Meet and Confer

By Bobby Lopez & Randy Sekany

As promised two months ago, the City of San Jose will do public outreach this week on proposed changes to its employee retirement boards. Up to now, neither of our organizations has been engaged in the outreach process – even though this is a “meet-and-confer” issue per our contracts. (This was the case in 2000, when the board was expanded from five to seven members.) Nonetheless, we’ll be attending public meetings at City Hall to learn more about what’s being proposed. We’re always open to listening and talking about ways to improve things.

Under the current system, the boards are made up of two city councilmembers, two active employees, one retired employee, a member of the Civil Service Commission, and a city administrator with experience in financial matters. The City’s consultants have proposed eliminating the two council positions, the Civil Service Commissioner, and the city administrator in favor of four outside financial experts, who would be appointed by the City Council.

Putting experts in charge of the pension funds sounds like a good idea – or does it? Weren’t Wall Street financial expert responsible for our recent financial disaster? This is something we should think about and talk about.

Regardless of who was sitting on our retirement boards, our pension funds were bound to take a short-term hit thanks to the stock market collapse. In fact, when you look at other struggling funds around the country, we’re in pretty good shape. Despite all the losses, our pensions are still fully funded, and that’s a testament to how well they’ve been managed by the current boards.

The bottom line is: everybody’s interested in improving things. We all have a stake in the City’s financial security because it’s all our dollars that make it run. Like you, we’re anxious to see the results of this week’s public outreach meetings, but we want to make sure that whatever comes out of these proposals, nothing is done to jeopardize the top priority of our organizations and our residents: public safety.

We invite you to attend these meetings to hear what city staff has to say. Tonight’s meeting is scheduled for 6:30 p.m. in City Hall Wing rooms 118 & 119. Tomorrow’s meeting is at 1:30 p.m. in City Council chambers.

Thanks for reading, and stay safe out there.

Bobby Lopez is President of the San Jose Police Officers’ Association, and Randy Sekany is President of the International Association of Firefighters Local 230 in San Jose.