UC Regents

Perhaps not surprisingly, since calpensions.com covers California public pensions exclusively, the most thorough report on the recent Regents meeting on the Post-Employment Benefits Task Force recommendations and other retirement issues appeared on that source today. It includes mention of the $2-for-$1 problem – the fact that roughly $2 out of $3 in contributions that would fund the pension comes from non-state sources. Below is an excerpt from the calpensions report. The full report – scroll down for URL – contains photos of the demonstration at the Regents. A recording of the Regents meeting on the pension and retirement issue is…

The clock is ticking. An interview with gubernatorial candidate Meg Whitman reported today in the online Capitol Alert service of the Sacramento Bee serves as a reminder of the need for the Regents to put together a UC pension reform plan before January. In the interview, she pushes for new hires to be under a defined-contribution plan and hints that a ballot proposition to do that might be her approach. Any such proposition might well not exclude UC if UC has no plan by January. UC might then be swept into some larger statewide change. Of course, there is no…

U.C. Proxy Voting Skirts Review Guidelines, Documents Show (excerpts) Tess Townsend, NY Times/Bay Area Citizen, 9/16/10 The University of California, which prides itself as a leader on social and environmental issues, voted against hundreds of shareholder resolutions designed to promote human rights, environmental sustainability and efforts to fight discrimination, a review of U.C.’s voting record shows. The resolutions involved corporations like Exxon Mobil, PepsiCo and Occidental Petroleum and pertained to about one-third of the university’s $65 billion investment portfolio, a portfolio that includes some 5,000 companies. Like many other universities, U.C. employs a private firm to manage its investments and…

In broad terms, the UC labor officials quoted in the LA Times piece excerpted below are taking the same position as the Academic Senate in the dissenters’ report on the Post-Employment Benefits Task Force recommendations. The dissenters’ report notes that all of the options under consideration: Option A (which the dissenters reject), Option B (which they might accept), and Option C (which the majority report took off the table and the dissenters want put back into consideration) represent a cut in total compensation. (Previous posts provide links and discussion of the 3 options.) On a total comp basis, UC is…

If you have followed the issues surrounding the Post-Employment Benefits Task Force report, you know there was a majority report calling for a two-tier pension and providing the Regents with Options A and B – both defined-benefit (DB) plans. The dissenters put an option C back on the table – also a DB plan. A and B were “integrated” with Social Security; C is a simpler plan that is not integrated. (Go to earlier posts on this blog for more details.) Now the majority has replied to the dissenters. You can find their reply at http://universityofcalifornia.edu/sites/ucrpfuture/files/2010/09/peb_dissenting_response_0910.pdf The response to the…

The news item below on the Post-Employment Benefits Task Force report is more extensive than most. It does, however, omit discussion of the $2-for-$1 problem, i.e., the fact that roughly two dollars out of three collected for the pension come from non-state sources and cannot be collected retroactively. Contentious plan for sagging UC pension fund (excerpts) Nanette Asimov, San Francisco Chronicle, September 10, 2010 A tidal wave of unfunded retirement obligations that could top $40 billion in four years is washing over the University of California, forcing employees to pay far more for those benefits and threatening students with the…