On December 12, 2024 the PERA Executive Board voted unanimously not to  support legislation to add a Correctional Officer seat to the PERA Board. This is disappointing but will not dissuade MNCORA from again seeking a Bill with the Legislature. I would like to counter some of the PERA Boards arguments. At the planning meeting and in PERA's letter they argued that adding a seat would make the number on the Board even. So, we revised our proposal to add an additional Retiree seat. After all retirees are almost 30% of PERA membership and Retirees have only one member elected seat. In their letter they state, “ The current makeup of the board is 6 member positions to 3 employer positions, adding additional board members representing member groups would weigh the board’s makeup further towards the membership .” Not exactly true. It’s an 11 person board. Source PERA 2023 PFAR The 11 person Board is made up of 5 seats that are appointed by the Governor and one more is th...

On December 12 PERA will consider MNCORA's proposal to support legislation adding a CO to the PERA Board. This is the link to PERA's position after the October planning meeting (which MNCORA attended). Their position in this letter is opposing adding a CO. https://mnpera.org/wp-content/uploads/TAB-F-2025-Stakeholder-Agenda-Final.pdf Again we encourage you to email these PERA Board members and ask them to support a CO on the PERA Board. We added a comma after each address so you can cut and paste into your email address. Thomas.Stanley@mnpera.org , dennis.flaherty@mnpera.org , Julie.Blaha@osa.state.mn.us , Paul.Bourgeois@mnpera.org , Mary.Falk@mnpera.org , Paul.Ford@mnpera.org , Kathy.Green@mnpera.org , Barb.Johnson@mnpera.org , jeni.konigsburg@mnpera.org , scott.schulte@mnpera.org , thomas.thornberg@mnpera.org , doug.anderson@mnpera.org

This Thursday December 12th the PERA Board is meeting and voting on Legislative initiatives they will be supporting or not.   Last session we had a bill to add a Correctional Officer seat to the PERA Board and they voted to 'take no action' but discuss it at the next planning meeting. That was last October and the Board was mostly against it. See this post in our MNCORA Blog.  https://mncoretirementassociation.blogspot.com/2024/10/pera-meeting-and-planning-meeting-update.html This Thursday they vote. While the bill will be coming from the Legislature the Pension Commission very much considers PERA's position on it. It is to our advantage to get the Board to support our bill for a Correctional Officer on the board.  Please, please take a minute to email them and tell them very simply you are a PERA member of the Correctional Plan and you want them to support a Correctional Seat on the Board.   This is what MNCORA wrote to the Board before the planning meet...

 MNCORA wishes all of you a happy Thanksgiving!

Fox News is reporting that " 40% of Bureau of Prisons staff said they were sexually assaulted or harassed last year " There's now a Bill introduced to respond to that.  The Prison Staff Safety Enhancement Act  "It is unacceptable that nearly half of Bureau of Prisons staff experience sexual harassment or assault by inmates. The Bureau of Prisons must do more to ensure the safety of corrections officers and to hold perpetrators accountable," said Rep. Laurel Lee, R-Fla., who co-sponsored a new bill to fight it. "The Prison Staff Safety Enhancement Act  will provide oversight to the federal prison system and fight these abuses."  In the Senate the Bill Number is S.5062 In the House it's Bill H.R. 10160 MNCORA supports this Bill and urges our members to contact their Senators and Representatives. It's this level of danger that separates out pension from others. Contact Senator Amy Klobuchar here   Contact Senator Tina Smith here Find your House Re...

Currently there's an MSRS Correctional Plan Eligibility Work Group   looking at who and should and should not be in the MSRS (State) Correctional Plan. The recommendations are due to the LCPR by January 10, 2025.  As always there's a letter citing MAPE and Teamsters desire to add Probation Officers to both the MSRS and PERA Correctional Plans . Because why wouldn't they try this again out of our sight? Last year of course there was the Bill to add Dispatch to our Correctional Plan, and Rep. Wolgamott (the author) stated the issue was not dead. We fully expect another attempt this year. The last line of MAPE's letter says it all: This upcoming session will be challenging with possibly probation and dispatch both making a run at our pension. MNCORA will be watching. We plan to again submit a Bill to add a CO to the PERA Board (Something State CO's have). Last year Representative Niska authored it, but the LCPR declined to give it a hearing. This session Rep. Niska w...