RETIRED EMPLOYEES OF KERN COUNTY

MINUTES OF BOARD MEETING

March 8, 2005

President, Norman Briggs, called the meeting to order at 10:00 a.m.

ROLL CALL: Jeanne Berkshire, Norman Briggs, Nettie Collins, John DeMario, Lois Maujer, Ginger Mello, David Merritt, Earlene Smith, Elinor Wells and Walter Stewart

OTHERS PRESENT: Mary Lou Bennett, Wanda Castro, Jerry Dodd, Belva Jared, Everett Julkowski and Blue O’Connor.

MOTION by Lois Maujer to approve the February Minutes as read, seconded by Earlene Smith and CARRIED.

Treasurer, John DeMario, reported that he did break out the Decorations out of the Luncheon Monthly Expenses that we discussed at our last meeting. MOTION by David Merritt to approve the Claims Payable for February, seconded by Nettie Collins and CARRIED. MOTION by Jeanne Berkshire to approve the Treasurer’s Report for the month of February, seconded by David Merritt and CARRIED. John DeMario stated that we need to have an audit for our books for 2004 but has not contacted Jack Doty because of his illness.

CRCEA - Everett Julkowski reminded everybody about ACA5 and handed out information he received from George Shoemaker, Chairman of the Legislative Committee for CRCEA. Everett will be putting information in the next TREND on ACA5 and will speak to the members this afternoon regarding ACA5. ACA5 will eventually have an affect on our health benefits and our SRBR3. Everett also asked that we NOT sign a petition to go on the ballot in November that is titled "The Fair and Fiscally Responsible Public Employees Retirement Act". More information will be available after the Spring CRCEA Conference.

CCAPE - Blue O’Connor stated No Report. President, Norman Briggs, reported on a letter from Phil Franey, Treasurer/Tax Collector, to Blue thanking Blue for the time he spent at the County Information Desk to assist my department with our first installment property tax. Mr. Franey realizes that his department experiences significant lobby and telephone traffic during this time. Mr. Franey thanked Blue for his efforts to direct people to the correct department and especially since the County Information Desk is not staffed on Friday.

HOST/HOSTESS PROGRAM – Mary Lou Bennett reported that for the month of February there were 29 volunteers who worked 89 hours and assisted 1,131 visitors to the County Administration Building.

MONTHLY PROGRAM – Jeanne Berkshire reported that the speaker today will be Reed Tollefson coming from Weldon to speak for Kern River Preserve Audubon California.

NEWSLETTER - President, Norman Briggs, announced that he is supposed to be editing the Newsletter. This month there were several misprints. President, Norman Briggs, apologized and announced that Secretary, Ginger Mello will be helping with the proof reading of the TREND before it is mailed out. Ginger will be working directly with Vicki.

KCERA – Wanda announced that Ms. Lee Blair will be starting on Monday, March 14^th as the Investment Analyst and will be the assistant to the Director, Anne Holdren. The other thing that is keeping KCERA busy is processing the hundreds of 3% at 60.

COMMUNICATIONS – President, Norman Briggs, received in the mail 1 Bakersfield Homeless Center Newsletter, 2 CRCEA Conference Packets, 5 County Newsletters, 1 letter from Mortensen’s re: change of address, In Remembrance for Gene Wingo and Harold Matlock, letter from Bill Douglas in reply for the letter from CCEOK, 1 Chukchansi Gold Offer and a letter from KLEA asking for a donation to send deputies to Washington, DC for a memorial service for the lost officers this year.

STATUS OF PUBLIC RELATIONS COMMITTEE – We had a meeting on February 16^th. It was well attended and hosted by the Firefighters Union. The next meeting has been set for May 18, 2005. Ward Wollesen has set up a meeting for tomorrow to discuss the letter from Bill Douglas in reply to the letter from CCEOK.

WEB PAGE – President, Norman Briggs, stated that there are now about 150 people who are receiving their TREND through the Web Page. John DeMario stated that there are only a few on the list who are not members. Out of the 150 there were only 143 members. Mary Lou Bennett brought up the fact that the latest minutes was for the month of November 2004. Norm stated that he would check it out.

PAC UPDATE – President, Norman Briggs, stated that he has not put pressure on the law firm and the last report was that they were going to prepare paperwork for us to organize it.

RENTAL OF OFFICE SPACE – Walter Stewart put together a very comprehensive report of office space needs and office furniture and equipment needed to furnish an office. The only thing that is not in the report is what we are going to do with the office space. We have talked about what could be done but there has been NO definite list of things that would be done. Everett Julkowski stated that they plan to work with Don Campbell in Property Management Department when they find an office that is available and let him tell us if it is a good bet or not. Everett suggested that the Board (Ginger) make a list of what we would be doing in this office. When we get some cost to it, we will have to put it out to the general membership to see if there is a need to pursue it. Walter also pointed out that not only would we have the rent and utilities to pay but how would we furnish the office. That is another expense.

COMPUTER GIVE AWAY - John DeMario reported that he has 2 computers to give away today. John will end up with 3 spare 17" monitors if anyone is interested in one.

NEW BUSINESS: Mary Lou Bennett announced that John DeMario will be over at her house this afternoon or tomorrow afternoon to initiate. John needs to install the software. Once John gets the software installed he will give Mary Lou the general ledger through January for her to work with and then after a couple of days he will give her February and then they will try to re-create February on her computer. MOTION by Jeanne Berkshire for John DeMario to purchase the software Quicken to install on Mary Lou Bennett’s computer, seconded by David Merritt and CARRIED.

President, Norman Briggs, asked Mike Saleen, Chairman, Board of Directors, Kern Federal Credit Union to please come to our meeting so that we could give him a Thank You letter for all the support that they have given us over the years. Mike gave an update on what is going on at the credit union. The credit union recognizes that the retirees are very important to the credit union. Mike has tried to make sure that the credit union is "member friendly".

MOTION by John DeMario to adjourn our meeting at 11:30 a.m., seconded by Jeanne Berkshire and CARRIED.

RESPECTFULLY SUBMITTED,

Ginger Mello, Secretary