City of San Diego Retired Employees Association

October 12, 2021

General Meeting Minutes

Meeting held via Zoom

President Dick Wilken reported that our future in-person meetings will require attendees to provide proof of vaccination; masks will be optional. He announced that Board elections will be held at our next meeting and that we will be holding our annual Holiday Party at the Bali Hai on December 14. 

He reminded members of our new community volunteer program, coordinated by Stacey LoMedico, the purpose of which is to match REA members with various community service programs in San Diego. 

Program

The program was our annual preview of SDCERS’ Annual Membership meeting, which will be recorded on November 15th and available for viewing thereafter.

Liza Grisafi gave an overview of our assets. The market value has risen to $10.3B from its 1999 value of $2B. Our assets have more than recovered from both the worldwide financial crisis of 2008 and the impacts of Covid in 2020. She noted that diversification of our assets is key to our success and provided an asset allocation pie chart to show the diversification. 

Marcelle Voorhies Rossman spoke about the challenges of the changing demographics of SDCERS membership. Currently, 25% of retirees are age 75 or older, with four members being 100+ years old.

Gregg Rademacher reported that SDCERS is adapting to new methods of communication and to equity issues. Benefit security is of great importance to assure that our benefits are paid on time.

Cynthia Queen added that SDCERS is diligent about cybercrime security. She also reported that SDCERS informs new retirees about REA during pre-retirement counseling.