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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 the State Auditor. One could argue those 6 are Government seats, not member. Of the 5 member elected seats, two of the 5 come from Police and Fire.

A concern raised during discussion at the December 12 meeting was they were afraid a CO on the Board wouldn’t be able to represent all PERA members. That is insulting on the face of it. Especially since 3 seats are held by Police and Fire! 2 elected and 1 appointed. I’d venture to say a large portion of the PERA Board’s discussions have to do with the poor state the Police and Fire plan is in.

They out of hand dismissed MNCORA’s argument that the State CO’s have a seat on their MSRS Pension Board.

One new argument is the fact that on January 1, 2025 the Federal Government will recognize all State and County Correctional Officers as Public safety, the same as Police and Fire. This means we no longer should be lumped together with the General Plan members as they currently do because tax and disability numbers must be calculated differently.

The new logical choices are to give Corrections Officers either their own seat or allow them to compete for the only other Public Safety seat-Police and Fire!




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