Greetings Fellow REA members!
I am out of town and VP Mike Bresnahan is filling in in for me until I return. Thanks Mike! In 2012, Proposition B closed our City’s pension system to new members. I trust most of you know by now the wonderful news that the final legal obstacle has recently been removed for the City to eliminate the Proposition B language from the City Charter. We expect the City Council to soon pass an ordinance finalizing this change. Once the Charter is changed, new City employees will again be eligible to join SDCERS. We also expect negotiations between the several unions and the City to begin to allow those employees in the 401(k)-type system to join our Defined Benefit pension system.
Proposition B was ruled to be illegally placed on the ballot. The litigation to overturn this took almost 10 years to accomplish with appeals by Prop B proponents up to the California Supreme Court. We owe our partner MEA and their Attorney Ann Smith a huge debt of gratitude for their leadership and Ann’s outstanding legal work in this successful and lengthy battle.
What has not been publicized significantly is that during the years that SDCERS was closed to new employees, the City became uncompetitive compared to other public employers. This resulted in difficulty recruiting highly qualified job candidates and created many City job vacancies in key areas. It’s easy to understand why no other California cities have moved to close their Defined Benefit pension systems. A core part of REA’s mission is “to advocate for retirement security in the public and private sectors.” We will continue our efforts to promote retirement security and will keep you informed.