CO severely hurt in attack

Watch Your Backs!

Surge in Hennepin County Felony Cases

"felony charges in Hennepin County are up in all types of crimes, including a 63 percent jump in murder charges, and 15 percent increase in drug charges" -Star Tribune

FULL STORY 

Female CO's sue Cook County

Working in a jail or prison can be a tough environment. It can be even tougher if you're a woman.

The Chicago Sun Times is reporting:

Female sheriff’s officers sue Dart over masturbating jail inmates

FULL STORY

Some Details

As with most of you, I am a fiscal conservative. I have watched pension plans crash and burn. Like the Teamsters Central States pension.

To Minnesota's Credit, the PERA Board and legislature have historically done a great job of keeping our pensions solvent.

The last eight years were not particularly good for many pensions. The MSRS Correctional Plan, PERA Police and Fire, TRA (Teachers Union) and Judges pensions are not doing so well
and wisely some adjustments are being made to insure they remain solvent into the future.

Among proposals by Sen. Rosen in SF545 is to reduce the Cost Of Living Adjustment (COLA) of some of the plans, but not equally. Among them is to cut MSRA Correctional from a 2% annual COLA to 1.5% and to cut our PERA Correctional COLA from 2.5% to 1.5% so they are uniform.

Wait a minute. MSRA Correctional is way under funded and only gets a .5% reduction in it's COLA. The PERA Correctional Plan which is funded at 95.7% is asked to take a 1% cut in COLA!

The Legislative Commission's own actuarials on the PERA Correctional Plan state, "The funded status of the plan will increase gradually towards a 100% funded ratio."

It's disturbing to see Republicans like Sen. Rosen and her counterpart in the House, Rep. O'Driscoll, wanting to make things uniform. That sounds more like socialism than conservatism. Sadly, the vote was 100% in the Senate for this.

I can understand the cut to the MSRA Correctional Plan, but not the PERA Corrections Plan. They are two separate pensions, separate funding and one plan is anemic, the other healthy. Why give the healthy plan the bigger cut? This is unfair to County Corrections Officers.

Here's a large part of the problem. The largest Unions representing County Corrections Officers are MNPEA and LELS. We had no input!

The two groups that had input were Teamsters Local 320 (who lost almost all of their CO's) and AFSCME.  They were more interested is shoring up the pensions of their General Groups and Police, which make up a majority of their members.

AFSCME actually threw their approximately 100 CO's at the Hennepin County Workhouse under the bus. On their AFSME Council 5 website they call for shared sacrifice! Cutting our COLA does not help MSRS! If I were a Hennepin County Workhouse CO I'd scream bloody murder at AFSCME.

I leave you with a picture from AFSCME Council 5, calling for shared sacrifice! They plan on working against County CO's again in 2018. We have much work ahead.

Pension Watch Pt 3, what we are up against.

Watch the video, in it Sen. Rosen, Chairman of the Legislative Commission on Pensions and Retirement speaks of her bill.

Of note is the stated goal at the 3 minute, 30 second mark of "stabilizing the pensions at 90%."

Watch the video and then look at my comment son You Tube.

Pension Watch Part 2

So after much digging around here’s what I found out.

The PERA Board made no recommendations to change our pension.
It is 100% politically driven by the legislature.

The Bill (HF565) was introduced into the House by Rep. Tim O’Driscoll (R-Dist 13) and in the Senate (SF545) by Sen. Julie A. Rosen (R-Dist 23).

It died last time because Gov. Dayton vetoed it. But my understanding is it’s coming back.

Our PERA Correctional Plan already pays out the lowest benefit of any corrections or law enforcement pension in the state.

The Police and Fire pension pays out at a rate of 3% of their high 5 with a 1% annual COLA. They are only funded at 87.7%. (and they have a seat on the PERA board).

The State Corrections pension pays 2.4% a of their high 5 with a 2% COLA. (and they have a seat on their MSRS pension board).

Our PERA Correctional Plan pays out at 1.9% of our high 5 with a 2.5%  annual COLA because we are funded at 95.7%.

This Bill is patently unfair to PERA CO’s and Detention Deputies. We have the healthiest pension and the lowest payout! If they want to limit our COLA then make it fair and at least give us the 2.4% payout the State Corrections Officers get!

Rep. Tim O'Driscoll

The good news is that nothing can really be done on this until this summer. Our COLA is safe for 2018 and probably 2019 by the time they get anything done.

If we can get the authors of the Bill to withdraw the Bill or at least the part affecting us, we’ll be fine.

If not our pension will not keep up with the cost of living.

Contact Rep. Tim O'Driscoll  rep.tim.odriscoll@house.mn and ask him to withdraw our portion from his Bill.
Home: Sartell P.O. Box 225, 56377

Sen. Julie A. Rosen

Contact Sen. Julie A. Rosen sen.julie.rosen@senate.mn

Home: Vernon Center P.O. Box 428 56090

Ask her to withdraw out potion from her Bill.

When you contact them stress the unfairness.
Our pension is fully funded with the lowest payout.
Ask why they are punishing us! 

People who spend their lives in a dangerous career for public safety shouldn't get shortchanged at the end!



Feel free to contact me at my new email: pera.watchdog@gmail.com

PERA Correctional Pension Watch

As a retiree I am paying close attention to our Correctional Pension. There are some proposed changes afoot that concern me. They should also concern future retirees.

Of particular concern is this Correctional Plan item from the PERA website:

Anderson said that PERA staff will continue to meet with Correctional Plan stakeholders to gather input into possible plan changes. The Board did not propose changes during the 2017 legislative session; however, the Legislature did propose a change from the current 2.5 percent trigger to a fixed 1.5 percent COLA. 

In the same letter the legislature is proposing a change from a 1% COLA for Police and Fire to 1.5%.

Currently the *Correctional Plan is funded at 95.7% and the Police & Fire Plan at 87.7%. The trigger for a 2.5% COLA is 90%.

*Source PERA Comprehensive Annual Financial Report.Pg 12.

The exceptional health of the Correctional Plan triggers the higher 2.5% COLA for Correctional retirees.

The Police and Fire Plan has had issues and has been unable to hit the 90% -2.5% COLA trigger.

Our Correctional Plan pays out at a rate of 1.9% of our contributions. Police and Fire pays out 3%!

Our plan has more money and triggers the 2.5% COLA. Theirs currently does not.

I don't care what they give P&F, but the proposed downplaying of our benefit seems to be a give away from the money WE paid into ours for another plan.

There is a PERA meeting on December 14th supposedly seeking input I want to attend. I just emailed PERA to get the info.

Why is this important? Former Teamsters Business Agent David Metusalem has Retired from the Ramsey County Sheriff's Office to be Executive Director of Minnesota Police and Peace Officers Association, aka MPPOA (Congratulations). This required him to relinquish his seat on the Police and Fire Plan Board, triggering an election. We've never had a seat at the table!

The PERA website says they are meeting with "Correctional Plan Stakeholders." Who?

Why does this matter? P&F have members watching their retirement. Corrections does not!

Back in 2009 when we at Hennepin County were Teamsters, we made a proposal to get a Detention Deputy on the PERA Board. It passed, but never happened.

Who is looking out for us? Back in 1997 when we were first meeting at the Teamsters building with Mike Golen and Tom Perkins (our plans' architect) , Dan Wells from LELS sat behind me laughing at the idea. MPPOA and LELS won't care. Teamsters failed to act!

We have to get a Detention Deputy/CO and or Retiree on the Board. MNPEA members your board is already on this. The Correctional Plan architect is on MNPEA's board.

MPPOA and LELS, are you going to protect your 800 CO's?

Watch this blog for updates. Be prepared to contact your State Reps.

A good on and off duty Legal Defense Plan is a necessity

Fox 9 just ran a story about Hennepin County Sheriff Rick Stanek being involved in a fight in Las Vegas. Click here for FULL STORY

Unfortunately this sort of conduct emphasizes the all too common double standard of one set of rules for elected officials and another for everyone else.


I hope current licensed and detention stewards pay attention. This does set a precedent for discipline of employees for off duty conduct.

As a long time steward I can't tell how many times that same Sheriff disciplined employees for similar off duty conduct.

Before joining MNPEA, Hennepin County Detention Deputies were part of LELS. At that time they didn't cover either on or off duty charges. Next we went to Teamsters, their plan covered on duty incidences, but off duty you were still on your own.

When MNPEA formed in 2011, it was designed to protect members on and off duty with their legal plan. People will be people, and without protection off duty incidences can cost you time, money and as a public employee your job. They even added full coverage for spouses, because their conduct can also affect you and your job.

You don't have to abide their double standard.