Vol. 17 Issue: #4

April 2010

Tuesday, April 13th

Balboa Park Club - Balboa Park
 

Board Meeting (Santa Fe Room)          9:30 a.m.
General Meeting (Ballroom)          11:00 a.m.
Program (Ballroom)                     11:30 a.m.
Lunch (Ballroom)                           Noon      

*The Ballroom is located in the Balboa Park Club.    

Parking is available in the Pan American Plaza parking lot or the Organ Pavilion lot. More parking is available in the adjacent lots that are located behind the Hall of Champions and Starlight Bowl.  If need be, you can take the Balboa Park Tram 

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WELCOME TO NEW MEMBERS THIS MONTH

Lydia Hollowell - Public Utilities

Daniel E. Weinberg - Office of Chief Financial Officer 

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The Program and Hospitality Committees have selected Ranch Events for our April 13th, 2010 meeting. The Program meeting will be held in the Balboa Park Club, Ballroom in Balboa Park, beginning at 11am and ending at approximately Noon. The luncheon is served immediately afterwards at about 12:15 p.m. 

Our April menu catered by Ranch Events features:

Beef Thai Noodles

Rolls and Butter

Marble Cake with Strawberries

Iced Tea - Coffee -iced water

Cost: $8 - pay at the door  

YOU MUST RSVP BY APRIL 9th to:

Hospitality Committee member Bob Ferrier 

at  

April Lunch Reservations 

or Dave Twomey at 619-236-1407

FYI:  There is no permanent lunch list; everyone must RSVP or risk not eating.

Directions and Parking for the Balboa Park Club: 

- Take Hwy 163 south to Park Blvd, go left at the stop light then left onto President's Way, which is the next stop light. Continue to the stop sign where you can go straight to park in the Pan American Plaza parking lot or make a right and park in the Organ Pavilion lot.
- The Balboa Park Club is located in the South Palisades area of Balboa Park, just north of the Puppet Theatre, and Recital Hall.
- More parking is available in the adjacent lots that are located behind the Hall of Champions and the Starlight Bowl.

APRIL PROGRAM  by Vice President (Programs) Dave Twomey

Captain Joel Roos, Deputy Commander of Navy

Regional Medical Center will be our speaker for April program. He will speak on medical treatment for both physical and psychological damages to our wounded warriors returning from Afghanistan and Iraq.  This topic should command great interest among all Americans. The nature of combat has changed dramatically since many of us served from WWII through Korea, Vietnam and Kuwait, along with other combat in the Balkans, Somalia and elsewhere across the globe.

Captain Roos completed his medical degree in 1989, after he had earned his Bachelor of Science degree in biochemistry from UC Davis in 1980, and a Doctor of Medicine degree from the University of Cincinnati in 1989. Since then he has been stationed on submarines in Japan; completed a San Diego residency in emergency medicine and stroke treatment; deployed to Kuwait; and was an advisor to the Navy Surgeon General. He assumed his current responsibilities for the main hospital (Balboa), 11 primary care clinics, and 10 dental clinics in 2009.

Personal awards and decorations include the Meritorious Service Medal with one Gold Star;the Navy and Marine Corps Commendation Medal with three Gold Stars; the Navy and Marine Corps Achievement Medal with one Gold Star; plus numerous other commendations and awards. Dave

PRESIDENT'S MESSAGE by CSDREA President Jim Baross

The board has accepted a nickname for the City of San Diego Retired Employees Association: REA.

Of more concern the board is presently debating just how 'out-front' or scary our public outreach materials should be about the potential threats to our retirement benefits. We know that REA performs a vital watchdog role for us monitoring ongoing developments in public employee retirement provisions, advocating for the interest of our members, and that many public agencies are already trimming the pensions and healthcare benefits of their employees. The question is how strongly should we state our concerns to current and potential members? We do not want to raise concerns too early, but we do expect threats to appear that may call for strong responses.  Since challenges to retirement benefits continue and we can rely only on our own vigilance and ability to respond to protect them, we retired employees depend on each other to join, support and work together.  I encourage you to reach out to City employee retirees who have not yet joined us.  Help them to find out what it is all about and then join us--folks in DROP are welcome too.  Encourage them to log on at http://www.csdrea.com or call 858-272-0494 for more information.                                  Jim

REA SPEAKER AT MARCH 9TH MONTHLY  MEETING by Liza Crisafi, SDCERS' Chief Investment Officer

Liza Crisafi had a five page handout of nine power point pages for everyone. An economic overview; review of asset class returns, and review of SDCERS' results were all presented. The United States economy has started recovering since the 4th quarter of 2009, and San Diego is also recovering. High unemployment and low consumer sentiment remain problematic, even with some stabilizing of consumer confidence in 2010, there is a positive +15.8% to our retirement funds.

Investment update:

Term Asset- Backed Securities Loan Facility (TALF) Investment has been added;

Emerging Markets Manager staff member hired;

Private Equity program initiated and funding has begun;

Added a Large Cap Value stock index (which corrects an unintended tilt towards growth stocks).

SDCERS' Target Asset Allocation is:

domestic stocks, 38%; International stocks, 17%; domestic bonds, 22%; International bonds, 4%; real estate, 11%; private equity, 5%; and market neutral, 5%.

SDCERS Board Meeting March 4th and 5th reported by REA Board Member Patti Karnes 

PATTI KARNES attended the SDCERS board and committee meetings on Thursday, March 4th, and Friday March 5th. There is good news: investment returns, in one year increased assets by $700 million. It was reported that the net assets are up that much from one year ago, January 31, 2009. Annual year-to-date net assets as of January 31, 2010 are now $3,802,065,000 compared to $3,090,845, January 31, 2009.

RISK and SDCERS Board concerns: there is an assumption that the current rate of 7.75% should reflect the 'risk free rate of return and therefore the rate should be lowered to 5%. Under consideration is whether death and disability rates should be added to the employees' share of substantially equal retirement rates,or not. For police, it would cost about $200 more per month.

In the future, the City faces an Annual Required Contribution (ARC) that will almost double in size. SDCERS' actuary's chart shows that this year the City's ARC is $154.2 million, bout could climb to $511.62 million by the year 2025. Reality: the City expected savings when more than 600 employees retired earlier than expected last year, 2009. Instead of savings, those retirements produced a bigger ARC for the City to pay.

At the April 18th meeting the SDCERS Board will hear presentations by the fiduciary attorneys, other attorneys, stakeholders, and the public. They may act then on whether to proceed and with what sort of legal direction.

The next SDCERS meeting is April 16, 2010, at 8:30 a.m., at 401 West A Street. Please attend if you possibly can. These matters are very important to all of us. SDCERS makes parking free in the building.

MARK YOUR CALENDARS: next meeting will be May 28, no meeting in June, July 9, August 20, no meeting in September, October 1, November 5, and December 17, 2010. Special meetings may be scheduled as needed with a 72 hours' notice. Committee meetings, not televised yet, are on the Thursday before the regularly scheduled Board meeting: Disability Committee will meet from 8:30 a.m. - 10:00 a.m.; Business & Governance will meet 10:30 a.m.- 12:00 p.m.; Investment Committee will meet 1:30 p.m. - 4:00 p.m. The Audit committee will continue to meet quarterly on Wednesdays at 900 a.m. on April 7, June 30, September 29, and December 15, 2010.   Patti

General Announcements

             THANK YOU March Greeters

Janet and John Burgess, Bob Ferrier and

Burnie Gipson 

Mary Lynn Hyde, our Hospitality Committee co-chair, has been place on "injured reserve", and will be unable to perform her usual duties of checking members in for our monthly luncheons, at least for the immediate future. Janet and John Burgess are unavailable for April and May. Anyone out there willing to fill in? It's about 4 hours once a month. If you can help out for a couple of months, please come able to help, or contact  Dave Twomey @ 236-1407 Thanks!

Winner of the March drawing was Pat Drummy.  

 He received a free lunch for next month, or at one of his choosing.

 Winner of the "Where's Waldo quiz was Bob Korch. Bob won a coin toss with Gary Hess, both got all the answers correct on South American Geography. 

Happy Birthdays: Antonette Bastary, 01/06/30; Clarence Berger, 09/16/29; John Peterson, 03/04/30; Lily M. Torricellas, 03/24/30.

 TURNING 80? Then your CSDREA membership is FREE. Call Sylvia at (858)272-0494.
 
 

Do you know a member who is ill or who is over 80 years old and having a birthday?    Notify Sharon Beach (619-934-8202) so the word gets passed along and a card is sent.  Also, if you know of someone who has died, please let us know. You may also submit a short bio of that person for publication. 
 

City of San Diego Employee Assistance Program (EAP) is available to city retirees.  This assistance is confidential.  Contact EAP at 619-533-3460.

WEBSITE NEWS

SDREA WEB News!  Logon  http://www.csdrea.com
Members only section for the latest news. Read 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.

CITY OF SAN DIEGO RETIRED EMPLOYEES' ASSOCIATION BOARD

 Board Members 

**To send a message with your comments, suggestions or questions to an officer, board or committee member, click on their E-mail link above and your mail system should bring up the e-mail form with the proper addressee. We look forward to your comments.

The board members who have consented to listing their phone numbers in the newsletter have done so to provide you a way to 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.