RETIRED EMPLOYEES OF KERN COUNTY

BOARD OF DIRECTORS’ MEETING

February 14, 2006

The meeting was called to order at 10:06 a.m. by President, Norman Briggs.

ROLL CALL: Mary Lou Bennett, Jeanne Berkshire, Norman Briggs, Nettie Collins, Opal Hargis, Ginger Mello, David Merritt, Greg Salas, Earlene Smith and Elinor Wells

OTHERS PRESENT: Mary Hancock and Belva Jared

MOTION by Jeanne Berkshire to approve the January 2006 minutes with minor corrections of typos, seconded by Opal Hargis and CARRIED.

COMMITTEE REPORTS:

CRCEA – The Spring Conference will be held in Newport Beach from March 20 – 22, 2006. David Merritt, CRCEA Delegate stated that we have budgeted for the delegate and alternate to attend the conference. MOTION by Earlene Smith to pay for the expenses of Ginger Mello in place of Opal Hargis to attend the CRCEA Conference, seconded by Opal Hargis and CARRIED. David Merritt will also be attending the conference. Ginger and David will each turn in their expenses after the conference. David reported on the e-mail he received regarding SB777. The Firefighters State Lobbyist was requesting that the CRCEA language be removed from the bill.

CCAPE – President, Norman Briggs, will speak to Ward Wollesen at the next CCEOK meeting regarding replacing Blue O’Connor who is not able to continue due to poor health.

HOST/HOSTESS PROGRAM – Mary Lou Bennett reported that for the month of January there were 30 volunteers who worked 91 hours and assisted 997 visitors to the County Administration Building. Since the program began in 1992 through January 2006 we have assisted 230,795 visitors to the County Administration Building. Jeanne Berkshire reported that those who volunteer can get a free cup of coffee at the snack bar in the building.

MONTHLY PROGRAM – Jeanne Berkshire announced that Marylee Shrider from The Bakersfield Californian will be speaking today on her employment by The Californian as a columnist. An extensive discussion was held on Medicare D and how difficult it is for a person to be able to figure out which provider to choose. It was suggested that Jeanne get Ms. Prado from Department of Aging and Adult Services to speak at our next meeting on Medicare D. Also speaking will be Dixie Mathews from Kern Federal Credit Union on the scams being used locally.

NEWSLETTER – President, Norman Briggs, announced that the deadline for The TREND is February 15^th (tomorrow).

KCERA – Wanda Castro is still doing double duties and has not been able to attend our meetings. President, Norman Briggs, announced that he has a list of all the trustees on the Retirement Board (elected and appointees). Jordan Kaufman, CAO’s office, is up for re-election the end of this year. Norman feels that a person from the general employees should be recruited to run for this position and REOKC should back them. Norman stated that this is a topic which will be brought up at the CCEOK meeting. Norman announced that Barbara Patrick is no longer on the Retirement Board and that Don Maben is filling her position.

TREASURER – Mary Lou Bennett gave the Treasurer’s Report for January 2006. MOTION by David Merritt to approve the January Treasurer’s Report, seconded by Elinor Wells and CARRIED. MOTION by Jeanne Berkshire to approve the Claims Payable for January 2006, seconded by David Merritt and CARRIED. Directly after the meeting today, Mary Lou will take all the books for 2005 to John Doty so that he can do the audit.

COMMUNICATIONS – President, Norman Briggs, has received several communications of people wanting to be placed on the e-mail address list. Also received was about 7 County Newsletters. Norman also received a flyer on Aids and Attendance Program as a Veterans Benefit. This is an item that should definitely be placed in The TREND.

OLD BUSINESS:

STATUS OF PUBLIC RELATIONS COMMITTEE – President, Norman Briggs announced that the next meeting will be held on March 17^th.

WEB PAGE – President, Norman Briggs, announced that Liberty would like to have a link to some of their sites. Liberty would also like to do a presentation for our members.

PAC UPDATE – President, Norman Briggs, announced that he has not paid too much attention to this recently. Norman felt that we could hire an attorney to take care of this and it is actually something that we need to do and Norman has been too busy to get this started.

COMPUTER GIVE AWAY – John DeMario stated at the January meeting that he would have two computers ready to give away at this meeting. The tickets are at the meeting to be sold today.

NEW BUSINESS:

SENATOR SOTO SB 777 – David Merritt will announce at the meeting the address so that the members can write regarding this bill.

President, Norman Briggs, asked Mary Hancock if she would like to speak on what she is doing as Membership Committee of one. Mary stated that she has looked at the information Norman had gave her and the flyer that the Retirement Office gives out to the retirees at the Retirement Seminar. Mary also looked at the TREND deduction slip. Mary feels that with a little work the flyer could be improved upon. Mary also stated that there could be a large number of people or very few people who all sign their retirement papers at the same time, in the same room and she feels that this is where we need our information to be. The information is given at the Retirement Seminar but by the time a person actually retires, they could have forgotten. President, Norman Briggs also asked the Secretary to add Membership under the Committee Reports.

ANNOUNCEMENTS – Greg Salas stated that he has received several complaints from members that the meeting lasts too long. It was discussed how we can improve the distribution of the money for the raffle. It was decided that the President would ask for a show of hands at the meeting of whether the members would like to see the amount of each cash give away increased from the current $5.00 to $10.00.

President, Norman Briggs, announced that he had received an e-mail from a businessman who would like to offer computer services to our members. Norman stated after the discussion that he would go visit this businessman and see just exactly what he has to offer. It was announced that there are computer classes at Martin Luther King Recreation Building, Beale Library and Stewart Title.

MOTION by Elinor Wells to adjourn the meeting at 11:43 a.m., seconded by David Merritt and CARRIED.

RESPECTFULLY SUBMITTED,

Ginger Mello, Secretary