The LEOFF 1 Education Asso­ciation has scheduled their annual educa­tional seminar on May 8, 9, and 10 in Lake Chelan. Matt Smith, the State Actuary, a representative from the Department of Re­tirement Systems (DRS) and several speak­ers will speak on legal issues, court deci­sions, medical treatment, and procedures. I will be in attendance to discuss and answer questions on legislative issues.

Ray Sanderson regularly puts out general pension information.  While it is generally not specific to LEOFF it is still useful information for anyone who relies on a pension. 

The LEOFF 2 Board had their regularly scheduled monthly meeting on April 25^th in Olympia. There was not much of interest to LEOFF 1 members outside of their take on the failed legislation intended to merger LEOFF 1 and LEOFF 2.

Their report follows and you can find a copy their entire Legislative Update at www.leoff1.net. We believe this review of the merger is a self-serving report that ignores the significant problems with the proposal and a discussion as to why the merger bills failed.The fact remains it was a bad idea from the start.It was concocted in secret.It ignored the legitimate concerns of LEOFF 1 members and would have definitely threatened serious harm to all LEOFF 1 members.

They say:

This legislation would have consolidated the trust funds for both Plan 1 and Plan 2 of the LEOFF Retirement System into a new fund for all LEOFF members and retirees. This bill also would have modified the authority and duties of the LEOFF Plan 2 Retirement Board to include functions related to the new combined fund, establish LEOFF Plan 2 contribution rates for the current biennium, establish a funding policy for the new fund, and provides that member retirement benefits are not diminished due to the merger.

During the interim we will continue to work the issue.Baring new developments we fail to see any advantages to LEOFF 1 members in the proposed merger.

Continue to checkout www.leoff1.net from time to time.We made frequent updates but do not send out emails for every update.

The Legislature has adjourned for the session and a budget was passed this morning by the House and Senate.

The good news is that there was no merger bill in the budget.

What we need now is to have everyone who contacted their Legislator during session to now send them an email thanking them for their support and for doing the right thing in not passing HB2350 and SB6563. If you didn't contact your Legislator then send them an email anyway. This was a very divisive issue and created some serious conflicts between LEOFF 1 and LEOFF 11 so now is a time of healing. A lot was said in the heat of battle and we need to put that behind. In the coming months the LEOFF 1 organization representatives will get together and decide what our next course of action should be. We will keep you informed but for now "good job and thanks for all you help". Also remember this is an election year for all Represenatives and half the Senate so if you have time volunteer to help them out or even better send them a $20 donation and mention your organization.

Sincerely,
Ken Crowder

This is a legislative update sent out by WACOPS just after the session closed.  WACOPS top priority for the session was accomplished. Ummm...I thought the merger was their top priority at least that's what they said. If keeping pension rates at the level adopted by the Board was top priority then why were they so eager to give the State an $80m break by reducing their contribution to 0%?  I'm not sure they knew what their top priority was...or did they? If the current rates meet their goals of maintaining the financial integrity of the plan and avoiding unaffordable hikes in the future then it would seem they don't need the merger after all. That is unless what they really mean is they want the LEOFF 1 pension funds along with total control of rate setting and funding policy.

See the full story for the WACOPS legislative update.

Be sure to check out LEOFF 1 Net on Facebook.  We are even thinking about starting a twitter account -- maybe next session.  Does anyone tweet?

Ken Crowder, the Director of the WSARPO has written a reply to the COMPAS Guild article.

In the last issue of the Guardian, the monthly newsletter of the Seattle Police Officers Guild, was an article produced by COMPAS, their lobbying organization. Initially we decided not to respons to the article because it is really just the LEOFF 2 lobbying talking points.  It is innacurate and makes improper an incorrect allegations.  However it has received some circulation on the web and in emails, so we are reprocucing it here.  Addtionally we are publishing a reply to the article from Ken Crowder, the Director of the WSRPOA.