Valley Chapter February 2007 Minutes

P.O.R.A.C. Valley Chapter Meeting Minutes

February 08, 2007
Dave Wong's in Stockton, CA
Sponsored by San Joaquin County DSA

By Jim Bock

Attendance:
Calaveras County DSA:
Tracy Busby

Elk Grove POA:
Dan Schnepple (VC-President)

Sacramento POA:
Paul Brown (VC-Treasurer), Jerry Camous

San Joaquin County DSA:
Steve Walker (VC-Vice President), Randy Beintema (Executive Director), Shelby Oliver, Gary Yip, Dave Oliver, Rex Yturri, Chanda Bassett, Dave Bassett, Kevin Johnson, William Gardner

Goyette and Associates:
Paul Goyette, Dave French (PORAC I&B), Paul Konsdorf (Stanislaus RDSA)

Mastagni, Holstedt, Amick, Miller, Johnsen and Uhrhammer :
Chris Miller, John Holstedt

Old Business:
Dan Schnepple
By-laws Committee - Last month, it was briefly mentioned that the Valley Chapter would be forming a committee to update the by-laws. Per the current by-laws, Steve Walker will be the chair for the By-laws Committee. Jim Bock and Dave Reeder have been appointed to sit on the committee and more volunteers are needed. The committee will meet and provide their recommendations at the June meeting, so the required voting can take place and be in effect for the upcoming elections. Jim will provide a secured forum for communication between the committee.

Minutes Question - Last month, Joe Schmit brought up a question regarding who can make a motion to accept and vote on the minutes from the previous month. At issue was the question as to whether it was appropriate for a member who was not present at the previous meeting to make a motion to and/or vote to accept the minutes from said meeting. The argument was that the person would not be able to accurately determine if the minutes were correct. Research was done on the matter in the Valley Chapter By-laws, the PORAC By-laws and within Robert's Rules of Order. None of these documents addressed this issue. Based upon the lack of a definitive answer, we will maintain the same practice and allow any member to motion and/or vote to accept the minutes from the previous month.

Reports:
PAC/OGA (Randy Beintema):
Legislation - The legislative bills are starting to come out now. Again, our retirement is a target. The Howard Jarvis Tax Foundation and Keith Richards are blaming the financial woes of cities, counties and districts on the expensive retirement plans. Something is coming, we just do not know what it will be, or when at this point. The Governor is being very quiet about this issue.

I&B (Dave French):
Health Insurance - Insurance companies are beginning to segregate who they take based upon their employment. If you are not part of a group plan, you run a greater risk of getting rejected. Police and Firefighters are considered as high risk jobs and are considered undesirable to insurance companies. Pacificare has started rejecting Police and Firefighters.

Service Providers:
Paul Goyette (Goyette and Associates):
Lybarger Ruling - Plaintiff Thomas Spielbauer was dismissed by his employer, defendant County of Santa Clara, on the grounds that he had engaged in conduct unbecoming a county employee by making deceptive statements to a judge, and had committed insubordination by refusing to answer questions about the incident on grounds that his answers might incriminate him. This case was heard in the 6th District Court and held that the Lybarger principle was insufficient without a formal grant of immunity from the prosecuting agency. Gary Messing (Carroll, Burdick & McDonough) and Chris Miller (Mastagni, et. al) provided a spirited input into the discussion. One point of view was that this ruling did not affect police officers. Ultimately, the discussion ended with the advice to seek legal advice from your association attorneys for all pending IAs.

LDF Issue - In the event that you have association members resign you should make certain that you check with LDF to make sure they are covered by LDF after their resignation date. If an issue comes to fruition after the member has resigned, it is very possible that they will not covered by LDF.

Sophie Imbuelten (California Casualty)
Rates and ID Theft - Beginning on February 01 of this year all of our members started receiving lower rates. Additionally, we are now covering ID Theft for free to all of our policy holders automatically. More information is available on the web site. www.aplus.com

Association Reports:
Sacramento POA (Jerry Camous)
Following a massive retirement surge in our department after the implementation of 3%@50, the city started to hire non-career personnel to serve in career positions. We won a challenge and were able to get an agreement that made the annuitants reserves under the control of the POA. A Court of Appeals reversed that decision out of the POA favor, saying the city can hire annuitants outside of the POA. A brief is in process and LDF is assisting.

San Joaquin County DSA (Rex Yturri)
We are hosting a crab feed coming up on February 23. Cost will be $40.00 per person.

Stockton Unified School District POA (Rob Matthews)
We will be commencing contract negotiations in June and would like to get a head start. We would appreciate a copy of as many agency MOU's as possible.

Next Valley Chapter Meeting:
Will be hosted by the Elk Grove POA and will be held at Vince's Ristorante on March 08, 2007.