Many of you if not all of you, who belong to Seattle Firefighters Health Care Trust, previously Firefighter Family Medical and who have SilverScript as the provider of your Plan D Medical may have received a bill for your January 2011 premium. As previously reported the premium will now be deducted as a payroll deduction from your LEOFF I retirement check. You should look at your December retirement check or at the statement that is sent to you. If you have your retirement check sent to your bank by DRS as an electronic transfer to see if $38.00 was deducted from your check for the SilverScript January premium. I talked with Nancy Grier of Benefit Solutions Inc, 206-857-2600 ext 2713, the company that now administers Firefighters Health Care Trust. Nancy is an administrative assistant who manages our program. Nancy has an associate Susan, 206-859-2600 ext 208 who assists her in the management of our program. Nancy explained that those of us who received a January premium billing from SilverScript should disregard that billing as the payroll deduction will catch up. She explained that all members will be called and advised of their particular situation as some may be different than what I have described. If you have any questions please feel free to call Nancy or Susan. I do want to remind you that if you are now having the SilverScript premium automatically charged to your credit card or paid by electronic transfer from your checking account, you should cancel such programs. I hope this is the last time we have to address this subject. I suggested to Benefits Solutions that they should forward a letter to the members to notify and explain any changes or other pertinent information. I have also offered space in our Newsletter as a way of sending information to our members.

Our dual pension members, those who are covered under the Prior Pension Act RCW 41.18 and the LEOFF Act, RCW 41.26 and who were members of Seattle Firefighters Union Local 27 should be aware that Local 27 has agreed to amend the current labor contract and forgo the two-percent salary increase effective January 2011. The Fire Chief's Union Local 2898 has also agreed to forgo a two-percent increase. Many local unions have taken the same or similar action. This will impact the Prior Act retirees as their retirement benefit is tied to the current salary of the position held at the time of retirement. Those who were also employed under the LEOFF system will be eligible for the Cost Of Living increase paid by DRS in April along with all other LEOFF members. Any Prior Act member or dual member who is concerned should contact their former local union to determine if the union is negotiating a new contract for 2011, or if they are under a multi-year contract that provides a salary increase in 2011. If they are, what is the current status under that agreement? I was disappointed to learn that the union in Yakima agreed to terminate the three-percent deferred compensation benefit that is paid to all members whether they personally make a contribution or not. If this is correct, I don't know if the city will continue to match the contributions made by the individual. If they do, those contributions will not be part of salary as the three-percent that was paid to all members was. If this is correct, the Prior Act and dual members pension benefit will suffer a reduction as the three-percent previously paid to all members was considered salary. If the union had given up a three-percent salary increase for 2011 the retirees would not have received an increase but they would not have a reduction. I don't know if the three-percent deferred comp benefit for all members was given up prematurely or if only waived for a portion of the current contract. I believe the union is currently negotiating a labor agreement for 2011. If this is the case they may not get a salary increase in 2011 and if I am correct, they lost three-percent in 2010. If the three-percent deferred comp was given up already for 2011 before they complete the 2011 agreement, they have lost the three-percent and a bargaining chip.

Perhaps we retirees in the future should try to persuade local unions to have a retiree on the bargaining committee as an ex-officio of the committee. It would have benefitted the active members and the retirees if the union would have given up another benefit that was equal to the three-percent but not considered wages, uniform allowance, vacation day, work a debit shift or whatever because the active firefighters not only lost the three-percent, they lost the total amount of money the three percent would have earned over their career. You do the math. The amount of money will be staggering.

While I am on this subject and to fend off a lot of calls and inquiries, the projected April LEOFF Cost of Living Increase will be 0.78%. The average annual index for 2010 = 659.589 less the 2009 index of 654.472 = 5.117 divided by the 2009 index of 654.17= 0.7819 percent rounded off to two places = 0.78 percent.

I want to remind everyone that a LEOFF I member who vested with twenty years of service is eligible for the full medical coverage when they reach fifty years of age. This question was asked to assist a member who had been passed over for this important benefit. We had another issue where a survivor of a Prior Act member who retired on a service connected disability received a 1099 from the local pension board and mistakenly paid income tax on that pension benefit for at least three years, We will of course assist her in filing an amended return for each year she over paid. This is why we discourage the Prior Act Board from issuing a 1099. When the board issues a 1099, a copy is sent to the IRS. The member or the survivor then must file a return and must write off the amount of that 1099 as not taxable. In some cases the member or spouse would not be required to file a return if they had not received a 1099 based on other taxable earnings. We have two letters from the IRS stipulating that a 1099 is not required for a Prior Act service connected disability pension, just as it is not required for a LEOFF I disability pension. If you are currently receiving a 1099 in one of the above situations, please contact us for assistance. We are still in discussions with DRS in hope of creating an option to allow all retirees of the State of Washington Retirement System to roll over an IRA, a Roth IRA, or a 401K for investment by the State/Investment Board (SIB) and administered by DRS, Department of Retirement Systems. In addition, we want an additional option to allow retirees to have a portion of their retirement check deducted as a payroll deduction to be invested in their account. This money and these accounts would be administered and invested in the same manner as the deferred comp contributions that are now being administered for the active state employees.

As of this day, DRS has agreed to such an option, but at this time they are not authorized pursuant to federal regulations. The department has tentatively agreed to assist us in getting the appropriate authorization from the IRS. There is a meeting scheduled in the spring where groups of like organizations can vote to solicit the IRA for the necessary changes needed. If this is not determined to be sufficient in an attempt to gain authorization we will call on our federal or state elected officials for assistance. I am now talking with other retiree groups who are very interested in this proposal and I believe will soon join in our effort.

As I stated in January, we thought it would be a good time to remind our members to notify family members of your basic medical benefits in the event your spouse precedes you in death or in the event you both become incapacitated. We are including the last two information forms that were in the April 2008 Newsletter (the first four pages were in last month's newsletter). Please fill out the applicable information and put the forms with your other important papers. Please share some of this information with your children or other family members.