| RETIRED
EMPLOYEES OF KERN COUNTY
MINUTES OF BOARD MEETING
September 9, 2003
President, David Merritt, called the meeting to order at 10:10 A.M.
ROLL CALL: Jeanne
Berkshire, Norman Briggs, Allan Choy, John DeMario, Opal Hargis, Tom McCarthy, Ginger
Mello, David Merritt, Joe Porter and Doris Williams
OTHERS PRESENT: Jerry
Dodd, Belva Jarad, Everett Julkowski, Margaret Julkowski, Lois Maujer and Blue O’Connor
MOTION by Jeannie Berkshire to approve August minutes; seconded
by Norman Briggs and CARRIED.
Doris Williams gave the Treasurer’s Report of August 31,
2003; copies are on file. MOTION by Opal
Hargis to accept the Treasurer’s Report; seconded by Jeannie Berkshire and CARRIED. MOTION by Jeannie Berkshire to pay the enumerated
bills; seconded by Norman Briggs and CARRIED. A
discussion was held on the fact that our Liability Insurance has increased. Norman Briggs suggested that President, David
Merritt, fax or mail our policy from Walter Mortensen to Steve Pettee with Pacific Group
Insurance and get a quote from him for Liability Insurance.
COMMITTEE REPORTS:
CRCEA - President, David Merritt, commented on being glad that
Everett and
Margaret
Julkowski was in attendance. Everett
commented that he is getting better
everyday. Everett reported that at each
Conference an Association Report is published telling different events and things each
county is doing. Everett will include in this
report the number of retirees; number of members in the organization; the Trend; the
meeting place, day and time; Web Site; number of Board members and Helping Hands;
Legislation we have (SB270); Retirement Seminars and support from our Credit Union. Another idea suggested were the number of members
working at the Fair in exchange for use of Harvest Hall.
Everett confirmed that he will continue as our delegate to CRCEA. Everett requested that Ginger Mello, Secretary
send a notice to Dorothy Lueking, CRCEA Secretary to the fact that Everett is Delegate and
David Merritt is the Alternate Delegate from Kern County.
John DeMario will be attending as a representative of the Retirement Board. The Conference is October 20-22, 2003. Everett reminded everybody that there is a good
write up on the CRCEA Web Site regarding the desire to get medical insurance as a group
through CRCEA. To read this article go to www.CRCEA.org.
CCAPE – As of 9:00 A.M. this
morning there was no requests from SEIU 700. John
DeMario suggested that one of these days this Board needs to appoint someone to go with
Blue O’Connor to their management about the stipend.
If they have not reached a contract, John feels that we need to bring the
stipend to CCAPE’s attention again because that is where it needs to be negotiated. President, David Merritt, stated that
would be a good task for our public relations committee.
Host/Hostess Program – For the
month of August, 30 volunteers worked 92 hours and assisted 1,131 visitors to the County
Administration Building.
Monthly Program – For this month
David Deutsch will be speaking on SRBR and the effect the economy is having on the SRBR
funds. David will also introduce the
Assistant Executive Director, Anne Holdren. For
the month of October, Claude Fiddler, Chairman of the Board of the Gleaners will speak
about the Gleaners. For the month of
November, Paulanna Hodges from the Health Benefits Office will be speaking on the health
benefits.
Newsletter – Joe Porter was
questioning if he needed to put anything in the TREND regarding our meeting date for
November since the date falls on Veterans Day. Veterans
Day is celebrated on Monday, so we feel that having our meeting on Tuesday will not cause
a conflict. A discussion was held regarding
that the TREND is sitting at the printers office waiting for the advertisement from the
Credit Union. It was decided to get a generic
advertisement from the Credit Union to use at times when they are late getting it to the
printers.
COMMUNICATIONS: President, David Merritt, received the Attorney
General Opinion regarding Alternate Retired Member dated April 1, 2003. Also to be filed is the letter that President,
David Merritt, sent to the Chairman of the Public Employees, Retirement, and Social
Security Committee at the State Capitol in regard to AB2060. There is a copy of the Presidents September TREND
article to be filed. Three letters were
written to David Deutsch by President, David Merritt.
One letter was in regard to membership dues and luncheon fees; the second
letter was in regard to the fact that REOKC might be interested in acquiring used
computers that KCERA would no longer be using, and the third letter in regard to SB270
which was signed by Governor Davis on August 3, 2003.
A discussion was held regarding the computers that KCERA would no longer be
using. KCERA would be salvaging these
computers so there would be a price involved in acquiring these computers. MOTION by Tom McCarthy for REOKC to purchase the
used computers from KCERA and to raffle the computers to the membership; seconded by John
DeMario and CARRIED. Also received was 12
County Newsletters, 1 Bakersfield Homeless Shelter Newsletter, 1 Grant Writer Newsletter,
1 letter from the Center for the Blind & Visually Impaired and 1 invitation to a
campaign fund raiser for Roy Ashburn.
OLD BUSINESS:
Status of Public
Relations Committee – Norman Briggs contacted Supervisor John McQuiston and Supervisor Ray Watson and neither
were available. Norman received very poor
response from the staff of both of these
Supervisors. It was suggested that the committee consider
talking to a person who is running in
opposition of Pete Parra and Ray Watson. We
need to introduce
ourselves and keep our issues in front of them. Other
suggestions was to contact
Supervisor Don Maben, the members of the Retirement Board
and even Ward Wolleson and Chuck Wade, from SEIU 700.
Web Page – John DeMario stated
that the notice looked very nice. Doris Williams stated
that she did not get a list of the people who are getting
their TREND on the Web, so that Doris can pull those names and save money by not
sending them in the mail.
Directors
and Officers Liability Insurance – President, David Merritt, stated that we have the
policy through CRCEA that costs us nothing. He also stated that he would speak to Stephen Pettee at
Santa Rosa to see if CRCEA could get
this coverage, what the cost would be and how many of the counties would be interested in it.
Monthly Luncheons – The
question was asked as to whom to give money to if you
are not a retiree and you want to pay for a year. The
answer is, give the money to the Treasurer. Doris Smith came in to the meeting to get some answers
to her questions. Her main question was how
will she know how
many people to order for. She was told that she will have a list which will stay
pretty much the same each month and will just use that number plus the
ones that she sells.
Fair Volunteers – Jeanne
Berkshire requested that President, David Merritt, announce that she still needs 5 people
to work the fair. Secretary, Ginger Mello will contact Walter Mortensen’s office for a
copy of the Liability Insurance to be sent to the
Fair.
NEW BUSINESS:
Health Insurance
– Health Net Seniority Plus offered a chance of reducing the premium if you increase four of the co-pays. There are 682 members under this plan and we don’t know who they are nor can we get
that information due to Privacy Protection. Our
Board has three choices: one, stay out of it;
two, leave everything as is; or, three, reduce
premium and increase co-pays. The decision was
made to adjourn at 11:45 A.M. and immediately reconvene after lunch to make our decision on what we will report to the County.
SPECIAL MEETING – RECONVENED
ROLL CALL: Jeanne
Berkshire, Norman Briggs, John DeMario, Opal Hargis, Tom McCarthy, Ginger Mello, David
Merritt, Joe Porter and Doris Williams
After leaving Walter Stewart calling out the door prize numbers
at 1:35 P.M. the Board reconvened. After
considerable discussion regarding the offer from Health Net Seniority Plus, the following
motion was made:
MOTION by Norman Briggs for President, David Merritt, to notify
Kern County, Bill Douglas office in writing that the Association recommends and requests
the premium be at the lower amount; seconded by Opal Hargis and CARRIED.
RESPECTFULLY SUBMITTED,
Ginger
Mello, Secretary
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