This morning MNCORA President Wade Laszlo had coffee with Minnesota State Rep. Niska. He will be working with the LCPR to draft language for a Bill adding a CO seat to the PERA Board.  The House isn't in session until February. That being said it is extremely important for everyone to contact their State Representatives and Senators asking them to support that legislation when it happens.

On October 12th the PERA Board voted unanimously NOT to recommend legislation for a CO seat on the PERA Board.   They want no legislation on it this year. They understand CO's wanting a voice on their plan and agreed to discuss it at their workshop next year. In other words the can was kicked down the road. It is not necessary to have the PERA Board's support as all pension changes come from the Minnesota Legislature. We have a good working relationship with the PERA Board and we didn't want to blindside the Executive Director with this and hoped for their support, but we will proceed taking the legislative path. For too long our PERA Correctional Plan has had threats to it with little to no warning or input. -The 2018 'share the pain' which changed our COLA from an annual 2.5% to a variable one based on Social Security's raise capping us at 2.5% resulting in years with a lower COLA. -The attempt two years ago to add dispatchers to our pension which would have r...

MNCORA has been seeking to get a dedicated seat for a Correctional Plan member on the PERA Board for quite some time. We are working with a Minnesota State Representative and the LCPR to make this happen. We recently solicited support from the PERA Board. That request is on the PERA Board Agenda on October 12th. It's item 7 Stakeholder 2024 Initiatives on the Agenda. We will update any developments after the meeting.

As stated in our previous post MNCORA's priority this year is a CO seat on the PERA Board. We submitted a formal request to PERA this week. The Executive Director of the LCPR seems to be on Board and has brought this up to Representative HER who is the Chair of the LCPR. MNCORA is meeting on August 22nd with Representative Niska who has stated an interest in authoring the Bill in the House. It's a short session this year and it's cost neutral. We believe this is the right time.

 We hope you're all enjoying your summer. The MNCORA Executive Board met August 3rd. Here's what's happening. There's a proposal from an Anoka County Detention Deputy, not a MNCORA member, who has met with PERA's Doug Anderson about raising the retirement payout from 1.9% to 2.2%. We met with him prior. MNCORA supports a higher payout but would want to see an actuarial of what affect it will have on our plan. Neither the Actuarial or a Bill to raise it would happen this year as it's a short session and last year was the budget year. It would not affect current retirees, but those still working. It would most likely require a larger contribution from both the employer and employee, that's why we want an actuarial. The Minnesota Duty Disability Association,  MNDDA  is raising money for a Lawsuit suing the State over HF 1234 and all the potential damage to those out on Duty Disability. They asked for our support. The Executive Board voted and supports this. We ...

MNCORA has been very vocal in it's opposition to HF1234 a Bill that started out as a Bill to provide treatment for Police PTSD, then morphed into a bill rewriting PERA Disability for all pensions with many possible negative consequences moving forward for the Correctional Plan. A vote for HF 1234 was a vote weakening PERA disability benefits!  Those who voted in the affirmative were: Acomb Agbaje Anderson, P. E. Anderson, P. H. Backer Bahner Bakeberg Baker Becker-Finn Berg Bierman Brand Carroll Cha Clardy Coulter Curran Davids Demuth Dotseth Edelson Elkins Feist Finke Fischer Frazier Frederick Freiberg Gomez Greenman Hansen, R. Hanson, J. Hassan Hemmingsen-Jaeger Her Hicks Hill Hollins Hornstein Hortman Howard Huot Hussein Jordan Keeler Klevorn Koegel Kotyza-Witthuhn Kozlowski Koznick Kraft Lee, F. Lee, K. Liebling Lillie Lislegard Long Moller Mueller Myers Nadeau Nelson, M. Newton Noor Norris Novotny Olson, L. O'Neill Pelowski Pérez-Vega Pinto Pryor Pursell Rehm Richardson Sen...

  By the President of the United States of America A Proclamation Correctional officers have the difficult and often dangerous assignment of ensuring the custody, safety and well-being of the over 600,000 inmates in our Nation’s prisons and jails. Their position is essential to the day-to-day operations of these institutions; without them it would be impossible to achieve the foremost institutional goals of security and control.   Historically, correctional officers have been viewed as “guards,” occupying isolated and misunderstood positions in prisons and jails. In recent years, the duties of these officers have become increasingly complex and demanding. They are called upon to fill, simultaneously, custodial, supervisory and counseling roles. The professionalism, dedication and courage exhibited by these officers throughout the performance of these demanding and often conflicting roles deserve our utmost respect. The important work of correctional Officers often does ...