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.