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Detroit's "laughable" pension tomfoolery akin to San Diego's
Well we are just outside it now. The crash you're referring to started in Jan 2000 and ended in Oct 2002 and was based on the tech bubble as well as 9/11 attacks. The DJIA lost about 38% of its value. By comparison the crash of 1929 lost 48% and 1930-32 crash lost 86% leading us into the Great Depression.— October 25, 2013 4:57 p.m.
Detroit's "laughable" pension tomfoolery akin to San Diego's
Paper profits...Maybe it's time to take some profits and turn them into real dollars, or would that push you much closers to the 1%er than you want to be??? Wink n nod!— October 25, 2013 11:28 a.m.
Detroit's "laughable" pension tomfoolery akin to San Diego's
Damn that auto complete feature... it is a nuisance - sometimes. LOL I know you've said in the past you pick and choose your answers to points raised in our comments. This time you chose not to respond to my question; " Why hasn't the 13th check been stopped?" Do you have some thoughts, factual or opinion, I'm just wondering.— October 25, 2013 11:22 a.m.
Detroit's "laughable" pension tomfoolery akin to San Diego's
Okay Don I'll pose the question ... Why hasn't the 13th check been stopped? I mean permanently. And while I am at it let me correct some of the record. Unlike the Detroit system SDCERS did NOT pay the so called 13th check in 2009 or 2012. As you know there are limitations and restrictions set forth in the Ordinance and SDCERS Board rules regarding the distribution of these monies as well as how much is paid. In addition, while your total figure of 4.7 million is correct, for purposes clarity for those who don't know all the nuisances of the 13th check it also includes not only City of San Diego retirees, but Port District and Airport Authority members too.— October 25, 2013 7:43 a.m.
Detroit's "laughable" pension tomfoolery akin to San Diego's
Remember it's an "assumed" rate of return and most, if not all, retirement systems have long term outlooks, NOT year-to-year. These systems and the actuarial professionals they rely upon also use mathematical "smoothing" models sometimes referred to as smoothing corridors to account for that LONG TERM goal. With that said, no system will do well if the politician who control them tinker with their funding by taking what they call excess profits and using them to pay for their pet projects. And if nothing else, that's what history reports happened in San Diego, or at least a very large portion of it.— October 25, 2013 7:21 a.m.
Detroit's "laughable" pension tomfoolery akin to San Diego's
An 8% return ISN'T necessarily reasonable in the NEW economy. But the past 10 year results indicates SDCERS is hitting their goals even in this economy. Nevertheless, politician who are rarely, if ever, are held accountable love the eight percent rate and don't want to see it lowered. You see as long as the Board keeps it at that level the fewer dollars contributed by the "employer" side of this three part equation. (Employer + employee + investment gains over time) If the assumed rate of return now set at 7.5% is lowered further, both participants pay more into the system. Right now a discussion item for the November Board meeting, lowering of the rate to 7.25% is on the agenda. SDCERS' actuarial Cherion is strongly suggesting the move to lower the return rate to follow the trend of other Boards across the nation. If the SDCERS Board agrees it means the contribution made by the city i.e. the taxpayers will go up. However they may rise at all due to the savings from the negotiated five-year labor pact where pensionable pay increases have been eliminated. The City expected that savings this year but the Board surprised the city by delaying the savings this year and NOT lowering their required payment. Seems this new Board actually is taking their first (there are three) and foremost fiduciary responsibility seriously these days! If the Board had implemented the change the city's payment would have been about 24 million dollars LESS. What most ignore is it took 20 to 30 years of bad management, questionable "deals" and market volatility to get us into this mess and there is no instant fix for it. We're about seven years into undoing the bad decisions of the past 30 years. There are another 10 more fiscally challenging years of payments to return the from the past years of over indulgence.— October 25, 2013 7:05 a.m.
San Diego mayoral debate abruptly canceled...due to pension truth?
Trouble is there are too many versions of the "truth" these days.— October 24, 2013 8:53 p.m.
Detroit's "laughable" pension tomfoolery akin to San Diego's
You can thank city leaders like former manager Jack McGrory, and Mayor Susan Golding for a good portion of this mess. But don't forget Pete Wilson and now deceased former manager Ray Blair for cooking the books on promised retiree health care to get them out of their matching payments to social security and Medicare. That led to draining off of the "waterfall" of profits from SDCERS to pay for the health care benefits they never set monies aside for. BTW all done illegally according to the IRS. Sadly none of the members of this rogues gallery of political and management hacks were EVER HELD ACCOUNTABLE. No their patsy, Dick Murphy, found he was the last mayor standing when the party music stopped and there wasn't a chair to be found. Today I see from the SDCERS website this years earning, net fee expenses, was 13.6%. That's 6.1% ABOVE the assumed rate of return of 7.5%. The average over the last 10 years, even with all the volatility, is 8.1% Regarding the 13th check... Once again it was those leaders who legislated and passed the ordinances for the 13th check along with the Courts for the Corbett case settlement. While every little bit of higher investment return helps we are still deep in the hole dug by those who led our city, the ones we the citizens elected to office, since the 1980s.— October 24, 2013 8:13 p.m.
Walmart and Sempra bankroll anti-Fletcher hit piece
I'm just wondering what this guy really stands for? It seems to me it just not something cohesive. When things don't go his way then his belief system changes, not once, but twice within a very short period, politically speaking. This is not "leadership", it exploitation in my view. Worse, it's self promoting exploitation! Haven't we had enough of that lately? The last thing San Diego needs is more exploitation from whichever side of the political aisle you find yourself aligned with.— October 23, 2013 3:09 p.m.
Take a spin in David Copley's former yacht
It really is a bargin compared to your Hertz rental considering your Hertz can't sleep as many guests in such comfort, doesn't come with staff to prepared meals and pamper your every whim endlessly and Hertz does not supply a chauffeur, let alone a "Captain" to guide you on your way. All for $1,488.00 an hour for the week, what a bargain!— October 19, 2013 7:17 a.m.