RETIRED
EMPLOYEES OF KERN COUNTY
MINUTES
OF BOARD MEETING
March
9, 2004
President,
Norman Briggs, called the meeting to order at 10:05 a.m.
ROLL
CALL: Mary Lou Bennett, Jeanne Berkshire,
Norman Briggs, Dolores Christian, John DeMario, Lois Maujer, Ginger Mello, David Merritt, Walter Stewart and Elinor Wells
OTHERS
PRESENT: Wanda Castro, Everett Julkowski,
Blue O’Connor and Doris Smith
After
Secretary, Ginger Mello, made a note of 3 corrections to February Minutes for those who
receive their minutes in the mail a MOTION BY Elinor Wells to approve the February
minutes, seconded by Mary Lou Bennett and CARRIED.
Treasurer,
John DeMario, gave the Treasurer’s Report and explained his reasons for moving
different accounts. John moved the money in
the Savings Account except for $50.00 over to the Checking Account, because the Savings
Account was under $2,500.00 and was receiving NO INTEREST.
By moving the money over to the Checking Account, John will have the cash
flow which he will need. Under the Special
Account, John moved it from a Savings Account into a Money Market Account because of a
high interest rate. After the Special Account
reaches $50,000.00 the interest rate will go up again.
MOTION BY John DeMario for Claims Payable as reported, seconded by Mary Lou
Bennett and CARRIED. MOTION BY Jeanne
Berkshire to approve the Treasurer’s Report, seconded by David Merritt and CARRIED. Treasurer, John DeMario, read a letter from the
Auditor, Jack Doty. Everything was in fine
shape except two transactions to the Special Account where expenses had been paid by that
Account. After these two entries, all
remaining entries were accurate and properly reported.
MOTION BY Jeanne Berkshire to receive and file the Auditors Report as read,
seconded by David Merritt and CARRIED.
COMMITTEE
REPORTS:
CRCEA – Everett Julkowski reported on the items which
will be discussed at the Spring CRCEA Conference. Everett reported on a couple of legislative items
which will also be discussed at the Conference. One very important item is HR594 which is the
Government Pension Offset and Windfall
Elimination Bill. HR594 has 285 co-sponsors
of bipartisan super majority of House Members. The other bill is AB979 which Everett spoke about
at our February meeting. It was expected to be on the Governors desk by the
end of February but at this time Everett has not
heard from George Shoemaker. Everett stated
that as soon as it is signed, George Shoemaker will
inform Everett. Everett announced to
President, Norman Briggs, that there is a very good
possibility that our organization will need to send
letters to our representatives concerning HR594.
CCAPE –Blue O’Connor spoke with Ward Wolleson
and Ward didn’t have anything to come before our organization and in return our
organization doesn’t have anything for Blue to
take to CCAPE. Blue had reported to
President, Norman Briggs, the answer from Ward
Wolleson regarding office space. At this
time, all office space is rented out.
HOST/HOSTESS
PROGRAM - For the month of February, 27 volunteers worked 80.5 hours and assisted 1,085 visitors to the County Administration
Building. Mary Lou Bennett reported that she did get one new volunteer after the last
meeting.
MONTHLY
PROGRAM - Jeanne Berkshire announced that today our speaker will be Rusty Shoop from Channel 29.
The April speaker will be Jennifer Peters from the Center for the Blind and Visually Impaired and for May, Angelo Fraiser,
Chaplain of the Rescue Mission.
NEWSLETTER
- President, Norman Briggs, commented that he has received numerous comments regarding the contents of the TREND. The addition of the menus and programs was a highlight in the TREND. John DeMario and Norman Briggs met with the
printer and reported that he is not capable of
automating the process of mailing the TREND. Norman stated that this will continue to be looked into and it
will depend on what we can get and how much it will
cost. At this time we are paying between 80
and 90 cents each to mail them. The deadline
for articles to Vicki for the TREND will be the 15th of the month. The next
deadline will be April 15th.
COMMUNICATIONS: President, Norman Briggs, received 11 County
Newsletters, 1 Bakersfield Homeless Center Newsletter, A Thank You Letter from the
Bakersfield Homeless Center for our contribution at the end of 2003, a letter from Joe
Herrera to David Merritt regarding the Ventura Settlement and a program of the funeral for
Alice Mack.
Wanda
Castro, Kern County Employees Retirement Association, gave an extensive report. She announced that Ray Dezember has replaced
Brent Dezember on the Board. The COLA is 2.5%
with .1% going into the COLA Bank. KCERA has
completed 74% of the Ventura claims. One
thing that KCERA had to do was add in 386 decedents who had passed away after April 1,
1996 and review their claims also. They are
in hopes of having Ventura claims completed in 6 months.
The Safety Members (Fire and Sheriff) have announced their MOU. They will receive 2% retroactive to January 1,
2004 as long as they are on the payroll when it is signed by the Chairman of the Board of
Supervisors. They will also receive an
additional 2% on July 1, 2004. There will be
a change in the retirement contribution of new members to help pay for their 3% at 50. There is a possibility of 3% at 60 for general
employees, but nothing definite yet.
OLD
BUSINESS:
STATUS
OF PUBLIC RELATIONS COMMITTEE – No Report
WEB
PAGE – President, Norman Briggs, reported that he has found that he has some bad
addresses for noticing the fact that the TREND is on the Web. Norman also stated he has not checked the hits on
the Web Page recently.
MONTHLY
LUNCHEONS – COMMITTEE TO SOLICIT BIDS FOR CONTRACTS – President, Norman Briggs,
appointed Everett Julkowski, Ginger Mello and John DeMario to the committee to solicit
bids for the new contract for catering our luncheons.
After a long discussion, it was decided that after the committee has their
information from the caterers that it will be brought up to the general meeting on what
they actually want. Whether they want China
and Silverware at one price or have Paper and Plastic at a lower price. It was decided that the organization would only be
paying the current $1.50 per person as we have been.
PAC
Update – No Report
Rental
of Office Space – Everett Julkowski reported that he will speak with DeAnn Straub at
the Annual Meeting of the Kern Federal Credit Union in May.
Maybe, by that time, she will have an idea of what the Board is looking to
do.
NEW
BUSINESS:
July
Picnic – Ginger Mello, Secretary, volunteered to speak to Helen Dodd regarding
heading up the Picnic or at least heading it up this year and training a replacement for
future years. We, the Board, need to start
looking at where we can get barbecues to use to do the cooking. An item needs to be put in the next TREND
regarding getting a free ticket for the picnic. A
reminder in the TREND that the picnic is for members and their spouse or caretaker only
– NO FAMILY.
Surplus
Computer Discussion – President, Norman Briggs, would like to start a computer
give-away at our meetings. Norman Briggs
reported that he has a friend who has a computer to give away and asked John DeMario if he
would like to clean it up and we could give it away at one of our meetings. If a person
has received a computer they can not receive a second computer.
ANNOUNCEMENTS
– No announcements
MOTION
to adjourn at 11:36 a.m. made by Jeanne Berkshire, seconded b John DeMario and CARRIED.
RESPECTFULLY
SUBMITTED, Ginger Mello, Secretary
