PERS PAC: What Is It?

Why do public agencies join the PERS Public Agency Coalition (PERS PAC)? Why should you?
Now that PERS PAC is in its sixth year, it is worthwhile to take stock of why the PAC was created and what it has done. Below are several of the most common questions and answers about PERS PAC:

Who Can Join the Coalition?
All cities, counties and special districts which contract with PERS for retirement or health
care are eligible to join PERS PAC.

Why Was the Coalition Organized?
The PAC was created for two reasons:

• First, to increase the flow and timeliness of information out of Sacramento to PERS agencies and,
• Second, to allow contracting agencies to speak as a group, rather than as single agencies.

What Has Been Done to Achieve These Two Goals?
Better Information. One way we accomplish the first goal is through regular mailings of our "Alerts" to the membership, informing them of breaking issues in PERS and the Legislature. These Alerts provide timely information to the membership which can then take positions for or against legislation or an impending action by the PERS Board. Along with these mailings, we periodically include handouts which we believe would be of use to PAC members. Two popular such handouts have been the annual PERS benefit chart and the pamphlet printed by the Public Retirement Journal which provides the full text of Proposition 162, the California Pension Protection Act of 1992.

Another successful method of increasing the flow of information out of Sacramento is through the use of the Public Retirement Journal website. This website is free to PAC members and contains our analyses of all important retirement-related legislation before the Legislature (usually more than 100 bills each session), as well as information on other topics such as Proposition 162, Proposition 186, (the Single Payer Health Care Initiative), and last year's successful effort to place an initiative before the voters in 1996 which eliminated affirmative action in California's public sector. The website also contains information on health care and on developments in PEMHCA, the PERS health benefits program. For those PAC members who wish to know more about the Legislature's retirement committees, the website also provides the addresses, phone numbers, and bios of the members of those committees.

Higher Profile in Sacramento.
PERS PAC has had several successes in its dealings with both the Legislature and the PERS Board. While the PAC does not lobby, it provides information and technical expertise to the efforts of organizations which lobby for changes supported by the PAC.

• Legislature: In the Legislature, we wrote and helped to get SB 1488 (the 4 year Golden Handshake for local agencies) through the Legislature and signed by the Governor. The PAC also was instrumental in getting bills passed which provide local agencies with authority to continue offering the two year Golden Handshake (it would have otherwise expired), to reduce employee hours due to budgetary problems without reducing the corresponding retirement, to increase an agency's PERS funding period up to 30 years, as well as legislation which included local agencies in the PERS Long-Term Care program. In addition, while the PAC was not completely successful in shaping SB 53, the PERS pension abuse bill, it was able to have several changes made which the Coalition membership indicated it wanted.
• PERS Board and Staff: The PAC has been quite active in providing PERS health benefits staff with ideas concerning what would make PEMHCA, the PERS health care program, more appealing to local agencies. Also in the health care arena, the PAC supported PERS staff in their successful efforts to standardize HMO services, thus making a true comparison of HMO's more meaningful for local agency employees. The PAC was also an active participant in the taskforce which developed the compromise policy on how to insure that PEMHCA members who qualify for Medicare A & B transfer from their basic plan to a Medicare supplement plan, thus saving local employers money. Currently, PERS PAC is working in two groups with labor representatives and PERS staff to solve problems relating to PERS membership for less than full-time employees and to improve the mechanism for providing inflation protection for retirees.

In addition, the PAC worked successfully with a coalition of public agency Finance Directors in their efforts to improve the timeliness of the annual announcement of employer contribution rates. Our combined efforts resulted in a policy change which now makes contribution rates available to employers almost a year in advance. Related to that, our efforts continue to "flatten out" the employer rate from year to year, so as to avoid the large "dips" and "spikes" which can occur from year to year, making budgeting difficult for public agencies.

Does The PAC Provide Other Information?
In addition to the mailers and the electronic bulletin board, PAC members can call with any questions they may have concerning legislation or PERS developments. Collectively, the staff of the PAC has over 40 years experience working with PERS and the Legislature in this field. In addition, the current Chair of the PAC, Ron Gallaher, also receives and answers numerous questions from members (and others) as well as providing general information.

What Does It Cost To Join the PAC?
As you can see from the tables below, a city's annual membership fee for the Public Agency Coalition is based on its population, while the annual fee for a special district or a county is based on the number of employees in PERS.

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