Board Meeting Minutes - 05/14/2019

City of San Diego Retired Employees Association
May 14, 2018
Board Meeting Minutes

NOTE: All votes were unanimous unless otherwise noted

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

Board Members Present: Jim Baross, Karen Butler, Shirley Hall, Brad Jacobsen, Ty Rogers, John Tsiknas, Dave Twomey, Dick Wilken, and Janet Wood

Guests Present: Chris Brewster, Art Brown, and Joe Flynn

AGENDA: There were no changes to the agenda.

MINUTES: The minutes of the April 2019 Board meeting were approved.

COMMUNICATIONS: We were informed that a member is turning 100 this year, and will also be celebrating his 70th wedding anniversary. Appropriate cards were circulated for the Board to sign.

TREASURER’S REPORT: Karen reported that due to some miscommunication the provider of the Lunch Bunch aprons has not been paid.

M/S/C to accept the May Treasurer’s Report.

The Investment Committee reported that we had another very good month. They reported SDCCU had 16-month CDs with a rate of return of 2.8%. It was noted that we can also buy CDs through Fidelity.

M/S/C to accept the Investment Committee Report.

M/S/C to give the Investment Committee the discretion to add CDs to our portfolio if advisable.

RETIREMENT BOARD REPRESENTATIVE’S REPORT

Via email, Charlie reported that the Board meeting was very brief. They are in the process of selecting a new Board president and he is on the committee. Also, the COLA was approved; the amount will be either 1.9% or 2.0% depending on retirement date.

DISCUSSION/ACTION ITEMS:

1) Dave proposed that we thank outgoing Lunch Bunch team members Jodie Monteleone and Alyse Ford as well as Tom Peña by comping them at the Holiday Party.

M/S/C to comp Alyse Ford, Jodie Monteleone, and Tom Peña at the Holiday Party.

2) Dave introduced the idea of REA conducting a “charm offensive” to improve the image of public retirees through initiatives such as sponsoring traffic announcements on KPBS. The Advocacy Committee has agreed with this proposal, which is a long-term project. The proposal is still very much in development, but Dave is seeking $1500 to hire a consultant to help flesh it out. With the encouragement of the Advocacy Committee he contacted former City employees John Gavares and Danelle Scarborough, but they declined as this is not their type of work. He will contact Rachel Laing.

3) Park & Rec staff will be vacating the War Memorial Building soon and will be taking the projector screen with them. It was decided that we will need our own screen.

M/S/C to authorize the purchase of a projector screen at an amount not to exceed $500.
M/S/C to authorize the President to spend up to $1000 in discretionary spending for miscellaneous expenditures.

4) There was discussion about posting Board minutes, Treasurer’s reports, and Investment Committee reports on the website. The consensus was that the financial reports require context to understand – especially our long-range investment strategy – and should not be posted.

INFORMATION ITEMS:

1) The Audit Committee met and found no issues.

2) Dave distributed text for the newsletter about our investments for the Legal Defense Fund. After much discussion about its length and the space requirements for the printed version, the Board collectively realized that because REA is “dark” in June, many regular newsletter pieces (President’s message, minutes, program and lunch menu) will not be in the June newsletter. This frees up space for Dave’s article.

3) Due to the absence of both Joans, there are no updates on name badges or upcoming outings.

COMMITTEE REPORTS

Advocacy: No report. Due to multiple absences, the next Advocacy Committee meeting will be June 27, presumably at the Mission Valley Library.

Retiree Issues Task Force (RITF): No report

Other Retired Public Employee Associations: Chris informed the Board that the presentation that he and other members of the Roundtable gave at the California Counties’ Retirement Association went extremely well. He noted that due to their small sizes, many rural counties partner with state and federal retirees’ associations.

Active Employee Associations: Jim reported that Mike Zucchet said that there is a lot of work going on behind the scenes to resolve the Prop B mess but nothing to report.

Strength of the Past, Voice of the Future

Board Meeting Minutes – 05/14/2019