Loflyer sat down with Robert Robertson, a representative of our Pension Board.
Click here for some insightful reading.
Wednesday, November 17, 2010
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20 comments:
Loflyer,
Thanks for the info. Don't know why the law dept. would have a legitimate reason to keep pension info from employees other than the typical corruption that runs throughout the county. Website or not, the info needs to come to us each month. Even county email would do. Glad to see you are going to stay on top of this.
This is the same law department that was chastised by a federal for their behavior during the recent racial discrimination lawsuit against the county, Vernon, and Stogner.
Why does the law department block having a web site that informs the employees about their pension? The pension board still never should have approved the pension's involvement in the incentive. Many of the comments on this blog that reflect negatively on the pension board are in fact the fault of the pension board and the BOC for not making detailed information available to the employees who contribute to the pension. The county has the law department, the pension board has an attorney to represent them and still, who do we have to legally represent us unless the purpose of the pension board attorney is to stand up to the county law department.
Same same law department that's holding up the reserve unit since that days of Bobby Burgess.
The law department blocking a pension web-site made no sense to me either. I think the law department spends way too much of its time hindering county operations and sticking its nose into things that do not concern it. I will speak with Jenali about the issue tomorrow.
Robert was up front and honest with me, as I was with him. I doubted his statement about the 12.5 million loan to the county, and if he had been wrong it would burned his credibility for the rest of the discussion. Instead I found he was correct which would indicate everything else he told me is correct. Robert was courteous and open in his discussion and it was very easy to discuss the issues together.
Two items of note here. First Robert does not think highly of this blog which is why he does not monitor or enter discussion. Robert states the while the blog may be well-meaning most of the facts placed on the blog are half-truths or wrong all together. He referred to the blog as a "bitch-blog" and there is some truth in that because I personally do a lot of bitching around here.
Second, Robert doesn't think any of better of the BOC or CEO than we do. He reports CEO Ellis never attends the pension board meeting as required by law, and the BOC is only interested in the politics of getting reelected or elected to a higher position.
So here is my big question. What the frack is CEO Ellis doing that he no longer has the time to attend the BOC or the pension board meetings. According to Robert, state law requires the CEO's attendance to the pension board meeting. This might be an interesting lead to any reporter lurking in the background.
Personally I think the board is better off without Ellis onboard but it is Ellis's duty and job to attend the meeting.
Its funny how things work around the county. If I miss a meeting my ass gets chewed out but with CEO Ellis no one even cares. I suggest the CEO's job position is redundant along with his bloated office staff of 20 highly paid people and the county would be better off and a lot less money wasted with out him.
Best of luck mates! KenC
LoFlyer,
Robertson and the rest of the pension board brought this on themselves by failing to communicate with those that they are supposed to represent. They let rumors fester, they even let the CEO not attend pension board meeting with apparently not challanging him on it. Robertson and his pal's should blame themselves, not he people that are "bitching". We bitch because we are treated like mushrooms...kept in the dark and fed shit...go figure why we have the attitude.
How about we stop playing the 'blame game' and start focusing on the solutions to some of the problems facing the pension fund and county. 'Robertson and the rest of the board' didn't bring anything onto themselves. I have also spoken with Robertson and he has been open and promptly returned my call to answer questions I had about the early out. I can see how it may be construed that this is a b-page by just the the comments after the great job that Loflyer posted. If you don't have any constructive comments or possible solutions or even questions, I would suggest you stop showing your ignorance.
Loflyer, THANKS.
So the truth continues to confirm what some of us thought all along....Vernon screwed everybody he could. I remember when he tried to get control of our pension..can you imagine if that had happened? For now it seems the damage his administration did will take decades to recover.
Wikipedia says
Breaches of duty and remedies
Conduct by a fiduciary may be deemed constructive fraud when it is based on acts, omissions or concealments considered fraudulent and that gives one an advantage against the other because such conduct—though not actually fraudulent, dishonest or deceitful—demands redress for reasons of public policy.[32] Breach of fiduciary duty may occur in insider trading, when an insider or a related party makes trades in a corporation's securities based on material non-public information obtained during the performance of the insider's duties at the corporation. Breach of fiduciary duty by a lawyer with regard to a client, if negligent, may be a form of legal malpractice; if intentional, it may be remedied in equity. Clark v Rowe, 428 Mass. 339, 345 (1998) (dicta).
Where a principal can establish both a fiduciary duty and a breach of that duty, through violation of the above rules, the court will find that the benefit gained by the fiduciary should be returned to the principal because it would be unconscionable to allow the fiduciary to retain the benefit by employing his strict common law legal rights. This will be the case, unless the fiduciary can show there was full disclosure of the conflict of interest or profit and that the principal fully accepted and freely consented to the fiduciary's course of action.
Remedies will differ according to the type of damage or benefit. They are usually distinguished between proprietary remedies, dealing with property, and personal remedies, dealing with pecuniary (monetary) compensation.
Anon @ 7:29...so, we have to meet with or call or pension rep to get the information that we are entitled to? I guess I will be an example of what you say is "ignorance" also. Get real.
If people on the pension board sold out, if they took the early retirement for their benefit, and agreed to give the county this loan of $45 million, knowing that those of us left behind would be stuck footing the bill, they have a lot of explaining to do! Anyone know a good lawyer? We need to sue these bastards personally!
Here's the point some of you are missing. You can come on here every day and b*itch all you want. But have ANY of you besides LoFlyer or a few others taken the initiative to get involved? Did any of you do research prior to the last pension board elections? I'll be honest..I didn't. How many here even gave it a second thought when they reduced our amount back in 97? Most people I speak to don't even know the formula to calculate their retirement. It's a sad fact throughout the US that most employees don't care about their pension until after they retire. The truth is we should all know the names of every pension board member. The information is out there. Sure it might take a couple minutes of our valuable time but isn't it worth it?
Also have to agree with the part about this blog becoming nothing more than a b*tch and moan forum. No one wants to actually do something, it's easier to just come on here and complain. Don't like how you're being treated then go to a BOC meeting and voice your complaint in a calm and professional manner. You don't have to wait for someone to organize a rally. YOU start the rally. Hell we can't even get everyone onboard with the FOP. I went to one of the FOP meetings and hardly anyone came and the majority of the one's who did were supervisors.
Everyone wants someone else to solve their problem. Kind of ironic since that's what we complain about on so many of those stupid 911 calls.
Do you think the BOC is going to change just because a small majority of people rant on a blog? A majority of the time we are taking shots at each other. They are laughing at us!
It's time we quit typing, get off our collective butts, and DO SOMETHING. Brothers and sisters it's time for a revolution. Now who's going first? LOL.
I think we have all seen the county law department in action. If they were private counsel for any private citizens they would be promptly fired. We have watched them cost the county millions in extra payouts due to how they handled cases.
I believe an open records request of the minutes will show Mr. Robertson was well shall we say AWOL from the majority of the meetings in 2010 and if I’m not mistaken should have been removed by sitting board members for his lack of participation. So I find it hard to believe anything he says.
Oh and why do we have to wait until the end of the year before we are allowed a vote on the two positions we currently have filled with retired persons. The current hard working Joe has no voice on the pension board, EVERYONE IS RETIRED
WiseGuy@7:19am....I did go back and check the meeting minutes and Robertson has only missed 2 meetings in 2010 which is a pretty good average for pension board meetings and is in line with all the other pension board members, except the CEO, from my review.
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Talked to Jelani, the pension manager and he confesses to no information on the subject of a pension web site. He agreed to place the item on the next pension board meeting agenda. I sent him an email requesting the item and here is the copy of email.
"Hello Jelani, over the past six months it has come to my attention that communication between the DeKalb pension board and the employees and retirees has been poor. The board minutes are not published till two months after the meeting. Currently employees and retirees are awaiting the September minutes and it is late November. The employees and retirees need to have access to the quarterly financial reports, and also need email access to the representatives. I discussed the issue with Robert Robertson and I was told the law office had blocked a previous attempt to establish an official DeKalb pension board web-site. I am requesting the board look into the issue again, the employees are receiving rumors, half-truths or untrue information off the Internet that is bad for employee morale and undoubtedly causing the board problems with the employees and retirees. My understanding is that the DeKalb IT department can build a web-site in a month for about 20,000 dollars. I believe this would be money well spent by the the board, would improve employee morale and eliminate a lot of wrong information and rumors being passed around by the employees and retirees. Many thanks for your service, best regards, Ken Choate"
We will see where the pension board goes with the issue.
Best of luck, guys!
Wise guy, I took up your challenge! The board minutes are located at
http://www.co.dekalb.ga.us/finance/risk_mgmt_empl_svc.html
From July of '09 to July '10 there were nine meetings. One of the meetings, September 09 was a wash as not enough board members were on hand to form a quorum. Out of the other 8 meetings Mr. Robertson attended 4. He missed the critical meetings from October '09 to January '10 he was at the March '10 meeting and was present at the rest of the later meetings of the year.
Reading the minutes, when Robert was at the board meetings you could tell that he was obviously expert and had a definite influence in the meetings. However he was not at the four critical meetings that defined the incentive and then voted on recommending the plan. From the minutes of the 4 critical meetings, of the two employee reps on hand, Chris Pricket and James Butler, James Butler was obviously looking out for the employees and stated several times that he would vote against the retirement option even though he would be included. Chris Pricket was silent on the issue. After reading the minutes I think it is obviously that Robert Robertson leadership was sorely needed at the four meetings he missed.
Robbie stated they meet every 2 months. So meeting held, minutes done, but they have to review and motion to approve. So it makes sense that it would take 2 months for them to get published, and you to get the information.
Not saying it's good, and that there's no solution - just explains the delay perhaps???
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