PRIME TIME Volume 35, Number 7 April 2017

RETIRED EMPLOYEES OF SAN BERNARDINO COUNTY

The only officially recognized organization representing SB County Retirees

PRESIDENT’S COLUMN

Spring is upon us and it is time to spring forward and carry on with those important projects you have been putting off: making time to attend the vari-ous events on your calendar; spring cleaning; shopping for your spring wardrobe and get-ting together with family. I hope that one of those events is to attend the April general membership meeting at the Scottish Rite. Look for the date and time in this PRIME TIME. I’m sorry to say that three of your Executive Board mem-bers, myself being one of them, will not be present at the April general meeting as we will be attending the California Retired County Employees As-sociation (CRCEA) convention in Ventura. Attending the con-vention will undoubtedly prove to be both informative and educational. It will give those from RESBC who attend the opportunity to get to know the officers from the other 1937

RESBC Officers — 2016-18 Argie Brogdon, President

Lynda Van Hoof, 1st Vice Pres

Vacant, 2nd Vice Pres

A.B. Brand, Treasurer

Coby Hinkle, Secretary

Wes McDaniel, Past President

Act Counties, as well as par-ticipating in the various work-shops. The workshops cover many subjects, including pen-sion concerns, senior safety and various other topics rele-vant to our retired lifestyles. Be assured that the RESBC attendees will bring back much information to the General Membership. The April 24 General Meeting will be in good hands under the direc-tion of Past President Wes McDaniel, First Vice President Lynda Van Hoof, and the re-maining Executive Board Members in attendance. If you have not yet met them, please introduce yourselves to these fine individuals. As you well know, as of this writing, RESBC does not own, or maintain, a website for its Membership. However, we have recently received a num-ber of inquiries from the Gen-eral Membership which dic-tates that perhaps a harder look into the technological ad-vantages is warranted. Estab-lishing a website involves a fair amount of coordination. First thing to consider, of course, is the cost of creating and maintaining one, espe-cially for a non-profit organiza-tion such as RESBC. Sec-ondly, it is necessary to recruit an individual who is willing to

PROGRAM

Monday, April 24, 2017 1:30 p.m. – 3:00 p.m.

Scottish Rite 4400 North Varsity Avenue

San Bernardino

(see Page 2 for directions)

Please join us for an interest-ing and exciting presentation!

Jill Swaim Ambassador for

Road Scholar

Road Scholar is a not-for-profit organization that pro-vides educational travel tours primarily geared to seniors and retired adults. Road Scholar was formerly known as Elderhostel. The programs combine travel and education to provide learning opportuni-ties featuring an extraordinary range of topics, formats, and locations, in every state in the U.S., Canada, and 150 coun-tries; and aboard ships on riv-ers and oceans worldwide. The presentation will include an overview of the Road Scholar mission, history, and program content. There will also be a raffle for a program voucher to complement the presentation. Refreshments will be served.

PLEASE JOIN US! continued on Page 2

BEYOND RETIREMENT

(through March 20, 2017)

In Memoriam

Jon Allender Albert Baca

Lawrence Baines Garvill L. Booker Ione De Weert

Ila Jean Goeser Deanna R. Jaglowski

Joseph Johnson Chung Liu

Rita Madrid Betty Malone Noel Peterson

Sherrie J. Prouse Eva Rivas

Rita Tarango Mary Waterbury-Bowes

Shirley White

“To live in the hearts we leave behind is not

to die.”

~~Thomas Campbell

HOLD THE DATE!

Monday, June 26, 2017 Spring Luncheon

Particulars in next month’s

PRIME TIME

PRIME TIME—April 2017—Page 2

create the website, as well as one who is going to maintain it. This may or may not be one and the same person. At any rate, your Executive Board has discovered this to be no easy task. We will most likely require a technician who is willing to take on the mainte-nance of any proposed web-site as an ongoing responsibil-ity. An RESBC member who possesses both the skills and qualifications, and who would be willing to take on such re-sponsibilities, would be an ideal choice! How about it? Any retired computer techni-cians, or other qualified indi-viduals, out there who might be interested? Please contact any one of your Executive Board members. While I cannot promise that an RESBC website is in our im-mediate future, your RESBC Executive Board will be look-ing into the possibilities. By the time you receive this PRIME TIME, St. Patrick’s Day will be long gone, and Easter rapidly approaching. May those of you of Irish de-cent enjoy yourselves im-mensely, and those of you who are not Irish, join in the celebrations anyway! If I haven’t already, I look for-ward to meeting you at our June 2017 General Meeting. ARGIE BROGDON President

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Homemade Whipped Butter

1 cup (2 sticks) butter (do not use margarine) 3/4 to 1 cup olive or canola oil 1/2 tsp salt, optional Allow butter to soften in a medium sized bowl. When soft, mix with electric mixer on low speed until creamy (about 1 minute). While mixer is running, slowly add oil in a slow, steady stream. Add salt. Keep mixing until light and fluffy. Store whipped butter in airtight container in the refrigerator.

DIRECTIONS TO SCOTTISH RITE

215 and University Parkway

(Northeast Corner) From South 215: Exit University Parkway. Turn right at stoplight. Make a left at next stoplight onto Varsity Ave-nue. On the left hand side, make a left turn into the driveway for the Scottish Rite about 1/2 block after turn. Drive straight back for parking on the West side of the building. From North 215: Exit University Parkway. Turn left at stoplight onto University Park-way. Make a left at next stoplight onto Varsity Avenue. On the left hand side, make a left turn into the driveway for the Scottish Rite about 1/2 block after turn. Drive straight back for parking on the West side of the building.

Benefit Bits by John Michaelson

Medicare Help: I will be the first to agree dealing with Medicare is a challenge. As I have stated before, I think the best all round help is the program referred to Nationally as the SHIP program. The phone number in the Southern California area is: 800-434-0222 and is known in California as Hi Cap. For those of you who live out of state, this same number can give you a number for your particular state. The SHIP program is federally funded to advise Medicare re-cipients on how best to use their Medicare. They do not sell, or even endorse, any particular insurance plan, they only offer advice and answer your ques-tions. Another resource is the Medicare website itself. If you have not checked it out, you can just search for Medi-care.gov on your home com-puter. Make sure you get "gov" as a number of others pop up trying to sell you something. The following is offered from the Medicare Rights Center from a recent online newsletter of theirs. The short article talked about two programs that offer monetary help for Medicare costs, Medicare Savings Pro-gram (MSP), and Extra Help drug subsidy. Among other eli-gibility rules the primary one is low income. When I called to find out more information, I was told that eligibility varies by state, and this is when they rec-ommended contacting your lo-cal SHIP program who will know your local state eligibility rules and help you through the appli-cation process if you appear to

PRIME TIME—April 2017—Page 3

be eligible. Again the 800-434-0222 number should put you in contact with those who can help you further. CalPERS LTC Lawsuit: This is the Long-Term Care court case that if you don't know what I am talking about probably doesn't affect you. In short it is a suit brought against CalPERS for what many feel was their gross mishandling of Long-Term Care Insurance. For months there has been no progress, but a settlement has been reached with one of those sued, Towers Watson for $9.75 million. Tow-ers Watson is the actuarial firm that CalPERS hired to advise them on rate setting and other matters. CalPERS was not in-volved in this mediation and the case against them is still mov-ing forward. Our lawyers are working on a letter of explana-tion that will go out shortly to all those who are part of the class action. The letter should an-swer your further questions and talk about what the best ways to use this money might be. Also, there will be a presentation on the subject at the CRCEA con-ference in April, so more infor-mation should be available be-fore long. As of this writing, nothing has been posted to the website the attorneys set up, but you may want to check it out as I am sure more will be soon. The website is: www.calpersltcclassaction.com Questions or comments to John Michaelson at johnmichael-son1@verizon.net, or 909-821-2279.

Recognize the Signs of a Stroke (BE FAST)

B - Balance Difficulties E - Eyes (vision changes) F - Facial Weakness A - Arm Weakness S - Slurred Speech T - TIME TO CALL 911

~~AARP online

Lesson from a Childhood Fable

The Story: A crow is flying around on an abnormally hot summer day looking for water. He comes across a pitcher of water, but when he tries to stick his beak in he can't reach the water. He tries and tries, slowly getting more dehy-drated. He's about to give up and accept his fate when he has an idea: he drops small pebbles in the pitcher until the water level rises to the point where he can reach it to drink. The Lesson: Where there's a

will, there's a way. Persistence is the key to solving any prob-lem you have because eventu-ally — even if the situation seems dire — you WILL find a solution. Your idea might not be as bad as you think it is, and is just in need of some change. Whatever it is that you want to do, just keep plugging away; don’t quit!

~~author unknown

Editor’s Note: If you have recently joined RESBC and do not see your name, please keep watching. There is a time lapse between when you submit your payroll deduction paperwork and when we are notified you have joined us. If you don’t see your name after two months, please let us know.

TREASURER’S REPORT February 2017

February 1, 2017 Balance 97,563.28

REVENUES Dues 5,359.00 Interest 18.59 TOTAL REVENUES 5,377.59

EXPENDITURES Administration Postage/P.O. Box 194.00 Other 11.66 TOTAL EXPENDITURES 205.66 February 28, 2017 Balance 102,735.21

PERB Designation Balance 54,035.85 Checking Account 3,383.43 Savings Account 42,956.24 CDs 56,240.43 Petty Cash Fund 155.11 Total 102,735.21

A.B. Brand Treasurer

Membership 5,359

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NEW MEMBERS

(February 2017)

Dale Armitage Patricia Bush

Susan Cashman Garry Cohoe Mark Coulter

Velma Crooks Sandra Essner

Joel Floyd Thomas Gafney

Rick Gluck Eddie Gonzalez

Mary Tess Gutierrez Janet Hawkins-Pope

Nancy Hubbard Priscilla Jmenez

Debra Jones Howard Christine E. Kelly

Camin Kidd Kim Kronenberger

Ray Laciste Denise Lassiter Stanley LeMelle

Donald Lutz Janet Mansker

Yolunda Marshall John Mesa

Francisco Nieto Julie Pereza Gail Rayner

Roger Richards George Shearer Robert Souza Kerry Turner May Wang

Trudy Waterston David Williams

“Holding onto anger is like holding onto a hot coal and ex-pecting the other person to get burned.”

~~attributed to Buddha

No Free Lunch by Dawn Stafford

Retirement Board of Trustees Elected by Retirees

(Note: this article gets a bit techni-cal at times; some definition of terms are provided at the end.)

I heard a very informative pres-entation by our actuary, Paul Angelo of the Segal Company, at the CALAPRS meeting in Monterey in March. Paul is the only actuary in the world who can be entertaining on this sub-ject (this is a low bar). His talk was titled “Risk is the Word – Actuarial Challenges of Ade-quate Funding”. It explained the meaning and significance of ac-tuarial measures and numbers, including what constitutes ade-quate funding and what can be done to achieve it. In general, measuring “adequate funding” involves in-suring that contributions and investment income equal bene-fits and expenses. Paul’s fa-mous formula for this is: C + I = B + E. Paul cites the 80% fund-ing myth – actually there is no magic number. The specific criteria used to measure “adequate funding”, though, depends on the reason the measurement is being per-formed. A plan will have differ-ent funding levels for different purposes. For most California plans, the purpose is evaluating ongoing funding. The measure is level cost (“entry age” method), not the accrued bene-fit. The discount rate (ours is now 7.5%) is the expected re-turn on assets (not the “risk free” market rate). Some purposes, however, call PRIME TIME—April 2017—Page 5

for a market-based settlement value. CalPERS, like SBCERA, uses a market discount rate when employers withdraw from the system. A September 17,

2016 New York Times article titled “A Sour Surprise for Public Pensions: Two Sets of Books” deals with the six employee Cit-rus Pest Control District #2, which received a large bill to withdraw from CalPERS. This caused them, and the Times reporter Mary Williams Walsh, to assert that CalPERS was un-fairly keeping two sets of books to measure fund obligations. Upon termination, though, the appropriate and legally required measure is a market value measure reflecting the full cost today of providing a steady guaranteed income for life. It is a large number and is based on the fact that there will be no fur-ther contributions to fund the benefit. The New York Times article was debunked by a Sep-tember 18th 2016 article in the publication “Naked Capitalism” titled “New York Times Owes CalPERS a Retraction for Hatchet Job on Pension Fund Termination”. Their conclusion was that the attack on defined benefit plans was designed to make it easier for Wall Street to move retirements into much higher fee 401(k) plans. Is “adequate” about benefit se-curity or budgeting? For an on-going public sector plan, benefit security is provided more by a secure benefit promise and a fiscally sound employer than by the plan. A high unfunded liabil-ity (and so a low funding ratio) means a more expensive bene-fit, not a less secure benefit.

Funding ratio, like UAAL (unfunded accrued actuarial li-ability), does not measure sol-vency or benefit security. For public plans there are two fund-ing ratios that matter: 100% (all you have to pay is normal cost) and 0% (you are in big trouble). Keeping “C+I = B+E“ in mind, what can be done to improve funding? Typically a fund can’t increase investment income without incurring more risk, and expenses are relatively small, so you have to either increase contributions or reduce benefits. There are two ways to increase contributions through Board ac-tion. The funding policy can shorten the UAAL amortization periods but this also increases employer contribution volatility (15 to 20 years is model prac-tice for most sources of UAAL). Funding policy restructures pay-ments without re-measuring li-abilities. The other way to increase con-tributions is to revise actuarial assumptions, which re-measures the costs and liabili-ties. The trend is toward higher cost assumptions due to lower expected return on assets and longer life expectancies, includ-ing projections of future mortal-ity improvement. More conser-vative assumptions increase current costs but reduce the risk of future cost increases. The Investment Return (Earnings) Assumption affects the timing of plan cost: a lower assumed rate means higher current cost, but ultimately it is the actual earnings that deter-mine cost. You can’t pay bene-fits with assumed earnings.

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The trend is toward lower as-sumed investment returns. CalPERS recently reduced their rate from 7.5% to 7%, a reduction that will take place in three steps. Lower assumed returns result from lower infla-tion, lower real returns, or both. It’s all about risk. Reducing risk always has a cost (or a sacrifice of savings). More conservative assumptions re-duce the risk of future cost in-creases but increase current contributions. Less volatile as-set allocation reduces the risk of contribution volatility but carries with it a lower expected return that also increases cur-rent contributions. What to do when a plan is in surplus (negative UAAL)? The current thinking is don’t reduce contributions or increase benefits but “take risk off the table”: spend the surplus on risk reduction. The new CalPERS risk mitigation strat-egy intends to do this with in-vestment gains (even though not in surplus). The plan is to forego contribution reductions so as to reduce risk. There are several types of risk. There are risks related to economic variables: invest-ment return, inflation, interest rates, etc. There are risks re-lated to demographic vari-ables, including longevity, pay-roll and/or population growth, retirement, disability, and ter-mination. Other risks include asset/liability mismatch and contribution risk.

PRIME TIME—April 2017—Page 6

Paul’s encouraging words to us: “There is no free lunch”. He gave out buttons with this statement and we plan to wear them when he comes to see us! Additional background in-formation and definition of terms: The employer contributions remain part of the SBCERA trust. Since SBCERA is a de-fined benefit plan, the em-ployer contributions are not designated to individual mem-ber accounts. The employer contributions are a percentage of total payroll (compensation earnable for Tier 1 or pension-able compensation for Tier 2), which is a sum of Normal Cost and the Unfunded Actuarial Accrued Liability (UAAL). The Normal Cost is determined each year by SBCERA’s actu-ary and represents the cost of benefits for active members earning another year of ser-vice credit. The UAAL is the difference between SBCERA’s assets and the benefits ac-crued for past service to cur-rent and future retirees. In the retirement system,

periodic calculations are performed (actuarial) to de-termine the present re-quirements (contributions) to meet future expected benefits (payments) for re-tirees. An actuarial valua-tion is performed annually by SBCERA’s independent actuary. Contribution rates incorporate both the cost of benefits in the current year (the normal cost) and the

amortization of the plan’s unfunded actuarial accrued liability (UAAL).

These calculations are

contained in the UAAL – which also contains calcu-lations to repair past poor performance in the invest-ment expectations. UAAL is the amount that is still “owed” to the fund for past obligations. It is the differ-ence between the Actuarial Value of Assets (amount of assets held by the fund as of the valuation date) and the Actuarial Accrued Li-ability (amount of liability for all pension benefits earned as of the valuation date).

The “normal cost” is a cal-

culation that projects the future needs based on the current year’s expected salary and is considered separately from the UAAL. Normal cost is considered separately from UAAL, and is the projected cost for the current year of active mem-ber service.

Funded Ratio – The ratio of pension plan assets to pen-sion plan liabilities as deter-mined by the latest actuarial valuation. The funded ratio equals 100% when the value of the pension plan’s assets and liabilities are equal. Funded Status - The status of the pension plan’s accumu-lated assets that have been set aside for the payment of retirement benefits for mem-bers. Unfunded plans, also called pay-as-you-go arrange-

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QUESTIONS FOR THE BOARD OF RETIREMENT?

Any questions you may have concerning your pension, or re-tirement, must be answered by SBCERA (Retirement Board). Please call 909-885-7980, or toll free 877-722-3721. There is also information on the SBCERA website: www.sbcera.org

Address is: 348 W. Hospitality Lane, 3rd Floor, San Bernar-dino, CA 92415-0014.

S Y M P A T H Y CARDS are sent to families of our members when-

ever we are notified of a death. GET WELL CARDS are also sent to our members who are experiencing health problems. Please call Sue Shuey at: 760-515-6095, or you may email her at: sshuey7@aol.com if you know of someone who would be cheered by receiving a card from RESBC.

There are always many things to do when you move to a new ad-dress. One of the most impor-tant is to let the Retirement Board know your new address so you won’t miss receiving your pension check. On their change of address form is a place for you to sign that authorizes them to release your new address to RESBC.

It would also be wise to send RESBC a letter, or postcard, tell-ing us directly that you have moved. Mail changes to: RESBC, PO Box 2323, San Ber-nardino, CA 92406-2323.

“Sunshine” chair for many years, only recently having found it necessary to give up a position she loved doing. Ray was there to help RESBC whenever needed. We will definitely miss Ray’s smile – you never saw him without a smile. I, for one, will miss the warm hug Ray gave me at every meeting. Thank you, Carol, for sharing Ray’s hugs. We don’t normally write about members who have gone “Beyond Retirement”, but Ray was a special part of the RESBC Executive Board for such a long time that it just felt right to thank him and acknowl-edge his efforts to support RESBC. So, from current and past Executive Board members, we say thank you Chief Ray Ceniceros for your years of ser-vice to Lake Arrowhead Fire District, to the County of San Bernardino, and to RESBC. Our thoughts and prayers are sent to his wife, Carol, and their family. My friend, you will be missed by so many.

ments, do not have assets set aside and retirement benefits are usually paid directly from employer contributions.

PRIME TIME—April 2017—Page 7

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“Be tender with the young, compassionate with the aged, tolerant of the weak, because someday in your life you will be all of these.”

~~George Washington Carver

Ray Ceniceros by Sue Shuey

On March 18, RESBC lost a good friend with the passing of Ray Ceniceros. In 1979 Ray retired as Chief of the Lake Ar-rowhead Fire District. After traveling cross country in their motor home and visiting all 50 states, Ray and Carol finally re-turned home to Running Springs. Ray loved his moun-tain. Eventually Carol and Ray became active participants with RESBC. One of the benefits of belonging to RESBC and going to the meetings is the opportunity to meet with old friends. That was the case for me. I knew Carol and Ray from the early 70s, but over the years we lost contact. At the very first meeting I at-tended after I retired in 2007, there they were. I couldn’t wait to say hello; and we recognized each other after all those years! When RESBC President Bob Glover needed a volunteer to chair the Membership Commit-tee, Carol and Ray urged me to volunteer for that position. I may have thanked them for that, I’m not sure. I enjoyed vis-iting with them at the meetings over the years and getting caught up. When I became RESBC Presi-dent in 2008, it was Ray’s sug-gestion to have “God Bless America” sung at the start of our meetings. It was a wonderful idea and Ray graciously led us in our singing at each meeting he attended. Both Ray and Carol were supportive, active members of RESBC for over 20 years. Carol served as our

RETIRED EMPLOYEES OF SAN BERNARDINO COUNTY

P.O. BOX 2323 SAN BERNARDINO CA 92406-2323

RETURN SERVICE REQUESTED

DATED MATERIAL

PRIME TIME is published monthly from September through June (with a combined December/January issue) by the Retired Employees of San Bernardino County, P.O. Box 2323, San Bernardino, CA 92406-2323. Please send changes of address to the address above. Monthly dues are paid by payroll de-duction only. For information and/or a payroll deduction form, please con-tact Doug Brogdon, Membership Re-cruitment Chair: argiendoug@aol.com 909-725-7055 PRIME TIME membership/mailing list:

Coby Hinkle 909-883-2378 cobykay@roadrunner.com Argie Brogdon, President, RESBC 909-864-0793 argiendoug@aol.com Virginia Adams Editor, PRIME TIME 909-790-7199

NOTICE: The information pre-sented in PRIME TIME is believed to be from reliable sources. How-ever, no responsibility is assumed by RESBC, the Editor, or the writ-ers, for inaccuracies in articles pub-lished.

Spouses of deceased RESBC Members are eligible to become Associate Members of RESBC. If you would like more information, please contact our Membership Recruitment Chair, Doug Brogdon, by writing to P.O. Box 2323, San Bernardino, CA 92406-2323, or via email: argiendoug@aol.com

Privacy Statement:

RESBC is very aware of the need for the privacy of its members and is committed to protecting your per-sonal information. The only infor-mation RESBC has about you is your name, mailing address, and payment of membership dues. RESBC does not sell or share our member list. RESBC does not dis-close any of this information about our members to third parties. The companies with which RESBC does business, such as LFG Solutions (for mailing PRIME TIME) and Pa-cific Group Agencies (supplemental insurance) are obligated to keep your information confidential.

RESBC MISSION STATEMENT

As a voluntary non-profit associa-tion, the singular goal of the RE-TIRED EMPLOYEES OF SAN B E R N A R D I N O C O U N T Y (RESBC) is to support and cher-ish the obvious need to maintain and improve our quality of life during retirement. The focal points of RESBC are to: keep its members informed and knowl-edgeable about retiree issues and concerns; provide programs and information on topics that will give members insight into the challenges affecting seniors; and focus on benefits retirees have earned, and, in the process, fos-ter friendship and positive rela-tionships among all retirees.