RETIRED EMPLOYEES
OF KERN COUNTY
MINUTES OF BOARD
MEETING
May 11, 2004
President, Norman Briggs, called the meeting to order at 10:05 a.m.
ROLL CALL: Mary Lou Bennett, Jeanne Berkshire, Norman Briggs,
John DeMario, Opal Hargis, Lois Maujer, Ginger Mello, Walter Stewart and Elinor Wells
OTHERS PRESENT: Belva Jared and Everett Julkowski
MOTION by Mary Lou
Bennett to approve the April minutes, seconded by Jeanne Berkshire and CARRIED.
Treasurer, John DeMario, gave the Treasurer’s Report for
the month of April. MOTION by Jeanne Berkshire to approve the
Treasurer’s Report for the month of April, seconded by Elinor Wells and CARRIED. MOTION by Jeanne Berkshire to pay the Claims
Payable as reported, seconded by Opal Hargis and CARRIED.
COMMITTEE REPORTS:
CRCEA – Delegate Everett Julkowski announced
that he had received benefits survey from
CRCEA to be completed and returned. Everett
requested that Treasurer, John DeMario, complete
and return to CRCEA. CRCEA has developed a CD with the Retirement Law of
the 1937 Act including additions
and amendments through 2003. Everett gave
this CD to President, Norman
Briggs, who will pass it on to our Newsletter Editor, Vicki Stronach to make copies where the membership
can check them out for a small fee
and become acquainted with them. Also on CD is the Spring Conference. Everett also informed the
Board that now is the time to write a letter to the
Governor in support of AB979. The President needs to send a letter on our letterhead in support of
AB979 no later than May 24, 2004. The
information was given to the
Board on where to send it and a sample letter to write.
Everett announced that
he has been reappointed Chairman of the Conference
Committee for CRCEA. Mary
Lueking who has been Secretary for CRCEA has
resigned and requested to be Historian and Everett requested that she be on his committee and that request was
approved.
CCAPE – No
Report
HOST/HOSTESS PROGRAM
– For the month of April, 31 volunteers worked 97
hours and assisted 1,138 visitors to the County Administration Building. Mary Lou Bennett advised the Board that she
had recruited 2 volunteers but then promptly lost 2 volunteers. One volunteer moved out of town and one has to take her husband to the doctor
frequently and will stay on as a floater.
MONTHLY PROGRAM –
Today our speaker will be Angelo Frazier, Chaplain for
Bakersfield Rescue Mission. Elaine Deaton
will have a Musical Program
for June and at this time Jeanne Berkshire does not have August or
September programs tied down but will by the deadline for the Newsletter. John DeMario stated that he knows that we don’t
have a
speaker at our
July meeting but he has heard numerous comments that
maybe we could
have some music to entertain prior to the barbecue.
NEWSLETTER – June 15th
will be the deadline for the articles for the next issue of
the TREND. The TREND was on the WEB on the
20th and at the printers
on the 22nd.
COMMUNICATIONS –
President, Norman Briggs, reported having received numerous County Newsletters. He also received an invitation to Voices of
Inspiration, a fundraiser through Hoffman Hospice, a flyer from Western Heritage Festival
at Kern County Museum and a flyer regarding a trip to Hawaii from Native Sons of the
Golden West.
OLD BUSINESS:
STATUS OF PUBLIC RELATIONS
COMMITTEE –
The Committee met with
the union leaders on April 28th. President,
Norman Briggs, announced that we met with
Alex Bernard, the new General Manager for
KLEA, who is retired from LA County and he has medical benefits for the rest of his life. Also at the meeting was Wally Grogan, Firefighters Union, Ward Wollesen with CCAPE, John
DeMario, Opal Hargis, Ginger Mello and Norm. It was a very good meeting and they are very
interested in continuing to meet as a group. They
are all looking at health benefit issues
because of the increase of premiums. The next meeting will be hosted by Ward Wollesen at
Marie Callender’s in August. The next
group that we need to meet with will
be members from the Board of Supervisors.
WEB PAGE –
President, Norman Briggs, spoke with Cathy Olague regarding the
fact that since there ad is on the Web Site, maybe they could give some more support to the organization. Norman stated that he thought that they could help support the Web Page.
MONTHLY LUNCHEONS -
Ginger Mello reported that she had typed up an information sheet that gives the exact figures
of what each of the three caterers will charge
for their lunches. At the bottom of the sheets is a statement of the price that it will cost
each member. It states a round figure of increasing the price from
$5.00 to $7.00 if you purchase your own lunch
ticket and it will increase from $4.00 to $5.50 if
the ticket price is held out of the paycheck. These
figures are for the highest increase that
there would be. Ginger also made a ballot for
each member to be able to vote. Ginger asked
5 members of the Board to please help pass out the ballots and to collect the ballots. The
ballots will be counted by the committee persons (Everett Julkowski,
John DeMario and Ginger Mello). The decision
was made to handle the vote prior to the Business Meeting.
It was noted that the ballots
should have stated China and Disposable to be voted on also
Because Ginger did not include
this, then we will have to explain this.
The first vote
would be for the caterer and then by a show of hands vote
on China or
Disposable.
PAC UPDATE –
President, Norman Briggs, received a letter from the attorney regarding the fees his legal group charge for
counsel. The fees are $225.00 per hour for
the attorney’s in the group and $185.00 per hour
for the junior associate. There
was a page for the President to sign in acknowledgement
of the fees to be charged. MOTION by Opal Hargis to give permission to President, Norman Briggs, to
sign for the organization, seconded by Mary Lou
Bennett and CARRIED.
RENTAL OF OFFICE SPACE –
Everett Julkowski stated that he will speak with DeAnn Straub on Thursday, May 13, 2004
regarding if there is a possibility of
renting office space at the Kern Federal Credit Union.
NEW BUSINESS:
JULY PICNIC –
Mary Lou Bennett has offered the use of her barbecue for the picnic. President,
Norman Briggs, will continue his search for a barbecue
to be used at the picnic. Helen Dodd is
prepared. She is waiting for a number and then she can start purchasing.
FEE INCREASE – This
item was not included on the agenda. Secretary,
Ginger Mello, received a letter on April 19,
2004 from the Kern County Parks and Recreation Department, regarding a meeting to be
held on April 22, 2004 to discuss fee
increases for the use of Senior Centers, Veterans Buildings, etc. Vice President, Jeanne Berkshire and Secretary,
Ginger Mello, attended the meeting. Ginger sent minutes to all the Board Members
regarding the
meeting. From the information received at the
meeting, we
would be charged $95.00 per
month for the use of the three rooms that we
use at Southwest Veterans Building. Then there would be an additional
fee for Norris
Road Veterans Building. We would use the
kitchen at
Norris Road and
that fee is $25.00 per hour. There will be a
follow-up
meeting on May
27, 2004 on this topic. After this, the Board
of
Supervisors will
have the final decision on the increase of fees. Secretary, Ginger Mello,
will attend the May 27th meeting. It
was discussed that
before it goes
to the Board of Supervisors, we need to meet with Bill
Wilbanks,
General Services and the Board of Supervisors, requesting an
exemption from the
fees because of our 12 years of continuous service in
manning the Information
Booth at the County Administration Building.
President,
Norman Briggs, requested that Mary Lou Bennett give him the
figures of how many volunteers,
how many hours and how many people
are assisted in
a one year time frame at the Information Booth. Mary
Lou Bennett
stated that she will make a report of the last few years with this
information
except use the word constituent in place of volunteer.
MEMBERSHIP GIFT –
Everett Julkowski reported that in March we weretalking about doing
something for the membership at Christmas time.Everett brought a sample of a pocket
calendar that LA County gives out and Everett was given direction to get a price on 500
calendars. It was also suggested to talk to
DeAnn Straub at Kern Federal Credit Union to see if they would be interested in printing
them for us with both our logo and the Credit Union on the back.
ANNOUNCEMENTS: President, Norman Briggs, announced that there is
a Retirement Planning Seminar on May 20, 2004. Norman
requested any information that he is to give out at the Seminar. The only thing he knows that we have to be given
out would be the new brochure.
MOTION to adjourn at 11:50
a.m. made by Lois Maujer, seconded by Jeanne Berkshire and CARRIED.
RESPECTFULLY SUBMITTED,
Ginger Mello, Secretary
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