On February 15th the 911 Telecommunicators Pension Benefits Working Group made their presentation to the Legislative Commission on Pensions and Retirement .  MNCORA submitted a letter  into written testimony and MNCORA President Wade Laszlo testified before the Commission on behalf of MNCORA defending the PERA Correctional Pension. Below is the entire presentation MNCORA testimony begins around the 17:53 time mark with another vital point made at the 25:20 mark. This was a hearing only. It is unclear at this point what recommendations if any will come out of this presentation. MNCORA will be monitoring.

On February 15 at 5 PM the Full Legislative Commission on Pensions and Retirement will meet and discuss the Report from the 911 Telecommunicator Pension Benefit Working Group.  The presentation will be in the form of a   Power Point with testimony to follow from working group chair Darlene Pankonie and working group Advisor Wade Laszlo.  MNCORA will be submitting a Letter of our position.

We monitored the February 10 PERA Board meeting.  It was reported to them that the 911 Telecommunicator Pension Benefits Working Group did not reach consensus on increasing 911 Telecommunicator pension benefits. The PERA Board also approved actuarial studies to study increasing COLA's (Cost of Living Adjustments) due to pressure from high inflation. It was discussed raising Police and Fire and General Plan to 2.5% and removing the 2.5% cap on the Correctional plan to 100% of inflation. The actuarial studies will most likely take place over the summer. These are not recommendations, but studies being done to see if increases to COLA's are feasible. It is our hope this is able to be done in light of current high inflation.

The Report of the 911 Telecommunicator Pension Benefit Working Group was submitted to the Legislative Committee on Pensions and Retirement. Here's a link to that report:  https://drive.google.com/file/d/17tLAxWGThZnxGnJyeyPwcnKfuV2_8FFk/view?usp=sharing Further comment will be forthcoming.

The Minnesota Legislature, by Statute authorized a Working Group to study whether 911 Telecommunicators should have "changes to the pension plan coverage for 911 telecommunicators are appropriate..."   Subd. 2.   Duties; report.   The working group must submit a report to the Legislative Commission on Pensions and Retirement by March 1, 2022. The report must recommend whether changes to the pension plan coverage for 911 telecommunicators are appropriate. If the working group finds that such changes are appropriate, the working group must recommend changes to the pension plan coverage for 911 telecommunicators. The recommended changes may include but are not limited to moving 911 telecommunicators to the correctional plans . The same statute spelled out who must be in the working group including:  (10) a member of the public employees local government correctional service retirement plan, designated by the board of trustees of the Public Employees Retirement Association; and (

On January 28th the   911 Telecommunicators Pension Working Group   held their last meeting and the vote to accept the report. The 2nd draft was sent to the   work group committee members   Wednesday night with about 36 hours to review and recommend changes.    The Chair, Darlene Pankonie removed a line stating the committee was not recommending adding the Dispatchers to the PERA Correctional Plan.  Below is discussion on that then the final vote.   Sadly the only two Correctional Officer comittee members were absent, the MSRS Stillwater CO  and the PERA Sherburne County CO! The CO retiree Advisor was present but could not make motions to change or vote. The Report was passed with virtually zero no votes. Would the CO's have been out voted? Yes, but it doesn't look good moving on to the  Legislative Commission on Pensions and Retirement  without any no's!  Here's seven minutes of the explanation why it was removed then the vote.