[Occupymendocino] [Fwd: to the good people of Mendocino County's Occupy Movement -- report on today's BOS meeting]

[agnes at mcn.org]

-Bruce Anderson,

Please feel free to publish this in the AVA. John Sakowicz knows you are
on the Occupy list serve.
Agnes

--------------------------- Original Message ----------------------------
Subject: to the good people of Mendocino County's Occupy Movement  --
report on today's BOS meeting
From:    sako4 at comcast.net
Date:    Tue, May 7, 2013 2:28 pm
To:      "John and Shannon" <sako4 at comcast.net>
--------------------------------------------------------------------------

Hello friends and neighbors.


To begin this update on today's Board of Supervisors (BOS) meeting, County
Treasurer Shari Schapmire presented a report about the Treasury Pool to
the BOS this morning. That wasn't her plan. Or the plan of whomever in the
County CEO's Office puts together the BOS agenda, I guess.


Who knows who buried the County Treasurer's Treasury Pool report? Does it
matter?


What matters is that Supervisor -- and BOS Chair -- Dan Hamburg, pulled
County Treasurer Schapmire's report from the Consent Calendar of today's
BOS agenda. The report would have otherwise been accepted by the BOS
without discussion as part of the BOS's Consent Calendar.


Thank you, Supervisor Hamburg !


Supervisor Hamburg then asked a few questions of Ms. Schapmire. His
questions and comments were all on point. Her answers were forthcoming,
accurate , and polite.



Then, I followed up the BOS discussion on the Treasury Pool report during
Public Comment for the item.


I reminded County Treasurer Schapmire that she agreed to be a guest on my
radio show. We're looking at May 17 as the date of our show. We look
forward to an informative show. The public is largely in the dark about
much of county finances.


During Public Comment, I also reminded the the BOS that the people of
Mendocino County want more transparency and accountability in three areas
of county finance, in particular: socially responsible investing, public
banking, and robo foreclosures.


I also reminded the BOS that the Treasury Pool is pretty much a
"backwater" of county finance, and that this is not a good thing...not a
good thing, at all!


If the county's $130 million Unfunded Pension Liability teaches us
anything, it's that no area of county finance should be a backwater...much
less the $203 million Treasury Pool.


Actually, the county's Unfunded Pension Liability could be calculated to
be much bigger than $130 million with the new GASB regulations that are
coming down the pike...maybe even twice $130 million.


Double that $130 million figure, and you're in the ball park.


The Unfunded Pension Liability got so big, in part, because past BOSs
didn't exercise much oversight over the county's finances, in general, and
over the retirement system, in particular.


As a Board, they were lazy (my opinion) and took things on faith. No
oversight.


Meanwhile, the County Treasurer and County Auditor at that time failed to
disclose key facts. Things were "hidden". Outta sight, outta mind, as the
saying goes. This was especially true of our Unfunded Pension Liability.
It was also our Teeter debt. (Read past Grand Jury reports about the
Teeter debt. Read'em and weep. The good news? The current BOS took
responsibility for the hitherto fore unrecognized Teeter debt and is now
amortizing the Teeter debt.)


Regarding the Unfunded Pension Liability?


First, there was $9.6 million in diversions of county contributions. This
occurred sometime in 2007-2009. MCERA, the county's retirement system, is
now negotiating with the IRS on how to make the system whole. I don't
think I have to tell anyone out there in Mendo Land that attracting the
attention of the IRS is not a good thing.


Second, regarding the Unfunded Pension Liability, in addition to the $89.6
million in diversions, there was another $30 million or so in abuses to
the "excess earnings" policy that also contributed to our big unfunded
liability.


The whole subject of excess earnings is a complicated one. Suffice it to
say that the concept of excess earnings is an accounting fiction. Excess
earnings don't really exist. Yet, this money was spent as if it actually
existed.


Sounds crazy, right? You bet!


Lesson learned for the BOS? Stay on top of things. Exercise oversight.
Hire the best outside accoutants and auditors that we can afford. Open the
books to the public. Finally, one more thing. The most important thing.
"Transparency" and "accountability" aren't just two empty words to be
dusted off and used at election time. They are the principles we live and
die by.


Lesson learned for We the People? Make sure the BOS do all the above.


It's pretty simple, really.


As a post script to this memo, below is a short description of new GASB
regulations. We the People should know is that county pension costs will
continue to escalate by millions of dollars every year for the foreseeable
future. The can was kicked down the road for years and years and years.
Now, we can't kick the can anymore.


For that reason, the BOS needs to be fiscal hawks. We need to balance our
budget. We need to build reserves.


And, no doubt, this fiscal conservatism is painful.


It goes without saying that this is not a happy time for county employees.
They have taken a 10 per cent pay cut, and they have seen county payroll
cut by hundreds of positions. The productivity of county employees is off
the charts. And so are their stress levels. But is what it is.


Nor is this a happy time for the citizens. We have seen services cut. But
again, it is what it is. The county needs to protect its solvency, credit
ratings, its future.


Here we go with GASB. Thanks for listening! And stay on top of the
Treasury Pool. Stay on top of socially responsible investing, public
banking, and robo foreclosures.


Remember: We are We the People! All power comes from We the People.





GASB 67 and 68


On June 25, 2012, the Governmental Accounting Standards Board (GASB)
approved final standards related to pension accounting and financial
reporting for state and local governments. GASB Statement 67, Financial
Reporting for Pension Plans, establishes new standards for state and local
governmental pension plans. GASB Statement 68, Accounting and Financial
Reporting for Pensions, establishes new standards for governmental
employers (and other entities) that contribute to state and local pension
plans.


The final Statements 67 and 68 significantly change current pension
accounting and reporting standards for state and local governments by
adopting the following measures:


• Disconnecting state and local governmental pension accounting measures
from the funding measures used to determine pension
contributions;
• Requiring employers to recognize an unfunded pension obligation (i.e.,
the “net pension liability”) as a balance sheet liability in
their government-wide basic financial statements. Moreover, the unfunded
liability is based on the market value of assets rather
than a smoothed value;
• Requiring employers to recognize a new measure of the pension expense
that may have little relation to the actuarially determined
contribution; and
• Replacing most of the current financial note disclosures and required
supplementary information with information based on the new measures


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