Portland police and fire pension fund to recoup nearly $3 million in overpayments from retired firefighters and cops.

Portland's public safety pension board is moving to recoup nearly $3 million in miscalculated pension payments from police and firefighter retirees.

The Portland Fire and Police Disability and Retirement Fund's board also plans to reconsider the cost-of-living adjustment for retirees' pensions each year. For two decades, retirees have come to expect an annual 2 percent cost of living increase. more...

(Editor's Note: Another reason to stay vigilant.)

The Coalition has just circulated their 2010-2011 Annual Report. Unfortunately the report does not provide much information. Rather it is fund raising campaign. In fact, they even included a nice return envelope for returning money. They don’t need it.

I just received a copy of the LEOFF 1 Coalition annual report. Mr. Peery did a good job of thanking all the Legislators who opposed HB2097 but that's about it. What they did not do was acknowledge all the other organizations that helped defeat the bill. Had it not been for Dick Warbrouck who knows when they would have even known about the bill. The report is extremely short but does make several requests for money. At this time there is no need to raise funds. The Coalition is believed to be very flush with our money. It would be helpful if they were forth coming and provided a detailed itemization of where the money was spent. Just to say they need money to fight the fight doesn't cut it.

(Editor's Note: LEOFF1.Net is not on the Coalition mailing list, but as soon as we get a copy we will publish a review.  We strongly suggest that you do not send them any money at this time.)

This is an interesting article for any retired police office interested in H. R. 218 federal right to carry legislation.

President Barack Obama quietly signed the Law Enforcement Officers Safety Act Improvements Act of 2010 on Oct. 12, 2010. It went into effect immediately. This Act, S.1132, amends the previous Act, frequently referred to H.R. 218 (i.e., LEOSA or National Concealed Carry Law).

After being signed by President George W. Bush on July 22, 2004, H.R. 2181 left many questions unanswered. The S.1132 amendment seeks to clarify those questions and adds further substance to the concealed carry law.

There has been concern about rumors flying around the internet dealing with proposals to allow States to go bankrupt and thus avoid paying their pension obligations. We first noted an article in the NY Times on January 20th.

I was honored to be asked to write about the Washington State Investment Board (WSIB) for the Retired Firefighters of Washington's annual newsletter. As firefighters, your job was to protect the lives and property of the residents in your communities. Our job at the WSIB is to protect your hard-earned retirement dollars. My commitment to that objective was reinforced on a personal level shortly after I joined the WSIB. I was in Arizona on business when I went to visit my uncle, a retired Seattle firefighter, who with my aunt is living out his retirement dream in Tucson. Naturally, having a niece now working at the WSIB, one of his first comments to me was "I sure hope you are taking good care of our money."

THERESA WHITMARSH, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR OF WSIB

The State Actuary utlizes Mortality Tables for the calculation of the status of the pension funding.  We are reproducing those tables here. 

The projected COLA based on calculations from the Bureau of Labor Statistics index will be 0.44% effective April 1, 2010.  This number is not official until verified by the Plan Administrator (DRS), but we are confident it is accurate.

The amount might be different depending on your actual date of retirement, but the 0.44% applies to almost everyone.  For example, if you retired after April 2, 2009 you will not get a COLA. 

Also, if you are retired under a prior act such as RCW 41.20 and you are entitled to an adjustment based on that system you will not see a change in the net amount you receive.  Your city check will go down a few dollars and the state check will go up the same amount. 

LEOFF 1 (RCW 41.26.240)
Retirement Date	Adjustments
April 2, 2009 - March 30, 2010	0.00%
January 1, 2009 - April 1, 2009	0.44%
April 2, 2008 - December 31, 2008	4.94%
Prior to April 2, 2008	0.44%

In our article "How to Calculate the COLA" we showed each of the steps needed to acquire the information from the Bureau of Labor Statistics and to calculate the amount of the COLA.  In this article we complete the calculation for the 2010 adjustment.

This article is from an exchange of emails between Ron Larson, a member of the RFFOW, and Jerry Taylor of LEOFF1.Net.  We had not published it before, but since it appears in the January 2010 RFFOW newsletter, we have decided to provide it here to help clarify what Dick Warbrouck is addressing in his article.

A message from Brian Wurts, President, Lakewood Police Independent Guild.

As usual they got most of it wrong. Below is what I just put out to my members and the media outside of the full press release at www.lpig.us. As I clicked on non guild member names that have been in my contacts I passed over Mark, Tina, Ronnie, and Greg. I cannot stop breaking down here alone in my office. For any of you who have contacts willing to donate to the familes our website is set up for online donations. I want to put these little ones through college. God Bless the LPD right now.
 
(Note: LEOFF1.Net is not doing a complete report on these horrific murders.  They have been well covered in the press.  This is more than an attack on the officers, it is also an attack on society itself.  Our comments relative to the recent murder of Officer Tim Brenton in Seattle apply here as well.)

 WACOPS was contacted by the Department of Retirement Systems with an alert that they would be releasing personal information on all members enrolled in a state retirement system including LEOFF 1, LEOFF 2, WSP, PERS, SERS, and TERS.

This is outside of our normal fare, but Tim is a retired LEOFF 1 members and has published several books.  He also subscribes to LEOFF1.Net.  Any other authors out there.  Just let me know and we will post information about your books too.

Tim Perry, retired SPD, will be doing a reading and signing copies of his novel starting at noon on Saturday October 17th.  The event will be held at the Seattle Mystery Bookstore at 117 Cherry in Pioneer Square.  Please let Tim know if you will be attending at tap@taperry.com.

LEOFF1.Net does not receive any compensation for this effort. 

The annual LEOFF I COLA which is due on April 1, 2010, is very likely going to be small (LIKE 0% to 1%) or it even could turn out to be a negative number.

Select Committee on Pension Policy (SCPP)
The SCPP has meetings scheduled for the following dates:

• September 15
• October 20
• November 17
• December 15

Typically proposals are submitted to the Chair of the SCPP through the Office of the State Actuary (OSA). Items are considered by the Executive Committee who then decides whether or not to add the item onto the full committee's agenda. Proposals typically require one meeting for briefing the entire committee and one meeting to take executive action.
 
Pension Funding Council (PFC)

• Review economic assumption recommendations from OSA - Investment Rate of Return
  - Inflation
  - Salary growth
  - Membership growth
• September 1 OSA communicates recommendation to PFC
• October 30 PFC can adopts changes to assumptions

2008 Annual Valuation Report

• The Office of the State Actuary will produce the 2008 Annual Valuation Report this fall. The report will be as of June 30, 2008.
  

This article gives a brief summary of the major pieces of legislation that have impacted LEOFF 1.  They date back to 1992, so you can see the issue of protecting our pension plan is long standing.

While we do not have an official announcement from DRS, the US Bureau of Labor Statistics made public the CPI that affects our raise in April. The raise will be 4.483%.

Many thanks to Bill Cantor for staying on top of this issue as well as all the other numbers.

The Consumer Price Index (CPI) is a measure of the average change in prices over time of goods and services purchased by households.  This article gives a very general overview.  Much more data can be found on the BLS site.

The LEOFF 1 pension is adjusted each April based on the CPI for the preceeding year.  The actual index is the CPI-W, Seattle-Tacoma.

The change between 2007 and 2007 is 4.483%.  This article explains how to check and calculate the COLA figures.

We have adapted it from instructions written by Bill Cantor and added some graphics to make the process clear.

The December figures are out for the LEOFF 1 Trust Fund -- $4,815,297,700.  That is down significantly from earlier in the year.  For example the figure for January 2008 was $6,271,488,352.