City of San Diego Retired Employees Association
April 13, 2021
General Meeting Minutes
Meeting held via Zoom
Vice-President for Advocacy Mike Bresnahan greeted attendees and reminded them that the meeting was being recorded and would be posted on our You Tube channel. The minutes of the March 2021 meeting were approved.
Dave Twomey informed members of two upcoming events: An April 21 podcast by our partner, Voice of San Diego, on the City’s budget with Mike Zucchet of MEA as a panelist; and a virtual food drive in June.
Cynthia Queen of SDCERS reported on four topics. Open enrollment is coming up, along with a virtual health fair; members will receive a bright pink postcard with the pertinent details. The COLA will be determined at the May 14 SDCERS Board meeting. The return on investments for the period of July-December 2020 was 14.2%. The City Council needs to remove Prop B text from the City Charter and the Municipal Code and enter into negotiations with the unions to determine how to accommodate post-Prop B employees.
Gregg Rademacher noted that as post-Prop B employees enter the retirement system, the system gets fiscally stronger.
PROGRAM
The program was Rebecca Zipp, Chief Deputy City Attorney for the Domestic Violence and Sex Crimes Unit. Her topic was scams targeting seniors during Covid. She counseled members not to blame themselves if they are the victim of a scam – these scammers are good at using deception and guilt. She pointed out that one reason why scammers target older people is that frontal lobe brain function begins to decline around age 55, and that this can affect emotions and decision-making. Loneliness and fear are other factors that can make older people susceptible to scams. She advised to be wary of texts from unknown numbers – she herself received one – and to not respond. Red flags in any email or text that indicate a probable scam are: Too good to be true; a guaranteed investment; consistent investment returns; low-risk, high-return investments; and “Today only!” offers. Zipp presented a list of resources for reporting fraud.