Thursday, January 17, 2013

Pension Meeting

There was a pension meeting today. Hopefully by next week the November 2012 minutes will be available online. We'll keep you updated.

A side note: When pension news becomes a hot topic, regardless of your personal feelings, either Ed Wall or Robbie Robertson will take the time and respond on the blog.

But we have to question, where is James Hendrix? He was elected by the employees to represent them. So far he is missing in action.

13 comments:

Anonymous said...

Speaking of our pension. The stock market is at an all time high. How come our pension investments always loose and why do we have so many investment companies making us no money? That’s the way I understand the previous comments about the subject ??

Anonymous said...

I know its off topic, but pension for those on old system going up to10.4. Counting inflation our take home salaries have gone down about 25% since 2006.

Anonymous said...

The stock market is up and your Pension Fund assets went up with the market.

For the Calendar Year ended 31 Dec 2012, your Pension Fund investments were up 14%!!

Ed Wall

Anonymous said...

Mr. Wall, I know our fund is partially funded, however I have a question. Can you project what may happen to our retirement fund since the county has, and will no doubt continue to shrink. Do you see the fund being compromised by fewer employees, or a future decision to go to a defined contribution plan? I would be interested in your thoughts if you have any on this matter.

Anonymous said...

STOCKS HIT 5 YEAR HIGH today !
Is our pension invested in the "right stuff"?

Anonymous said...

I never hear anything at all from Robertson.

Anonymous said...

Mr. Wall, several weeks ago you stated that GA's constitution prohibits counties from declaring bankruptcy, so our pension would always be safe. You were asked to show us where that was in the constitution. For the second time, can you please show us where in the constitution it says that?

Thank you for letting us know the fund is up for 2012. Can we expect updates on a more regular basis for this coming year??

Anonymous said...

Here's what a quick google search of pensions and Georgia constitution turned up:

The first :

GA CONST., Article 1, § 1, ¶X

Article I, Sec. I, Par. X of the Georgia Constitution prohibits the impairment of contracts. This constitutional provision has been interpreted by the courts to protect retirement benefits. Swann v. Bd. of Trustees, 360 S.E.2d 395 (1987)(holding that where a statute establishes a retirement plan for government employees who contribute toward the benefits and performs services while the statute is in effect, the statute becomes part of the contract of employment so that an attempt to amend the statute violates the impairment clause of the state constitution); Georgia courts have recognized that a retirement plan for government employees becomes a part of an employee's contract of employment if the employee contributes at any time any amount toward the benefits, regardless of whether the employee vests under the plan. "[I]f the employee performs services during the effective dates of the legislation, the benefits are constitutionally vested, precluding their legislative repeal as to the employee, regardless of whether or not the employee would be able to retire on any basis under the plan." Withers v. Register, 269 S.E.2d 431

http://www.ncpers.org/Files/News/03152007RetireBenefitProtections.pdf

From a second site:

For over 75 years, the Georgia Supreme Court and Court of Appeals have held that once a employee makes the first contribution to a pension plan, he/she is constitutionally vested in the promised retirement benefit, which is part of the employment “contract,” and that benefit can never stop accruing or be reduced in any way so long as the employee remains employed. (See the summary of cases in the appendix.) A few cases have held that even when employees do not contribute any money to purchase their benefits, they do contribute their service as the purchase price, and therefore have a contractual right to receive all the benefits they were promised before they gave their services and upheld their part of the bargain. All the courts have held that any reduction in vested accrued benefits would violate the Impairment Clause of the Constitution of the State of Georgia, Article I, Section I, Paragraph 10, which states, in pertinent part: “No . . . laws impairing the obligation of contract . . . shall be passed.” The nearly identical Impairment Clause of the U.S. Constitution, Art. I § 10, cl. 1, states: “No state shall . . . pass any . . . law impairing the obligation of contracts.”

http://www.gappt.org/the-news/118-the-impediments-to-terminating-a-governmental-pension-plan-in-georgia.html

Anonymous said...

Also from the second page:

Also, governmental plans are subject to the pre-ERISA vesting rules under IRC § 411(e)(2). Those rules require a governmental plan to state that all affected participants will become fully vested on the date of any whole or partial termination of the plan, to the extent the plan is funded on such date. Some employers have mis-interpreted this accelerated vesting rule to be a funding rule.[2] It is not. The accelerated vesting rule does not allow an employer to include a provision in its pension plan that upon whole or partial termination, the plan will pay vested accrued benefits only from the plan assets in the trust on the termination date. Both ERISA and governmental employers must continue to fund their terminated plans until the trust holds enough money to pay all vested and accrued benefits to all participants and beneficiaries. As referenced in footnote 1, the PBGC will help an insolvent ERISA employer work out its funding shortfall. The State Auditor will help an insolvent governmental entity work out its funding shortfall. The Georgia Code does not permit governmental entities to declare bankruptcy.[3];

http://www.gappt.org/the-news/118-the-impediments-to-terminating-a-governmental-pension-plan-in-georgia.html

Anonymous said...

Thank you. I was looking for the word bankruptcy and could not find it. There are just so many different stories out there about the pension, who knows what to believe? When are we vested? Can you take a cash buyout? Is it federally insured? Depending on who you talk to, you'll get about a dozen different answers. You can understand people having skepticism on information from the board when it seems like the board has been less than forthcoming with information.

Anonymous said...

Thanks Mr Wall and please be sure that our pension is invested in the "right stuff" for the "right investment time" and that out reps keep us informed. We all do care about our pension that we contributed into for years and we count on you to keep it on the up and up. I feel that you do this for us. Thanks

Anonymous said...

Robertson...can we get a retiree COLA here yet? Stock market is at an all time high and Ed said we are up 14% year to date.

Anonymous said...

At least a COLA for the people that have been retired for awhile. REMEMBER,the newest early out guys got a pretty good deal for the 30 million or so that the pension lent to the county...are we being re paid for this and at what interest rate? I think we would like updates on this in pension minutes too please. Thanks