City of San Diego Retired Employees Association

February 13, 2024 

Board Meeting Minutes

NOTES: All votes were unanimous unless otherwise noted

Call to Order: The meeting was called to order by President Mike Bresnahan at 9:30am.

Board Members Present: Clay Bingham, Mike Bresnahan, Chris Brewster, Liza Crisafi, Shirley Hall, Joan Hernandez, Brad Jacobsen, Stacey LoMedico, Joan McNamara, Estella Montoya, Dick Wilken, and Greg Woods.

Guests Present: Joe Flynn; Gary Katz (10:00 presentation only) 

AGENDA: There were no additions to the agenda.

MINUTES: The minutes of the January 2024 Board meeting were approved.

TREASURER’S REPORT: Liza reported that there were no unusual activities in January. She noted that we made our first deposit of $500 to the Bali Hai for the Holiday Party.

M/S/C to approve the January Treasurer’s Report.

INVESTMENT COMMITTEE REPORT: Liza reported that the Fund is doing well. Chris noted that as of this morning, the Fund is now over $400K.

RETIREMENT BOARD REPRESENTATIVE’S REPORT: Chris informed the Board that Blue Cross is buying Cigna in 2025, and that there are concerns about Medi-gap coverage.

COMMUNICATIONS AND INFORMATION ITEMS: 

1) The City is still negotiating the transfer of health care benefits processing with an outside vendor.

2) The City has prepared a memo regarding Medicare Part A reimbursement. SDCERS has approved it, and Risk Management will send it out to approximately 400 affected employees. There were questions about whether some affected employees may not be contacted.

3) Joan Hernandez reported that REA is being recognized by the San Diego Food Bank for our contributions at a luncheon on February 21. She and Mike will attend.

4) Gary Katz recapped his previous media efforts as part of the Image Enhancement Campaign, specifically the Learn to Swim programs. These included reminding local media outlets of the events REA sponsors; creating videos of the events for our use on our website and YouTube channel; and purchasing TV stations’ footage, also for our own media. The custom video is $5000; the TV footage is $50-$75 per spot.

ACTION ITEMS:

1) Liza reminded the Board that we need to hire an accountant to prepare our taxes. She was unsatisfied with last year’s firm and recommended Robert’s Business Services instead.

M/S/C to expend $800 to Robert’s Business Services for tax preparation. 

2) Liza reported that with the resignation of John Tsiknas, we need a third Board member to oversee the Legal Defense Fund in addition to her and Chris. Mike volunteered.

M/S/C to appoint Mike to the Legal Defense Fund

3) Based on input from the January meeting, Stacey presented a revised version of our support of Voice of San Diego. At that meeting, the Board voted to expend $1500 for a half-page ad in the 2025 Parents’ Guide. 

After conversations with staff at VOSD she reported that we can get full sponsorship of a banner ad on the Morning Report at a discounted rate of $2500 for 12 weeks. She recommended that we sponsor a banner ad for 24 weeks for $5000. 

M/S/C to expend $5000 for 24 weeks of full sponsorship of the Morning Report, bringing our total sponsorship of Voice of San Diego to $6500.

4) Stacey presented recommendations for the Learn to Swim program and the Dave Twomey Scholarship fund. For the former, we would continue to sponsor swim programs at two community pools in underserved communities; this was approved at the January meeting. Custom video by Gary Katz would be $2500 for two pools.

M/S/C (8-4-0) to expend $2500 for video of Learn to Swim events at two pools

Based on input at the January meeting to possibly fund youth to participate in the San Diego Junior Lifeguard Program, Stacey recommended that we sponsor three youth to participate at $800 each. Participants would be selected by Park & Rec staff.

She also recommended that we provide $800 each to the Tierrasanta and Kearny Mesa pools to support youth who want to participate in City-sponsored aquatic programs but who do not qualify for low-income fee waiver but are unable to pay the fees.

M/S/C to expend $2400 for the Junior Lifeguard scholarships and $1600 for the two pools, for a total of $4000

This brings total funding for Image Enhancement to $18,000 out of $20K budgeted. This is broken down as:

$6500 – Voice of San Diego

$5000 – Learn to Swim at two pools

$2500 – Videos by Gary Katz at the pools

$4000 – Dave Twomey Scholarships

$18000

OTHER COMMITTEE REPORTS

Membership: No report.

Newsletter: Deadline for the next issue is February 20 at 8:00am. Material should be sent directly to Connor Sorensen and Mary Ann Stepnowski.

OTHER RETIREE/ACTIVE EMPLOYEE ASSOCIATION REPORTS

Retiree Issues Task Force (RITF): No report.

Retirement Security Roundtable: No report.

MEA: No report.

Other Retired Public Employee Associations: No report.

PROGRAMS: Brad confirmed that the February program will be the Airport Authority. Both Clay (March) and Stacey (April) hit dead-ends in trying to book a speaker. It was suggested that the County Water Authority and/or the Clean Water Initiative be a program.

ADJOURNMENT

The meeting was adjourned at 11:00am. 

Respectfully submitted,

Brad Jacobsen

Secretary