park

FORUM for CITY ATTORNEY-- Meet the Candidates
9:30 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. 
Lunch -- Noon
 
Special Notice - To our members  who have email addresses: Over the next two months the CSDREA Newsletter will start being distributed ONLY to your email addresses. We request that you print your own hard copy, if you need one.
 
For ALL members who do NOT have an email address, you will continue to receive your Newsletters via U.S. Mail.
 
Any Member may request the newsletter via U.S. Mail by contacting the Newsletter Editor at 858 578-4735, and your email version will be stopped.
 
THANK YOU for helping to save the postage and paper so the funds can be used for other needs of our organization.
 
Yes, I would like to receive the CSDREA NEWSLETTER exclusively through my email by clicking here Newsletter by email only
 
For those who do not have email capability, there will be NO interruption of the newsletter delivery via U.S. Mail.    
 
WELCOME TO NEW MEMBERS THIS MONTH
Jon C. Begley,  Bernice A. Caswell, Joanne M. Archambault, Mick Loeffler and Sandra J. Miller
 _______________________________________________ 
 
 
PROGRAM


The April 8th program is a Meet the Candidates -- Forum for City Attorney sponsored by CSDREA and the Retired Fire and Police Association
 
The moderator, Andrew Donohue, Voice of San Diego staff writer, will pose the questions to the candidates. 
 
Please come prepared to hear the positions of the Candidates for this important elective city office. 
 
LAST MONTH:Members in attendance at the March 11 General meeting heard Norma Damashek, President of the League of Women Voters in San Diego speak on the City Charter changes, past and present. She gave a history of failed attempts to adopt strong mayor changes. Frank Curran, Pete Wilson and Maureen O'Conner saw strong mayor propositions fail in city elections. Dick Murphy was in office when the strong mayor proposition passed, but resigned before it was put in place. Jerry Sanders, who campaigned against the concept, has tried to put it in place since his election. Sticking points are veto overrides by five Council votes (the same necessary to pass an ordinance), and who appoints the auditor or how to ensure perceived and real independence of the auditor. John Torrell, City Auditor hired during Sanders term, Damashek said, resigned less than two years later when the Mayor's staff modified his audits of city finances. Not an auspicious beginning.
 

The ballot measure agreed to by Mayor and Council asks if the Mayor shall appoint the Auditor and remain involved in the makeup of the committee.
 

Norma's presentation was followed by Q&A which was followed by CB &C (Corned Beef and Cabbage.) The League is sponsoring a symposium on city government and candidate reception on May 1, from 5:30 PM to 8 PM in the Silver Room of the Concourse. The public is invited.                                              Retiree Joe Flynn
PRESIDENT'S MESSAGE

By Nancy Acevedo

As recommended by the Advocacy Committee and approved by the Board, a letter was sent to Mayor Sanders, with copies to all Councilmembers, expressing concern that the Council be provided with the proposed Municipal Code changes necessary for them to take timely action to adopt the IRS Technical Tax Ordinance before the deadline of April 27th. This is necessary for SDCERS to receive the IRS Tax Determination Letter and retain its tax-qualified status.

According to a report from SDCERS Chief Compliance Officer, which is being presented to the Retirement Board at their March 21st meeting, the Technical Tax Ordinance is currently scheduled for introduction at the April 1st Council meeting.  Hopefully all necessary actions will be completed in time for it to actually appear on that docket. This is dry technical stuff, but highly important to SDCERS and all retirees.

At the SDCERS Board meeting of March 21st, Dave Hall was sworn in as the Retiree Representative, replacing Carmen Lutes who had to resign due to family requirements. Dave retired from the San Diego Police Department as a Police Captain, later working for the State and then as Chief of the San Diego Harbor Police. We are very fortunate to have Dave as our representative and look forward to working with him on retiree issues.

Sadly, our Boardmember Alan Hardtarfer has resigned due to serious health concerns. We all hope that they are successfully addressed and he will be able to rejoin us soon. Alan has done an excellent job as Assistant Webmaster, assisting John Tsiknas, and his active participation will be very missed.
                                                                                                                         Nancy
WEBSITE NEWS
SDREA WEB News!  Logon  http://www.csdrea.com
Members only section for the latest news. This month all the recent postings on subjects important to retirees. You will also discover helpful links to other resources.
 
Reminder
The Retired Fire and Police Assn. has welcomed CSDREA members to visit their
website at  Retired Fire and Police  Logon to see the mutually important retiree information they publish.
LUNCH MENU   $10        General Announcements

  
Roast Turkey
Red Potatoes / Vegetable
 Green Salad / Bread & Butter
 Cake / Coffee, Tea, Lemonade

 
Write your name on the back of your lunch ticket for a chance to win in this month's drawing! 
 
March winner was Jean Hughes

(Bottle of Beringer Wine & 2 Tickets to the Maritime Museum)     

Reservations: Call before Friday, April 4th at NOON
Dora Garcia(619) 464-8595 
Sylvia Tatum(858) 272-0494 

THANK YOU   Marcb Greeter:
   Burnie Gipson
Also, THANK YOU Janet Chelberg and Marylynn Hyde at the lunch table
 
VOLUNTEER to be a GREETER.. Give some time to CSDREA. Call Dora (619) 464-8595.
 
Do you know of a member who is ill or hospitalized? Notify Sharon Beach 858 273-4067 so the word gets passed along and a card is sent.
 
SDCERS RETIREMENT BOARD UPDATE
SDCERS Retirement Board Update by Board Member Patti Karnes and REA Editor
 
At the March 11, 2008 SDCERS Board meeting they recognized that the City and SDCERS must complete all corrections of the Voluntary Compliance Program (VCP) proposed by the IRS by June 9, 2008.  As soon as the VCP is approved by the  City Council, SDCERS will file as a Group Trust  with the IRS.  Finance staff is working to finalize accounting procedures associated with separate values for each plan sponsor.
 
Retiree Representative, Dave Hall was sworn in, replacing Carmen Lutes. He arrives with a strong management background. This is fortuitous as the Board is talking about changing their governance rules, moving away from micro-managing staff, and moving toward giving more responsibility to their CEO. Three of the five appointed Board members are numbers people: Bill Sheffler is an actuary, Tom Hebrank is a CPA, and Peter Preovolos knows private pension administration and figures. The other two appointees: George Murray and Wayne Kennedy have experiences from other Board systems. JoAnne SawyerKnolls is the City's ethics attorney and appointed to represent Mayor Sanders. Steve Meyers (carrying SDCERS Board's institutional memory) and Franklin Lambert (in his third year) are general employee representatives. Safety is represented by John Thomson from Fire, and Mark Sullivan from Police.
 
A goal of SDCERS is to put Board Rules and their new Table of Contents on SDCERS' web site for Members, Board members, and staff to access.  A sample of the future Table of Contents for Board Rules was presented.  A systematic revision of the Board Rules is underway.
Financial staff finished the FY 2006 CAFR, which is currently available for review on the SDCERS web site.  This marks the third CAFR issued in the last year.  Staff has completed review of all investment related disclosures for the FY 2007 CAFR, and they expect to start the 2008 CAFR in July or August. 
 
Also, the Board will take action on each of the affected former union presidential benefits at its April meeting. 
 

In FY 2009 SDCERS is planning to begin processing pension checks for retirees (instead of relying on the City).                                              

 

For previous reports and announcements about when meetings are scheduled, please logon to our website at
www.csdrea.com
 
CITY OF SAN DIEGO RETIRED EMPLOYEES' ASSOCIATION BOARD

 Board Members

President                          Nancy Acevedo   (619) 579-5930     CSDREA Pres 

Vice Pres-Programs        Patricia Karnes                                     VP Programs
 
Vice Pres-Advocacy      Leonard "Ty "Rogers                         VP Advocacy 
 
Secretary                        Ruth Ann Hageman (858)270-8530    CSDREA Secty                                     
Treasurer                        Sylvia Tatum           (858) 272-0494     CSDREA Treas
                                                                          
Elected Rep to                 Dave Hall                                             SDCERS
SDCERS Board           

Newsletter Editor          Jean Struiksma                                     Editor
 
Parliamentarian              John Casey                                        Parlimentarian
 
MEA Rep                       Lynn Swanson                                    MEA Rep
 
Director                          Terry Flynn                                          DIRECTOR 1
 
Director                           Robert Korch                                      DIRECTOR 4
 
Director                           Alyse Ford                                          DIRECTOR 3
 
Director WebMaster      John Tsiknas                                  WEBMASTER
 
Director Ast WebMastr  Vacant
 
Director                             Maggie Smith                                   DIRECTOR 2 
          
Ret. Issues Task Force   Joe Flynn                                    Issues Task Force
 
Hospitality/Lunch           Dora Garcia         (619) 464-8595

Sunshine Committee       Sharon Beach     (858) 273-4067      Sunshine

The board members who have consented to listing their phone numbers in the newsletter have done so to provide you a way to make lunch reservations, arrange sending a card to a sick member, and to obtain a password for the "members only" section of the website. They are intended for the use of  CSDREA members only.  Thank you for your cooperation.