RETIRED EMPLOYEES OF KERN COUNTY

MINUTES OF BOARD MEETING

November 11, 2003 

President, David Merritt, called the meeting to order at 10:05 a.m.

 ROLL CALL:  Jeanne Berkshire, Norman Briggs, Allan Choy, John DeMario, Opal Hargis, Tom McCarthy, Ginger Mello, David Merritt, Joe Porter, Elinor Wells and Doris Williams

 OTHERS PRESENT:  Dolores Christian, Jerry Dodd, Everett Julkowski and Lois Maujer

 MOTION by Elinor Wells to approve the October minutes with the correction of the spelling of Zander not Vander; seconded by Norm Briggs and CARRIED.

 Doris Williams gave the Treasurer’s Report of October 31, 2003; copies are on file.  MOTION by Jeanne Berkshire to accept the Treasurer’s Report; seconded by Allan Choy and CARRIED.  MOTION by Opal Hargis to pay the enumerated bills; seconded by Elinor Wells and CARRIED.

 COMMITTEE REPORTS:

 CRCEA – Everett Julkowski, CRCEA Delegate reported that he has copies for all Board members of the CRCEA Conference held October 20 – 22, 2003.  Some of the highlights that Everett pointed out was the four proposals that the CRCEA Legislative Committee would be working on.  Those proposals are 1. SACRS bill which is an alternative to SB67 (second marriage bill); 2. Pay for the Alternate Member; 3. Legislation that would say the Alternate Member has basically the same privileges, duties, responsibilities as the 8^th member (to address the inconsistent ways counties are presently handling the Alternate Member); and 4.Possibility of legislation to allow conversion of death benefit to insurance policy.Everett announced the Spring Conference would be March 22 – 24, 2004 in Visalia at the Radisson Hotel and the Fall Conference will be October 17 – 19,2004 in Fresno.  Everett is asking for input on ideas for topics of interest to have at the Spring Conference.  Everett would like these ideas no later than November19, 2003.  One idea that Everett mentioned had been made was to have a speaker regarding fire insurance on homes.  How much insurance do we need on our property in case of a catastrophic event, like the fires in Southern California.  Onething that everybody can do is take an inventory and pictures of everything in their homes.   John DeMario stated that their needs to be a little item in theTREND that on our Web Site you can find a link to CRCEA and be able to read this report.

 CCAPE – Blue O’Connor was not in attendance at the meeting today as he was a judge at the Veteran’s Day Parade.

 Host/Hostess Program – For the month of October, 34 volunteers worked 104hours and assisted 1,505 visitors to the County Administration Building.

Monthly Program – For this month Greg Pulskamp, Deputy District Attorney for the County of Kern will be speaking on Elder Abuse.  Also Lana Fain fromCALM will be speaking quickly to get volunteers to help put up 2 million lights for a Christmas display and fund raiser.  Norm has been in contact with the Sweet Adeline’s for entertainment at our Christmas Luncheon.

Newsletter – The TREND is in the mail.  Some of the members have receivedtheir TREND and other have not.

COMMUNICATIONS:  President, David Merritt, received 17 County newsletters, Making Waves, a publication of the Arthritis Association Adaptive Aquatics Center,brochure from the Kern County Museum, an announcement from Hoffman Hospice regarding the 8^th Annual Light Up a Life Event to be held at the Marketplace, and a Certificate of Liability Insurance for the County of Kern for the use of the buildings for the year 2004.  The President also wrote two letters and gave copies to the secretary to file.  One of these letters was written to Susan Wells, CAO’s office, County of Kern, regarding Health Net changing to Seniority Plus medical coverage for 2004 and the other letter was written to David Deutsch regarding an offer REOKC would make on surplus computers in the Kern County Employees Retirement Association office.

 OLD BUSINESS:

  STATUS OF PUBLIC RELATIONS COMMITTEE – Norman Briggs stated no Report.

 WEB PAGE – Norman Briggs stated that the year 2003 has now been paid.

  MONTHLY LUNCHEONS – There have been 36 people signed up plus 3    individuals who paid for the year with a check and there are 2 more to be put in the computer.

   FAIR REPORT – Jeanne Berkshire reported at the meeting that she had the Fair Agreement and it was all typed up for Jeanne to sign instead of the          President and that she would sign it and return it on the day of the                meeting.  She also announced a new decoration committee comprising of     Ann Farrell, Norma Morgan and Ruth Northway.  They would like to have a small budget to purchase decorations for the tables.  Today they have          persimmons, candy corn and gourds.  After looking at the budget, John          DeMario stated that $500 could be moved from Luncheon & Meeting             Expense to Decoration Expense.  MOTION by Opal Hargis to do as            stated in the sentence above; seconded by Allan Choy and CARRIED.

Everett Julkowski also suggested that in the Directory that telephone             numbers of the Helping Hands should be listed and also e-mail addresses of the Board Members.

 NOMINATING COMMITTEE REPORT – Tom McCarthy reported that the   nominations stay the same as given at the October Board Meeting.  As  follows:

                                       President                                       Norman Briggs

                                       1^st Vice President                          Jeanne Berkshire

                                       2^nd Vice President                         Elinor Wells

                                       Treasurer                                       John DeMario

                                       Director                                         Walter Stewart

                                       Director                                          Lois Maujer

                                       Director                                          Dolores Christian

                        President, David Merritt, announced that he will hold the election during the General Meeting.

LIABILITY INSURANCE QUOTE FROM STEVE PETTEE – President, David Merritt reported that he had copied our liability insurance policy and sent  it to Steve Pettee with Pacific Group who holds the policy from CRCEA.  Mr. Pettee will shop around in the market and will inform us at a later date on what he could find.

 NEW BUSINESS:

  It was stated that the Policy and Procedures Manual needs to be updated with the changes of the delegates travel expenses.  Mileage is now 36 cents a mile and lodging and per diem food depends on which county/state you stay in.

 ANNOUNCEMENTS:  President, David Merritt reported that Everett Julkowski had passed on to him information about The 13^th Annual Benefits/Retirement Training Seminar to be held in Costa Mesa on December 8, 2003.  MOTION by   John DeMario to send Secretary, Ginger Mello to the Seminar; seconded by Opal Hargis, and CARRIED.  Ginger will be listening to see what the state has to say  about the same things that REOKC and CRCEA are facing.

President, David Merritt also announced that he has a number of Association    Reports from the 37 Act Counties if anyone is interested and would like to see What other counties are doing.  Also announced is that the CRCEA medical plan   Will include dental and vision.  At this time Kern County has dropped Blue Cross For under 65 years and it looks like the 7 plans for over 65 will be reduced possibly to as few as 2 or 3.  One other thing the stipend is only funded year toyear and it needs to be funded for life.

 MOTION to adjourn at 11:43 a.m. made by Norman Briggs; seconded by John DeMario and CARRIED.

RESPECTFULLY SUBMITTED,

Ginger Mello, Secretary