City of San Diego Retired Employees Association
April 11, 2023
Board Meeting Minutes
NOTES: All votes were unanimous unless otherwise noted
Call to Order: The meeting was called to order by Vice-President for Advocacy Mike Bresnahan at 9:30am.
Board Members Present: Mike Bresnahan, Chris Brewster, Liza Crisafi, Shirley Hall, Joan Hernandez, Brad Jacobsen, Stacey LoMedico, Joan McNamara, Mary Ann Stepnowsky, John Tsiknas, and Dave Twomey
Guests Present: Joe Flynn
AGENDA: There were no additions to the agenda.
MINUTES: The minutes of the March 2023 Board meeting were approved.
TREASURER’S REPORT: Liza broke down the expenses for the Read Across America event; Directors’ insurance; and two newsletter invoices.
M/S/C to approve the April 2023 Treasurer’s Reports
INVESTMENT COMMITTEE REPORT: John reported that the appreciation for the Russell 3000 is 34.97%, and the appreciation for the Money Market is 5.15%. The value for the legal fund is $339,531.
RETIREMENT BOARD REPRESENTATIVE’S REPORT: Chris said he had wondered in the past whether SDCERS attempts to correct incorrect or misleading media reports. He cited an example of David Garrick of the U-T incorrectly describing the
City’s Prop B costs as a “penalty”. He learned that Jessica Taylor of SDCERS did contact Garrick but despite her efforts he repeated the mischaracterization in a subsequent article – and there were even more factual errors in other reporting by Mr. Garrick.
Chris also reported that a new bill to repeal the Social Security Windfall Elimination Provision has 223 bipartisan sponsors in Congress.
Chris’ full report is attached.
COMMUNICATIONS AND INFORMATION ITEMS:
1) Dave reported on the Read Across America event. All students received a tote bag with the logos of all the sponsoring participants and that the books the children took home had a bookplate with our logo. We received a letter of thanks from Council Member Vivian Moreno. He shared rough cuts of the video taken at the event which prompted questions about the target audience of the videos and a suggestion that we share them with other retiree organizations.
Upcoming Image Enhancement events will be the summer swim program – perhaps in Council District 6 – and the summer food drive. Dave proposed that next year’s Read Across America event be held at a school in Council District 4.
ACTION ITEMS:
1) Liza walked the Board through her draft Investment Policy and received feedback that she will incorporate into the next (final?) draft.
2) The City’s issuing an RFP for administration of retiree health care was discussed. It will be discussed at the RITF meeting on April 12 and will be an Information item at the next SDCERS Board’s May meeting. Also, there was concern about Care Counsel’s role if the transition occurs.
3) With Chris relinquishing his Director’s seat on the REA Board to be the Retirement Board representative, there are now three vacancies on the REA Board. Board members were encouraged to identify potential candidates for those seats.
ADVOCACY COMMITTEE REPORT
The next Advocacy Committee meeting will be Thursday April 27 at 9:30am via Zoom.
OTHER COMMITTEE REPORTS
Membership: No report.
Newsletter: Deadline for the next issue is April 19 at 8:00am.
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: Because Charlie Hogquist had to cancel his April program due to illness, Dave will try to reschedule him for September.
ADJOURNMENT
The meeting was adjourned at 11:00am.
Respectfully submitted,
Brad Jacobsen,
Secretary
On March 22 the UT printed an article by Union Tribune news reporter David Garrick about the Prop B resolution. He had attended a City Council meeting on March 21, 2023 where Gene Kalwarski and Anne Harper from Cheiron presented an actuarial training and the results of the June 30, 2022 valuation. In an article Mr. Garrick wrote after the January 13, 2023 SDCERS Board meeting, Mr. Garrick had characterized the City’s Prop B contribution as a “penalty”, even though that term was not used by the Board, staff or consultants to describe the City’s payment to fund their portion of the actuarially determined contribution (ADC).
After the initial article, SDCERS reached out to Mr. Garrick with a clarification; his response was “I used ‘penalties’ to differentiate the payments from the ordinary ADC. The goal was tying the payments to the Prop B fiasco. It’s certainly possible I could have picked a better word than ‘penalties’. Thanks for the feedback.”
Nevertheless, the same term was used in the March 22 articles.
On April 10, 2023 the UT printed an article by UT news reporter David Garrick regarding a presentation by the SDCERS actuary, Cheiron. In the article, Cheiron is referenced as the City’s actuary. This is incorrect. Cheiron is SDCERS’ actuary.
This article reports that the actuary advised Council they will make a proposal to the SDCERS Board in September regarding a possible refinance of actuarial expenses to the City that would spread them out over more years and thus reduce near-term costs. Under the current circumstances, there is a “cliff” in 2036 after which the system is anticipated to be 100% funded and the City’s contribution would decline by about $275 million a year. The concept advanced by the actuary appears to be lessening contributions considerably in the coming years which would push the point of 100% funding out much further in the future.
Last year I updated you on House Resolution 82, the Social Security Fairness Act of 2021. That bill died at the end of the last Congressional session. It has been reintroduced in the current 2023-2024 session as House Resolution 82, the Social Security Fairness Act of 2023 (same number):
“This bill repeals provisions that reduce Social Security benefits for individuals who receive other benefits, such as a pension from a state or local government. The bill eliminates the government pension offset, which in various instances reduces Social Security benefits for spouses, widows, and widowers who also receive government pensions of their own.
“The bill also eliminates the windfall elimination provision, which in some instances reduces Social Security benefits for individuals who also receive a pension or disability benefit from an employer that did not withhold Social Security taxes. These changes are effective for benefits payable after December 2023.”
As of today, the bill has 223 cosponsors. Congress has two years to pass this version.