July-August, 2017
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ASSOCIATION OF RETIRED SEATTLE CITY EMPLOYEES Non-Profit Organization For: Active & Retired Seattle City Employees U.S. Postage P.O. Box 75385, WA 98175-0385 PAID Seattle, WA ARSCE Website: www.arsce.org Permit No. 1100 ACTIVE & RETIRED SEATTLE CITY EMPLOYEES NEWS July/August, 2017 Volume 45, No. 1 OUR PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE By John Masterjohn SAVE ARSCE’s THE Fall Harvest DATE! Luncheon Here I sit writing my article in mid-May and you will read it, hopefully, sometime in July. I hope by then we are having sunshine because I am sick Wednesday, of all this rain. Can you believe we have had over 26 inches of rain this Sept. 13th, 2017 year and we still have October, November, and December to go? West Seattle I mentioned, in my last article, that the group 350.org Seattle has asked Golf Course the SCERS Board to request that the investment committee rethink their previous decision on divestment of all fossil fuels investments. It is my understanding that the investment committee did ask their consultants to Hreview it once again. We will have expected to hear from them sometime about June or July. Just to let you know, your ARSCE Board sent a letter to the SCERS Board reaffirming our position that the Board needs to uphold their fiduciary responsibilities to the City retirees. The letter is on page 5 of this newsletter. I met with Jeff Davis, SCERS Executive Director, on May 16th. Some of the issues we discussed were: SCERS is working with the City Benefits Division on maybe expanding some of the options beyond the current medical plans; we also discussed the new IT system, we have reported on before, not being ready to implement until November of 2018. They want to make sure it is working properly. Some really good news is that last year, SCERS investments returned 8.5% when what they normally look for is 7.5%. Jeff also reported they hired a person to fill his old position, Chief Financial and Operating Officer (CFO/COO); she started May 31, 2017. This will be good news because Jeff and Jason (Malinowski, SCERS’ Chief Investment Officer) were both taking on extra duties. Your ARSCE Communications Committee has planned a retreat to discuss ways to improve communication with our members, how we can work at getting people to join ARSCE, and getting our current members more involved. The retreat is going to be in August, so you have time to help by contacting any Board member with your ideas. We have been contacted by Robin Brannman who works for The Seattle Parks and Recreation Department. Robin works in the Lifelong Recreation Division which serves the 50 and over group. There are 4 additional people in 4 other regions of the City who do the same work she does. She would like to get our members involved in some of her programs. Her position is responsible for giving classes and taking seniors on field trips. Speaking of field trips, she is always looking for people to volunteer to drive their vans for the seniors. You can contact her at 206-386-9106, additionally, she can give you the numbers of the other people in her position in the other districts. Well, that is all for now. John Contact Mr. Masterjohn at [email protected] Inside this The Cost of Dismantling Issue YOUR PENSION NEWS Public Employee Pensions By Lou Walter, Retired Employee, Page 2 Member of the Seattle City Webmaster Wanted Employees’ Retirement System Public Employee Pensions play an Page 3 important role in the health and growth Parks Department of the U.S. Economy. Pension fund Retiree News assets are an important source of capital Page 6 for local businesses, and we should also take into account the amount of money Public Guest Column Employee retirees spend in their local communities. Numerous studies have determined that Page 8 Defined Benefit Plans (DB) have a huge positive impact on our economy, supporting $1.2 trillion Welcome New Members! in economic output. Page 10 Intentionally or not, state and local government policymakers have been steadily dismantling The Film Guy and reducing public pension funds, which will make it harder to meet our pension funding and Page 12 benefit obligations, with less capital to invest in the economy. We know that pensions have a Find Your Passion continued on page 2 Page 2 — ARSCE NEWS — July/August, 2017 Dismantling Public Employee Pensions..continued from page 1 dollar for dollar. In contrast, tax cuts do not help the economy as much, but do put extra money into the positive impact on the economy, and we should expect economy as a result of the tax cuts, but historically, the that the negative impact of dismantling public pensions results of combining these two actions has been a net will be greater than the positive economic impact of loss of the economy, followed by recession. repairing and keeping the pension plans. Whether it is reducing pension benefits for future When retirees get their pension checks, they put those workers and/or health care cuts, such budget proposals dollars back into the economy, either through savings could shift 100s of billions of dollars of middle class or purchasing of goods and services. If retirees stop money to the top 1% of the wealthiest in the country. getting money, or less money due to the elimination or This could find the economy continuing to increase in cuts in pensions, the negative impact is equal to the total income inequality…the rich get richer and the poor amount of dollars taken out of the economy. From there, get poorer. the negative capital flow is multiplied several times over as it works its way throughout the entire economy. When you look at the future threats to income equality, which we are currently suffering, as the gap Another way to view the negative effect of dismantling widens between the working classes and the top the Public Employees’ pensions on the national economy wealthiest in the country, it threatens the very social is to look at all 50 States, which are projected at $18.9 fabric we depend upon for the American Dream. trillion in 2025. The States continue to look at the dismantling of pensions as a way to reduce the state economies by $3.3 trillion, which would reduce the GNP (Gross National Product) of those states. There is an argument to be made regarding the Essential Telephone Numbers economic impact of spending/budget cuts vs. tax cuts And Web Addresses to benefits. Conservative politicians often support tax cuts to grow the economy and budget cuts to reduce the ARSCE: 425.443.3799 size of government. We can argue that budget cuts hurt (Change of Address/Membership Questions) the economy more than tax cuts benefit the economy, E-mail: [email protected] however, budget cuts take money out of the economy, Website: www.arsce.org Mayor’s Office for Senior Citizens: 206.684.0500 (Information on available programs/services) Wanted: E-mail: [email protected] Position of Webmaster Website: www.seattle.gov/seniors Personnel Department: 206.615.1340 (Benefits) ARSCE (Active & Retired E-mail: [email protected] Seattle City Employees) is Website: www.seattle.gov/Personnel/ accepting applications for the position of Webmaster. Retirement Office: 206.386.1293 or 1.877.865.0079 (Retirement Checks/Health & Dental Benefits/General Questions/Change of Address/Tax Withholding) Responsibilities of the position include: E-mail: [email protected] editing and maintaining the Association’s website Website: www.seattle.gov/retirement at www.arsce.org; maintaining email accounts for ARSCE officers; maintaining the online capability to accept dues payments, event payments, and donations; Statement of Ownership maintaining a list of ARSCE members’ email And Management addresses for the purpose of emailing them with information regarding ARSCE events, meetings, and 1) Owner and Publisher: Active & Retired Seattle City Employees issues; Address: P.O. Box 75385 Seattle, WA 98175-0385 and selecting vendors to host these various 2) Title of Publication: ARSCE News services. 3) Frequency of issues: Six (6) issues each year. 4) John Masterjohn, President It is desirable that candidates should have some Barbara Graham, Vice President knowledge of website creation and maintenance. Joanne Kinsella, Recording Secretary Some knowledge of payment collection services such Victoria Troisi, Financial Secretary as PayPal and emailing services such as Mad Mimi or Elizabeth Paschke, Treasurer Constant Contact is desirable. Lee Sattler, Editor 5) Bondholders, Mortgages, and Security Holders: None Once familiarity with the various responsibilities is 6) The Association of Retired Seattle City Employees, d/b/a Active & established, the necessary time commitment is usually Retired Seattle City Employees (ARSCE), is a non-profit organization less than two hours per week, though periods of more for educational purposes according to section 501(c)(3) of the Internal intensive activity occur at the end of the fiscal and Revenue Code. Contributions are tax-deductible. ARSCE annual dues are $12.00 (July 1-June 30). Semi-annual dues calendar years. are $6.00 (For new members joining January 1-June 30). Opinions stated by various writers are their own and do not necessarily reflect the policy of ARSCE. Interested individuals should send an email to: [email protected] Contact us at www.arsce.org The webmaster receives a small monthly stipend. Or telephone us at 425.443.3799 ARSCE NEWS — July/August, 2017 — Page 3 Parks Department Retiree News I also saw Pete Guzzo at a location near Northgate. We By Alan Hovland met almost 40 years ago when he was the head of the Special Populations Section.