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Rep. Wolgamott Authors bill HF4796 allowing a Dispatch raid on the PERA Correctional Plan

Representatives Dan Wolgamott, Brion Curran and Luke Frederick have authored Bill HF4796 which will add 911 Dispatchers to the PERA Correctional Plan. 

Those behind the raid are AFSCME Council 5, LELS and Teamsters Local 320. They are all ignoring the study the MN Senate paid for in 2022 which did not recommend adding dispatchers to the Correctional plan. To our knowledge none of these Unions have consulted their Correctional Plan members.

Adding them could jeopardize the health of the PERA Correctional Plan.

Below is the letter MNCORA sent the PERA Board for their hearing on March 14 opposing it. AFSCME, LELS and Teamsters all submitted letters supporting this!

Contact Rep. Wolgamott and ask him to withdraw the Bill! rep.dan.wolgamott@house.mn.gov 

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Dear Mr. Anderson and PERA Trustees:

The Minnesota Correctional Officer Retirement Association (MNCORA) opposes the addition of 911 Dispatchers to the PERA Correctional Plan.

This plan was established in 1999 for PERA Correctional Officers. Stated on PERA’s own website is the definition of who the plan is for:

The Correctional Plan was established in 1999 for correctional officers serving in county and regional adult and juvenile correctional facilities due to the physical nature of their jobs. The members of this plan are responsible for the security, custody and control of the facilities and their inmates. (PERA Correctional Plan Handbook)

911 Dispatchers are not responsible for “the security, custody and control of the facilities and their inmates.” There is no physical nature to their jobs. They are not assaulted, murdered or exposed to diseases from inmates on their jobs. As a matter of fact they have zero contact with inmates. They sit in an office setting.

The PERA Correctional Plan is for Corrections Officers. It is the best funded and run.

Due to its financial strength PERA Correctional Officers COLA is 2.5% compared to just 1.5% of the Dispatchers current plan.

PERA Correctional Plan members should not be required to carry non-corrections

members in their plan. Doing so jeopardizes its financial strength and endangers the 2.5% COLA.

Also of major importance is the fact that on January 1, 2025 the Federal Government will recognize and reclassify all State and Local Corrections Officers as Public Safety Officers. The same classification Police have. This will give additional disability and tax benefits to Corrections Officers, not dispatchers.

The PERA Correctional plan, if 911 Dispatchers are added, would have the burden of different disability payouts and taxation. Furthermore, most Correctional Officer disabilities are physical, most dispatch disabilities are stress and PTSD related. Once a Dispatcher, if allowed in the Correctional Plan, files for PTSD Disability that would immediately come out of the Correctional Plan, a plan they have not paid into rather than their current plan. This is a threat to the PERA Correctional Plans’ financial stability.

For these and numerous other reasons the Minnesota Correctional Officer Retirement Association opposes the addition of 911 Dispatchers to the PERA Correctional Plan.

Signed,

The MNCORA Executive Board

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