Plans to use our Pension to pay off others Student Loans!

Pension Raiders

How forgiving Student Loans can affect your pension

I’m watching many current presidential candidates and politicians discussing forgiving student loans.

One of the main ways suggested to accomplish this is by “having Wall Street” pay for it.

In reality it’s having our Pension Plans pay for it!

Bernie Sanders plan lays it out like this, “We can guarantee higher education as a right for all and cancel all student debt for an estimated $2.2 trillion. To pay for this, we will impose a tax of a fraction of a percent on Wall Street speculators who nearly destroyed the economy a decade ago. This Wall Street speculation tax will raise $2.4 trillion over the next ten years.  It works by placing a 0.5 percent tax on stock trades – 50 cents on every $100 of stock –  a 0.1 percent fee on bond trades, and a 0.005 percent fee on derivative trades. 

The problem is Wall Street is US!

Pensions, like PERA and 401k’s invest our money in Stocks on Wall Street. How well those investments perform determines the health of our Pension Funds and our COLA’s (Cost of Living Adjustment).

I’ll use the PERA Correctional Plan as an example. Our plan is based on an actuarial return on investment of 7.5% annually. 

The PERA Correctional plan COLA is dependent on funding status, a large part of that is investments!

“Beginning in 2019, the COLA will be equal to 100 percent of the increase announced by SSA, with a minimum increase of at least 1 percent and a maximum of 2.5. If the Plan’s funding status declines to 85 percent or below for two consecutive years or 80 percent for one year, the cap will be lowered from 2.5 percent to 1.5.” -PERA website 

In other words, if Wall Street is taxed to pay off student loans, Retirees and 401k’s will be the ones paying those loans.

The result would be lower monthly retirement payments and lower cost of living adjustments.

You never thought you’d work all of your life just to have your retirement investments taken to pay off someone else’s student loans did you?

Some politicians think that’s a great idea. 

According to Bernie Sanders, taxing Wall Street will raise $2.4 Trillion over 10 years. That's a $2.4 Trillion hit on our investments! 

The concept of taking our investments to pay off someone else's student loan is wrong.

Watch your wallet.

Dave Metusalem , Conflict of Interest on PERA Board

Dave Metuslam

I just read the June 29, Newsletter for members of PERA today. As a Corrections Retiree Reporter I feel duty bound to point out a conflict of interest.

This caught My eye,  from Thomas Stanley,President of the PERA Board of Trustees: " I also want to welcome David Metusalem back to the board as the Retired, Disabled, and Survivor representative. Dave has prior experience on the PERA board as an elected Police and Fire representative and also served as vice president."

Let me state up front, this appointment is rife with conflict of interest. Dave rose through the ranks at the Ramsey County Sheriff's Office. He eventually was the Under Sheriff at Ramsey County, July of 1995 to March 2017. During that time he sat on the PERA Board representing Police and Fire.

He had to step down from the PERA board when he retired as a Peace Officer and became the Executive Director of the MPPOA, May 2017 until December 2018 when he left the MPPOA. All is well and good up until then.

Well now he is the appointed Chief Deputy of the Ramsey County Sheriff's Office and the PERA Board Retired, Disabled and Survivor representative and therein lies the conflict.

As Chief Deputy he has the power to hire and fire, but more importantly, as Chief Deputy he has say over which Detention Deputies and Deputies can qualify for Disability under PERA. So the conflict is, will he be looking out for the interest of the Ramsey County Sheriff's Office or the PERA member seeking a PERA disability pension?

This is perfectly legal. He is a retiree, and as an appointed Chief Deputy he can legally hold this position. But this loop hole in the law allows a conflict! Imagine you're an injured Ramsey County Detention Deputy or Licensed Deputy and your boss has a vote on the PERA Board whether or not you qualify for a Disability Pension?

The election to fill the Retired, Disabled, and Survivor representative won't open up for more then a year. But at that time I will put my name in to represent us on the PERA Board as the Retired, Disabled, and Survivor representative.

I look forward to your support and will continue to look out for our Pension.

Sherburne County may add more ICE Beds

Detention Deputies/Corrections Officers are on the front lines of Homeland Security!

According to MPR:

Sherburne County is proposing to expand its jail to provide space for up to 500 immigration detainees, an increase from the 300 beds it currently provides for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

Sherburne County has the second-largest county jail in Minnesota, capable of housing 732 inmates. For decades, the county has contracted with the U.S. government to house immigration detainees and other federal inmates. Its jail once held the 20th conspirator behind the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, Zacarias Moussaoui.

Full Story

Hennepin County Detention Deputies on YouTube

Looks like Sheriff Hutch is promoting the Detention Deputy position in Hennepin County. Very refreshing to see. Also I see the new Sheriff allows people with tattoos! Very glad to see the old policy go away!

Correctional OfficersWeek

In 1984, President Ronald Reagan signed Proclamation 5187, creating “National Correctional Officers’ Week.” Each year, the first full week in May is recognized as National Correctional Officers and Employees Week, commemorating the contributions of correctional officers and personnel who work in jails, prisons, and community corrections across the country.

Thank you!

Bill advances to name Highway 95 after CO Gomm

Senator Housley’s bill memorializing fallen Stillwater corrections officer passes Senate

May 1, 2019

On Tuesday, legislation to rename a section of state Highway 95 after fallen corrections officer Joseph Gomm passed the Minnesota Senate. The bill, authored by Senator Karin Housley (R-St. Marys Point), passed with unanimous support. 

“We mourn the loss of Officer Gomm – and his legacy of sacrifice must not be forgotten,” said Senator Housley. “Officer Gomm paid the ultimate sacrifice, sacrificing his life in the line of duty to keep us safe. This is a small token of this community’s appreciation.”

FULL STORY MNSRC

Work 1 day for 10 years of pension benefits!

You read the title correctly. Economist Dan Mitchell has an article called Bureaucrat of the Year.
It outlines how an Illinois lobbyist was made a substitute teacher for 1 day then got 10 years worth of credit for a Teachers Union Pension!

It's not us worker bees that are ruining public employee pensions!

From the article-

The Chicago Tribune recently opined on this horrific example.

…a controversial state law…allowed a lobbyist for the Illinois Federation of Teachers, David Piccioli, to become certified as a substitute teacher in December 2006 by working one day at a Springfield elementary school — and to buy pension credit for his 10 previous years working as a lobbyist. That sweet deal qualified him for a pension windfall from a teachers retirement fund that as of late 2018 carried an unfunded liability of more than $75 billion-with-a-B. Because he also draws a pension from a previous job as a House Democratic aide, Piccioli’s total pension income now rises to nearly $100,000.

PERA Retirement Plans show positive trend

PERA’s retirement plans show positive trend in 30-year projections

February 6, 2019

Legislatively required 30-year projections of estimated funding status show a positive trend for PERA’s plans under current assumptions.  PERA’s three largest plans all project to be fully funded, meaning assets will equal accrued liabilities, within the next 20 years.

The projections were based on plan assumptions, assets, and member data as of July 1, 2018.  Actual investment returns since July 1, 2018 have been positive, but below the assumed 7.5 percent rate of return.  As a result, an updated forecast would delay the projected full funding dates by a few years.

The projections also show what would happen if the investment returns were 6.0 percent or 9.0 percent—the current assumed rate of 7.5 percent plus or minus 1.5 percent.  Results under those scenarios vary considerably.  Worth noting is that the only sensitivity analysis done in these reports are the investment returns.  No other expectations are changed.  For example, if investment returns are persistently low, there is no corresponding adjustment in the projections to reflect the mitigating result caused by possible lower salary increases or inflation.

The full reports are available.

General Employees Plan

Police & Fire Plan

Correctional Plan

Source PERA

70 year old CO commits suicide on the job

The Houston Chronicle is reporting that 

"A 70-year-old corrections officer died by suicide Monday after shooting himself with his service weapon at a Huntsville prison, officials said."

First of all my heart goes out to this man, his family and all of his fellow Corrections Officers.

While the article doesn't give a reason why, this raises the question. Why was he still working as a CO at 70?

CO's have a very high rate of PTSD. It is a job that is stressful and makes you constatntly hyper-vigilant.

It's a job that often requires you to be in physical altercations with men often younger than you.

In Minnesota Corrections Officers can retire at 55 because of all of the aforementioned reasons.

There is life after Corrections. A good one. If you are 55 or older get out and enjoy the day.
Don't sink in the stress of the job.

Court forces Teamsters Local 320 to return ill gotten dues and Pension news.

Teamsters officials forced to return every dollar, plus interest, of fees seized by the union from the court workers

Minneapolis, MN (September 10, 2018) – A federal First Amendment lawsuit brought by National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation staff attorneys for two Minnesota court employees against a Teamsters local union has ended with the workers winning a settlement that will return to the workers all forced union dues seized by union officials. The refund is a result of the Foundation-won U.S. Supreme Court Janus v. AFSCME decision, which held that the First Amendment prohibits mandatory union fees for public sector workers.

Carrie Keller and Elizabeth Zeien, employees of the State of Minnesota Court System, filed the lawsuit after Teamsters Local 320 union officials and Minnesota state officials forced them into union ranks without a vote and against their desire.

FULL STORY

Plus Pension News

Craig Johnson, Teamsters Local 320 BA tries to take credit for protecting our Pension last year! Everyone who's been following this blog knows Brian Aldes, Secretary-Treasurer of Teamsters Local 320 "signed off" on CUTS to the PERA Correctional Plan. Only after this author and MNPEA went to bat was our 2.5% COLA maintained. Had Johnson and Aldes had their way it would have been only 1.4% this year.

The following letter from Craig Johnson of Teamsters Local 320 was shared with me by our Ramsey County CO readers of this blog. Note the last sentence; "...we worked on the Omnibus Pension Bill to secure PERA remains strong...."

They had agreed to cap our pension at 1.5%! They and AFSCME called it shared sacrifice. Sorry Craig, we don't don't need that kind of "work" on our pension.

and just like that there was a new Sheriff

On January 7, 2019 Dave Hutch was sworn as Sheriff of Hennepin County!

Congratulations Hennepin County Dave Sheriff Hutch!

Sheriff Hutch giving acceptance speech

Some in overflow attendance

NEW PTSD law covers Corrections Officers

One of the new Minnesota laws taking affect January 1, 2019 is one that recognizes PTSD as covered by Workers Comp for Public Safety and First Responders including Corrections Officers.

FULL STORY 

Occupational Disease/PTSD/ Post Traumatic Stress Disorder

This paragraph creates a post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) presumption for an employee who was employed on active duty as:

• a licensed police officer;
• a firefighter;
• a paramedic;
• an emergency medical technician;
• a licensed nurse employed to provide emergency medical services outside of a medical facility;
• a public safety dispatcher;
• an officer employed by the state or a political subdivision at corrections, detention or secure treatment facility;
• a sheriff or full-time deputy sheriff of any county; or
• a member of the Minnesota State Patrol.

DOC investigating assault on CO at St. Cloud MCF

KSTP is reporting:

December 27, 2018 04:34 PM

The Minnesota Department of Corrections is investigating an assault that occurred Thursday morning at the Minnesota Correctional Facility-St. Cloud.

According to a statement from the department, a corrections officer was assaulted in the dining hall at the facility. The statement said three other officers were injured while responding to the assault. 

FULL STORY

The Incoming HCSO Sheriff Hutch Administration

Incoming HCSO Sheriff Hutch has announced his administrative team. He has picked some very good people for the Chief Deputy and Major positions.

Tracey Martin-Chief Deputy

Bob Staupe- Commander Enforcement Services Bureau

Jeffrey Storms (current Chief Deputy) - Commander Administrative Services Bureau

Patrick King- Commander of the Investigations Bureau

Source - Star Tribune

I think he's made some solid choices. People with experience in the HCSO most of whom worked their way up from the bottom.

Best of luck to all.

Workplace email, or how to get fired!

We live in an electronic age. Everyone is connected by phone, email, texts, social media, &c.

Everyone working as a Detention Deputy or CO is aware of the Sheriff's Office/County email policy.

Every once in a while someone gets pinched using county email for personal use, or worse outside business use.

A 17 year Ramsey County Sheriff's Department employee went astray of the County Policy and was fired. He appealed his firing through Arbitration.

This ended up in Arbitration BMS Case 18-PA-0261 Hendrickson Discharge.

Allegation:

*Grievant received racist, sexist and pornographic emails on employer email without objection.
*Conducted his outside business using his Ramsey County email address.
*Grievant worked for a Security Company for 6 years without employer permission.
*Grievant violated MN Data Practices Act

Defense:

*Long time employee with good discipline record, even was promoted to Sergeant.
*The emails were sent while grievant was on Workers Comp and NOT opened at work.
*Most of the emails were forwarded and/or not opened on the Employer's system.
*County could stop receipt of outside email by using filters.
*Grievant thought he was forwarding Data Practice protected information to Law Enforcement.

Decision:

Termination upheld by the Arbitrator.


Bottom line, employer email is employer email. Even if accessed offsite!

Hold on to your Wallet!

Recently many of you (and me) received a letter from the MMRA (Minnesota Municipal Retirement Association).

They talked about "cuts" to your pension's COLA from 2.5% to 1%, but for $5 a month they would fight for your raise!

This sounded like a money making scam to me so I contacted them and asked what they were doing for PERA Correctional Plan members. The response was, " MMRA is restricted to represent only PERA General members. "

Fact: the PERA Correctional Plan cost of living raise is still 2.5%. 

This raises several questions.

1. Why did they send this to PERA Correctional Plan members?
2. How did they get our addresses?
3. Why are they soliciting money from the PERA Correctional Plan members?

The 'why' seems to be a way to scam people into paying $5 a month for nothing!

How they got the addresses is a mystery. PERA does not give those out. My guess, a former Union of ours (not MNPEA) sold them the addresses.

The 'why solicit' is it's just a way to skim money from people they will never assist.

To sum this up. The PERA Correctional Plan's COLA is 2.5%. The MMRA does not lobby for you.
Why should any retiree have to pay someone to 'protect' the pension they paid into for years?
That is your Union's job. 

Of course we know Teamsters, AFSCME and LELS were perfectly happy to reduce  the PERA Correctional Plan to 1.5%. Only MNPEA fought the cut, and won.

So if you received this letter from MMRA, throw it away!

Hennepin County Board Considering cuts to Jail!

According to this Star Tribune article the Board is considering cutting $2 million from the Sheriff's Office.

Outgoing Commissioner Peter McLaughlin initially proposed cutting 9 Detention Deputies from the jail! Apparently assaults on Corrections/Detention Deputy staff recently in the news don't matter. After all those years in Office you'd think he realized the DOC requires a staff to inmate ratio.

"Much of the overtime expenses comes from jail staffing when inmate populations run high. While the numbers have declined in recent months, the jail had record inmate levels last spring.

“The study found that the jail is now down to its functional capacity and we can keep those numbers down,” said McLaughlin. “The new budget numbers reflects that we don’t need funding for a full jail.”

The number of jail beds available daily is 755, and Stanek said the jail staffs for 680 inmates. On Monday there were 780 inmates, so he had to force deputies to work overtime “because you just can’t say the inn is closed.”  - Star Tribune

I love McLaughlin's quote that, "we can keep those numbers down...we don't need funding for a full jail." Is the Board planning on putting a cap on arrests in Hennepin County?

For years I've advocated for the Jail to be staffed 100 % by Detention Deputies. Much money could be saved by eliminating the use of higher paid Licensed Deputies and their higher rate overtime in the jail. Not to mention training and POST costs.

Incoming Sheriff Hutch wants the Board to hold off on cuts until he gets the lay of the land.

This will be an interesting fight. Both the new County Board and the Minneapolis City Council seem to be farther to the political Left. They both seem to be anti-law enforcement.

Something to watch. The Sheriff Office is a Constitutional Office which requires funding. Not like the tent city local government has no trouble throwing money at.

http://www.startribune.com/sheriff-rich-stanek-irked-lame-duck-county-commissioner-cutting-budget/501933522/

Escape follow up-back in custody!

MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) — A man who escaped from Hennepin County Public Jail custody Wednesday morning has been found.
 The suspect, 57-year-old Michael Simon, broke a 7th floor window of the Hennepin County Public Safety facility at around 7 a.m. Wednesday. He then climbed out of the window to make his escape.

Sources say that at one point, Simon was seen walking across a downtown skyway to get away. ADVERTISING Around 10 a.m., Simon was located and taken into custody after a traffic stop in Little Canada. michal simon 2 Suspect Back In Custody After Breaking Out Of Hennepin County Jail Michael Simon (credit: Hennepin County Jail)

 According to the Hennepin County Sheriff’s Office, Simon was booked into the Adult Detention Center on Sept. 25, 2018 for financial transaction card fraud and a MN Department of Corrections hold for burglary. The Hennepin County Public Jail is located on 401 S 4th Ave in downtown Minneapolis. This is a developing situation, so check back with the latest information.

Escape today!

Saw this press release. Waiting for details.

Press Release: On-going search for wanted individual 

Hennepin County sent this bulletin at 11/28/2018 08:54 AM CST

Having trouble viewing this email? View it as a Web page. Press Release FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Media Contact: Jon Collins, 612-919-5918 On-going search for wanted individual  November 28, 2018 (MINNEAPOLIS) - The Hennepin County Sheriff’s Office is asking for the public’s help in locating a wanted individual who escaped from the Hennepin County Adult Detention Center. The wanted individual, Michael Frank Simon (DOB 07/19/61), was booked into the Hennepin County Adult Detention Center on September 25, 2018 for financial transaction card fraud and a MN Department of Corrections hold for burglary.  At approximately 7:00 a.m. Simon escaped from the Hennepin County Adult Detention Center. The Hennepin County Sheriff’s Office immediately notified local law enforcement and began a coordinated search which is ongoing.  The Sheriff’s Office is asking for anyone with information about the whereabouts of Simon to please call 911 or the HCSO tip-line at 1-888-988-TIPS (8477). - HCSO -  Simon, Michael Frank - Hennepin County Sheriff's Office

2019 Retirement Benefit Increases Announced

2019 Retirement benefit increases announced

October 12, 2018

Good news for retirees

Retired members of the PERA General Plan will receive a 1.4 percent increase in their PERA retirement benefits, effective Jan. 1, 2019.

The 1.4 percent increase reflects 2018 legislative changes to PERA’s retirement plans. The General Plan cost-of-living adjustment (COLA) will be equal to 50 percent of the increase announced by Social Security. Social Security announced a 2.8 percent benefit increase for 2019. The 1.4 percent increase is good news for PERA retirees since the previous increases were at 1 percent for many years.

Members of the Correctional Plan will receive a 2.5 percent increase in their PERA retirement benefits, effective Jan. 1, 2019. This increase is a result of the legislative change calling for the Correctional Plan COLA to be equal to 100 percent of the increase announced by Social Security, with a maximum 2.5 percent increase.

The Correctional Plan can provide a larger increase to plan members since the plan is relatively better funded than the other plans PERA administers.  In the future, the Correctional Plan COLA maximum could be reduced to 1.5 percent if the plan’s funding status declines.

The Police & Fire Plan members will continue to receive a 1 percent increase in their PERA retirement benefits.  The Police & Fire COLA is not currently tied to an inflation index.

Source: MNPERA.org

I again must point out that AFSCME, Teamsters Local 320 and LELS all had agreed to the lower 1.4% for the Correctional Plan as "shared pain".  And that without ever bringing it to their members!