Agenda for 911 Telecommunicator Pension Working Group January 28, 2022

Here's the agenda for the 911 Telecommunicators Pension Benefits Working Group for the January 28th meeting.

Under Section E Testimonials LELS had submitted 7 anonymous testimonials. Objections were made to submitting anonymous testimony in an Official Government Document after the First Draft. That appears to be corrected in 6 of the 7. MNCORA's testimonials all had names attached.

One of the chief arguments of 911 Dispatchers to receive an early retirement or join the Correctional Plans was the stress on their job and injuries. Below is a table from Page A-22 of the Appendix (Source MN Workers Comp Database):

Of note, from 2012 to 2020 Dispatchers had 23 claims while Corrections Officers had 895.

Once Covid hit out of the 378 claims (from 2018 - 2020) 28% of Correctional Officers claims were due to Covid. In the same period Dispatchers had 0 claims due to Covid exposure. As a matter of fact Dispatchers had 0 claims due to disease for the entire period of 2012 - 2020.

Also from the period of 2012 - 2020 Dispatchers had 0 claims for Open wounds or Multiple Traumatic Injuries. Not so for Correctional Officers.

MNCORA will report back as updates are available.

Session summary, wins and lossses

Governor Walz signed into law the Pension Omnibus Bill yesterday, May 15. It was a busy year for MNCORA and PERA Correctional Plan Legislation. MNCORA with your help was able to stave off yet another attempt to add dispatchers to our pension. Your petitions, calls and thousands of cards mailed to legislators was a success. Sadly we are not out of the woods. Rep. Wolgamott and Rep. Her both told MNCORA that the bill to add dispatch to our pension wouldn't be added to this year's Pension Omnibus Bill, but did not say the issue was dead for next session. MNCORA had a Bill to add a Correctional Officer to the PERA Board authored by Representatives Niska , Scott and Novotny on the House side, and a companion Bill in the Senate by Senators Bahr , Abeler and eventually Frentz . Sadly Pension Commission Chair Kaohly Her did not even allow our Bill a hearing. We will be back with this next year! Another bright note was the passage of a Bill raising the high 5 multipl...

Correctional Officers Federally Recognized as Public Safety Employees

As of January 1, 2025, Correctional Officers are Federally Recognized as Public Safety Employees the same as Police and Fire. This has implications for disability, taxes and retirement. As we face new challenges to our pension in 2025 this will further the distinction between PERA General Plan members like 911 Dispatch and Probation and CO's in the PERA Correctional Plan. It's part of the Secure Act 2.0. 26 USC § 72(t)()(10) definition of Public Safety Employee - qualified public safety employee (10) Distributions to qualified public safety employees and private sector firefighters (A) In general In the case of a distribution to a qualified public safety employee from a governmental plan (within the meaning of section 414(d) ) or a distribution from a plan described in clause (iii), (iv), or (vi) of section 402(c)(8)(B) to an employee who provides firefighting services, paragraph (2)(A)(v) shall be applied by substituting “age 50 or 25 years of service u...

New Bill for Corrections seat on the PERA Board

MNCORA thanks Representatives Peggy Scott and House Leader Harry Niska for Authoring HF708 in the House and senators Cal Bahr and Jim Abeler for authoring the bill in the Senate SF1556 . Next step is for the LCPR to hear this Bill. Here's a link to the Pension Committee (LCPR). It's very important to contact them and ask them to give it a hearing for it to move on. https://www.lcpr.mn.gov/members.htm

Search This Blog