March 21, 2024 SCERA Retirement Board Meeting The Retirement Board approved eliminating the Negative Contingency Reserve and changing the Interest Fluctuation Reserve requirement from 3% to the 1% required by law. This is the first step required to possibly give a COLA at some time in the future. While this greatly reduces the cost to give retirees a purchasing power COLA, it is still over $300 million dollars to do so. There will need to be considerable discussion with the County Administrator and Board of Supervisors as the County would have to fund it. Discussion about amending the actual COLA policy probably won't take place until after July. This will not be a quick fix but at least there has been progress.
UC Berkeley Study on Sonoma County Pensions SCERA Pension’s Lack of a COLA Highlighted in UC Berkeley Study. Click on this link for full report -- UC Berkeley Labor Center brief on Understanding Public Pensions in Sonoma County.
August 24, 2023 SCERA Board Meeting on the Negative Contingency Fund and Impact on COLAs According to Julie Wyne, SCERA CEO, their use of the Negative Contingency Fund is one of the main reasons they are not able to give COLAs. Again at this meeting, Julie reviewed the use of the Negative Contingency Fund and it's impact on COLAs. This is summarized in her Power Point presentation. No vote was taken by the Board regarding action to take with the Negative Contingency Fund. This will have further discussion at the October 19th Retirement Board Meeting.
July 20, 2023 SCERA Board Meeting on the Negative Contingency Fund According to Julie Wyne, SCERA CEO, their use of the Negavive Contingency Fund is one of the main reasons they are not able to give COLAs. At this meeting, Julie reviewed the establishment of the Negative Contingency Fund and it's impact on COLAs. This is summarized in her Power Point presentation.
March 23, 2023 SCERA Retirement Board Meeting SCERA prepared an annual report on COLAs which was reviewed at its March 23rd Retirement Board Meeting. This report goes to the CAO and to the SCARE President. It shows how much people have lost due to inflation and the amount that would be needed to bring them up to 80% of Purchasing Power. Because there has been no COLA since 2008, the amount needed to give a Purchasing Power COLA to those who retired before 1998 is 50%. It is less for those who retired later. The cost to do this is very high since it has been so long without a COLA which makes it difficult to convince the Board of Supervisors to fund it. It will take BOS action to fund COLA. Take a look at the report at Sonoma County COLA Report for March 2023.
SCERA Pension’s Lack of a COLA Highlighted in UC Berkeley Study Click on this link for full report -- UC Berkeley Labor Center brief on Understanding Public Pensions in Sonoma County.
December 15, 2022 SCERA Retirement Board MeetingThere was considerable discussion of potential COLAs at the December 15th SCERA Retirement Board Meeting. In preparation for this, Julie Wyne did a comprehensive recap of COLA history in Sonoma County - click on this link for Sonoma County COLA History.
COLA History in Sonoma County by Julie Wyne November 15, 2022 SCARE Membership Meeting: Julie Wyne, the CEO of SCERA, gave us an update on what is happening with our pension fund. She also discussed why we don't have COLAs and plans for further discussion of possible COLAs by the Retirement Board and with the County Administrator. The Board of Supervisors would have to be willing to fund the COLA so this will not be a quick fix but at least they are exploring the options. A recording was made of the Zoom presentation which gives Julie's entire presentation. The Zoom recording URL is https://us02web.zoom.us/rec/share/7XRjmf_hw2Q881u4a2y7Ph-LSG8su4913PW04W9BhRiJ8KAr1BBx6mERqc_6UiNZ.NeJCRkypNhj8CBps (Passcode: *5DqkbGE).
We are in a time of continuous attacks on defined benefit (DB) pensions and public retirees. That is what Sonoma County has and what most public agencies have. It means you and employer pay into your retirement fund over the years that you are working and then you are guaranteed a monthly pension for the rest of your life. Private sector employers used to also offer DB pensions but most have changed over to what are called defined contribution (DC) pension plans or 401(k) plans. These differ from DB plans in a number of ways; most notably, the employee/retiree makes the decisions around investment options and bears the risk if they do not pan out. In many cases, the employer does not contribute to the plan. In Sonoma County, our Deferred Comp plans are very similar to 401(k) plans.
Research shows that 401(k)s have failed to provide retirement security, and yet, public agencies like Sonoma County and the State of California, are talking about hybrid plans - decreasing their DB pensions and increasing retiree 401(k)s. History shows this is not a wise choice and we want to provide some infomation so you can challenge some of the statements that are being made in the press or even by your neighbors or family or social groups you belong to.
The Retirement Security Committee of CRCEA (California Retired County Employees Association) has been researching this topic for several months and has published a paper which refutes many of the claims being made. You can see the full paper by clicking on Transitioning to 401(k)s - A Train Wreck in the Making.
We have also produced a "quick facts" on 401(k)s which gives much of the relevant information related to the failure of 401(k)s and the differences between them and DB plans, but gives it to you in a more concise way than what is in the full paper. We hope it will give you information so that you can respond to some of the attacks on our current pension plans. We encourage you to use this information to respond to articles in the newspaper; to contact the Board of Supervisors; and to discuss it with groups you may belong to.
Most of the public just sees the hype in the papers and doesn't really understand how DB pensions work - that both the employer and employee pay into them and that 65-70% of the actual pension comes from interest on investments on the pension fund.
They also don't realize that only 2% of retirees in Sonoma County are in the $100,000 club. The majority receive less than $2,000/month or $24,000 per year.
We hope that providing you with accurate information about pensions will encourage you to make your voice heard in your community. While the pensions of current retirees cannot be cut, making changes to the pension funding can affect our chances of ever getting COLAs. It is important not to be complacent thinking we have ours; we need to act to preserve DB pensions because it is good for us, good for future retirees, and good for the economy of the country.
We will continue to add information to this page. Additionally CRCEA has created a web page that includes a great many articles on pensions. It is available at www.crcearesearch.com.