| At the July 24, 2018 Board of Supervisors meeting, RESDC Executive Director Mark Nanzer made the following public statement in favor of the agenda item which included a proposal, made by Supervisor Dianne Jacob, for a charter amending ballot measure that would include the following: - Pension Stabilization – Once the Board of Supervisors has appropriated funds for pension stabilization, these funds shall not be used for any other purpose other than pension-related liabilities.
- Long-Term Debt – proceeds from any long-term obligation of the General Fund of the County shall not be used to finance current operations for recurring needs.
The Board of Supervisors unanimously approved the agenda item. View the Board of Supervisors Meeting Agenda (Item #14).
RESDC Executive Director Statement:
Madam Chairwoman and Members of the Board.
I am Mark Nanzer, Executive Director of the Retired Employees of San Diego County (RESDC). Thank you for the opportunity to speak.
A primary focus of RESDC has always been to support adequate, secure, economically sound retirement benefits earned and partially funded by county employees. We also support the good financial management policies the County has regularly followed to ensure it can meet all its retirement funding obligations on time.
The proposed new Charter Sections 800.1 and 800.2 appear to fortify the Board’s sound fiscal budgeting practices. While descriptive detail outlining how the new Charter Section 800.1 might apply to pension stabilization in all cases is generally absent from the board letter, we believe that funds allocated for real pension stabilization should be protected, insofar as possible, from random, non-retirement uses in the future.
These are sensible good government measures that RESDC can easily endorse. Still, as former county workers, our members are concerned with the gradual deterioration of retirement security for new County employees as evidenced most recently by the ratcheting down of pension benefits to a new Tier D.
RESDC members are proud of their county careers and many are now customers of county programs and services in retirement. Our members are concerned that this trend to lower benefits will complicate the County’s recruiting, increase turnover, decrease worker longevity, and increase training costs for replacement employees. We realize this is a separate issue from the proposed Charter Amendments before you today, but believe it is critical that your Board take proactive steps to educate new county workers about their pension benefits and encourage them to take full advantage of deferred compensation options to supplement their retirement.
That concludes my remarks. Thank you again for the opportunity to speak. | 
