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.

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

PERA Board votes against CO seat-arguments. What's next and options

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...

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