Start Me Up

I am happy to announce that my new PERS discussion group has gone live. The group has a restricted focus - PERS and issues related to retirement. Stop by and you can read more about the group. If you are interested in joining this new group, go to the left margin of this blog, scroll down until you see the Yahoo! logo, and click on the logo. It will take you to the page on Yahoo where you can join this specific newsgroup. If you already participate in OPDG, the joining is quite simple. If you aren't a participant in any Yahoo groups and don't have a Yahoo mail account, the process is only slightly less simple. The process should take no more than a minute for anyone. Be assured that although you will need an email address to join the new group, the email address is shielded from everyone, including me. You will *not* get any spam as a result of joining the new group.

I will have two moderators on the group to help make certain that the new group stays on focus. We will rule with a very light hand, except when the discussions stray too far away from the group's primary purpose. If you like to use RSS syndication readers, the new group will support this - a contrast from OPDG.

I hope you find the new group useful. I hope we can have some spirited discussion about retirement, about PERS, about Social Security, Medicare, and all elements of healthcare for retirees. Already the membership includes some pretty helpful people. If you have any question about our primary areas, please post it. We can all learn from your questions and the answer(s) to them. C'mon down. Take the group for a spin. Let us know what you think. The group's framing is up, but there will still be some work to be done on the roofing, the siding, and the interior. Come join us and pitch in with your ideas. We're still in search of some photos for our group picture(s). I'd like to put together some sort of revolving "slide show". I'm open to any and all suggestions for interior design.

Digital Ghost

Is what I plan to be around OPDG for awhile. The group no longer meets my and many others' needs. As a result, many people have pleaded with me to leave and take them with me. While I don't plan to leave OPDG, I am in the process of creating a new newsgroup and recruiting two moderators to help me. I've already gotten agreement from one, and I'm awaiting a response from the second.

I'm pretty certain the new newsgroup will be on Yahoo, site of the current OPDG. I'm not doing it to be malicious. I'm doing it because Yahoo offers some management tools that I can't get on Google. Moreover, by remaining at Yahoo, any member of OPDG can join the new group by simply pressing "join". There will be no new handle to create, no new system to get used to. The ability to have both OPDG and the new, as yet unnamed, group available on the same server is a bonus.

Why a new group? For those who have been around OPDG for the past five or six months, the answer should be obvious. I've stated more than once that I hate political discussions, except on a group specializing in them. The comments on OPDG have deviated into politics to the point that almost any PERS-related discussion gets lost in the morass of politics. The new group will be restricted to PERS and PERS-related discussion. This includes anything pertinent to retirement in general, retirement specifically, Social Security, Medicare, and the myriad of other facets of retirement. Politics qua politics will be expressly verboten and overtly political posts will be deleted without any warning. Members who repeatedly violate *this* rule will be banned from the group. We will also open up the group to drive-by readers so that we can use the wonderful tools available in RSS/Atom reader/feeders. If you don't know about these, no problem. But for those of us who depend on RSS tools as a way to organize our busy lives, this alone justifies a new group. Yes, I do realize that anyone will be able to *read* postings, but only members will be able to post. But that is the small price to pay for the access to these other useful tools.

Once the moderators are in place, the new newsgroup will open. I will publicize it widely on this blog and, indeed, on OPDG as well. It is not intended to replace OPDG, but is to provide an oasis for people who (like me) just don't agree with the direction OPDG has taken in the past six months. I'm sure this will provoke some grousing and controversy, but I didn't make this decision lightly. Taking on another project isn't something I was seeking. My ego is solid and I don't need the ego gratification of having things run exactly my way. But, when something begins to deviate so widely from its original conception, it is time to chart another course. Since I have the technical skills to multitask a series of web-related projects, and I expect to have equally technically competent moderators.

The beauty of a second newsgroup more laser focused on issues relevant to retirees, especially PERS retirees, is to give members both a choice and some diversity. I encourage participation in both groups. People will probably choose one over the other. While that isn't my intent, I fully expect it to happen. And if it does, so be it. I'm not leaving OPDG myself, nor do I think either of the moderators will either. We're all attracted to diversity but we're also quite fed up with the crap coming down on a regular basis from OPDG.

Look for a follow-up posting before the end of the Memorial Day weekend (I hope) announcing the name and location of the new newsgroup.

P.S. I've sneaked in a Yahoo! button on the left side. If you go to it and click in the "Join" area, you will be taken to a page where you can easily join the new newsgroup. While it is not fully active yet, we are accepting new members.

HAVE A SAFE MEMORIAL DAY WEEKEND!

All Along the Watchtower

There are some really interesting rumors floating around this day after the election. One involves the now defeated and out of work politician Greg Macpherson. Question: how do you keep a politician in the news for two years when said politician has no political position to occupy? Reasonable question. Question 2: What if the politician is a close friend of the Governor and acted as the Governor's "go to" guy during the 2003 Legislature and managed to get much of the PERS reform passed. Corollary: Your guy doesn't have any political cache anymore, but he wants to be your successor (as Governor) in the worst way? How do you keep him in the news and how do you get in the face of the very people you blame for his defeat. Bingo: how about if we appoint Greg Macpherson to the PERS Board to replace one or more of the members who'd like to move on. That's the rumor I'm hearing right now. Its source isn't strong compared to others I have, but this source has earned creds with me. So, those of you right now celebrating Kroger's stunning victory might want to give some thought to what a PERS Board with Greg Macpherson might look like.

Another rumor that has been running around in various forms for about a month now is beginning to gain some traction as I hear it from more and more disconnected sources. This rumor has Judge Kantor effectively delaying issuing his rulings in the Arken and Robinson cases until after he's at least heard the White Case, also scheduled with Judge Kantor for August 4-5, 2008. While this remains in the rumor state, the sources are becoming more and more credible with each repeating. The central element of all three cases is the "settlement agreement" between PERS and the employers. This agreement, signed in early 2004, preceded the Court's Strunk opinion, and effectively applied a "nuclear option" to permit PERS to more-or-less ignore whatever the Supreme Court ruled. And PERS has indeed pretty much ignored the Supreme Court. Arken gets to the question of the COLA freeze on which the Strunk ruled on 3/8/05, while Robinson gets to the section 14b "exclusively remedy" for the Lipscomb (City of Eugene Case) mooted by the Supreme Court in late 2005 and vacated in 2006. The key to all these cases is the "settlement", which the White Case attacks directly. Current thinking is that all roads lead through White and that it would be best to have all three cases end up before the Supreme Court simultaneously. If Kantor delays his Arken/Robinson ruling until after he's ready to issue a ruling in White, he may be able to take care of all three cases together. My own opinion is that if he rules in favor of the PERS Coalition in White, Arken is moot, and the issue settled law; Robinson is somewhat of an anomaly; nevertheless its effect is directly tied to the settlement agreement and it is my non-legal intepretation that a favorable ruling in White, puts Robinson back in play and the defendants on the hook to explain why they didn't apply the legislature's prescribed remedy to deal with the issues arising for retirees as a result of the legislation. I don't envy the wait for anyone, but these cases are moving into their 5 year; I can't get worked up by the possibility of another few month delay.

What do you think of these rumors? True? False? Implausible? Why? Why not?

Ring Them Bells

It truly was a good night for an election. I stayed up well past 11 p.m. (late for me) to watch the election returns on TV. I got to see Bojack blogging live on KGW. I watch as candidate after candidate I voted for was projected as the winner. Of course, there was no overcoming the pure exuberance of watching John Kroger coast to an easy victory over the late, but not lamented, Greg Macpherson. He may be out, but he won't be gone. Expect to see him in a run for Governor in 2010. We'll still be here opposing him in the primary if he does so. We shall never forget what a great friend of labor he was - not! I've gotten lots of "thanks" for my help in electing Kroger. I'll take compliments whenever they come, but I personally think that the thanks go to SEIU and OEA for providing serious financial help to fund John's campaign. Without their money, John wouldn't have been able to get his message out to voters. Even with nearly $400,000 in union money, John was still outspent in the primary by at least $50,000. Even more delicious was John's margin of victory - 58 - 42 according to the latest figures. Macpherson wasn't even close. I'd like to think we helped in a small way, but not enough to account for a margin of victory that great. It was the unions' victory to savor. I just get to gloat.

On another election result, Judge Henry Kantor was reelected (unopposed) to the Multnomah County Circuit Court. This was hardly a shocking development. Incumbent judges rarely lose and it is unimaginable to have an unopposed incumbent judge losing. But more significantly, now that Judge Kantor cannot claim the distraction of his reelection it is time to get moving on finalizing and issuing the PERS rulings in Arken and Robinson before White shows up on August 4 - 5. There are no longer ANY excuses for delaying. It might be time for some POLITE phone calls to Judge Kantor's offices expressing CONCERN at how long things are taking. For god's sake, don't do anything that would piss off Judge Kantor's office manager, or Judge Kantor. I think it perfectly reasonable to express concern that the decision is taking so long and that PERS continues to withhold benefits that we feel are rightly ours. But, DO NOT in any way criticize Judge Kantor or his slowness. Judges are human and they don't like to be criticized by angry citizen phone calls any more than we like them. So, be on your best behavior if you do decide to call. And, to make you think a bit more about this, I'm not going to do the research for you and post the phone number. There are way too many cranks in this world. This way, if you want to call, you can look up the phone number and make the call. Robocranks and other loons won't bother to do that. Think of it as my way of saving us from the actions of others.

Well, I'm going back to savor the victories, lick my wounds over a few defeats (like passing 3 more expensive and unnececessary Kevin Mannix, Measure 11, constitutional amendments). Enjoy the victories you experienced and lets get ready to move on to the November elections. Happy politics. Happy Wednesday.

Pocketful of Sunshine

I am delighted to report that our efforts on behalf of John Kroger were successful. Unless there is a credible Republican writein, Professor Kroger will become Oregon's new Attorney General. We PERS members and retires want to express our thanks to SEIU and OEA for providing John with the resources to take on Greg Macpherson and his well-funded cronies. I'm carrying around a pocketful of sunshine to enjoy everytime I think about Macpherson's ignominous return to Stoel-Rives. Losing 55% to 45% must be a particularly bitter pill for Mac to swallow. Perhaps future politicians will be more circumspect in passing legislation so fraught with legal peril and affecting so many traditional supporters. Bad decision Greg. Kinda like the old song: "bad dog, no biscuit".

I'm disappointed that Hillary didn't do better, and that Kate Brown trounced her opponents including Vicki Walker. I'm also sorry to see Jeff Merkley get the nod over Steve Novick. I had higher hopes that Novick would be a better challenger for Gordon Smith; now I'm a bit pessimistic about Merkeley's chances in November. I'm not a Republican, but I was sure happy to see Mike Erickson put a crimp in Kevin Mannix's attempts to win in House District 5. I think Mannix is now about 0 - 7 in statewide offices. Loren Parks' ROI for those donations to Mannix's endless campaigns is now beyond 0%; it is major negative territory.

Despite those few disappoints, tonight is a night for PERS members and retirees to be very happy. We have punished the worst offender still eligible for other public offices by eliminating him from politics for at least the next two years. It is hard to get any traction for higher office when you don't have a guaranteed bully pulpit to speak from. Goodbye Greg. We'll miss you -- NOT!

Tennessee Waltz

This in from a faithful reader. You all might like to send the Governor
of Oregon, Tennessee's retiree buyout plan. To get some of the
heavyweights to retire early, they are offering 2 years of paid college
tuition (presumably at Tennessee colleges and universities). Early
retirees also get $500.00 per year of service as a cash bonus (for 30
year employees that works out to $15,000). They also get two and half
years of paid health insurance. And more incentives are coming.

Obviously, Tennessee's Governor and Legislature think a bit more highly of public employees
than Oregon's unprogressive litigators (oops, meant legislators. Must
be freudian or something like that). Perhaps Greg Macpherson can come
up with some more clever ideas if, by dumb luck, he ends up as Oregon's
new AG. (I sure as hell hope he doesn't and I'm doing my level best to
inform people about his history as a legislator and his "friendship"
with organized labor. I think SEIU wants to send him a really strong
message. They have contributed slightly less than $400,000 to John Kroger.

Run For The Roses

Or the post office in this case. Time is getting extremely short. Tuesday at 8 p.m. the latest round in Oregon's silly season comes to an end. If you want to express your voice, you have two days to get your ballot in to your local county election headquarters. The deadline is for RECEIPT of your ballot. Postmarks don't matter in vote-by-mail. If you haven't already mailed your ballot, I would strongly urge you to drop it off at one of the many county ballot drop off points. Most libraries and most public offices have drop off containers. Please do not rely on the post office at this late date. Vote soon. Vote often (no, not really. This isn't Chicago). Vote for our PERS friends - John Kroger for AG, Vicki Walker for Secretary of State. If you are a Republican, please do NOT write in Ron Saxton for AG. The Republicans have no declared candidate for Attorney General. I'm just as happy that way, but we will all be very unhappy if we are faced with our worst nightmare - a Greg Macpherson v. Ron Saxton race. That combination couldn't possibly be worse for PERS members and retirees.

Rock The Vote

Opinion Polls & Market Research

If you need suggestions, please vote for John Kroger, Oregon Attorney General; Vicki Walker, Oregon Secretary of State. Other suggestions gladly given via email back channel. Those are the two statewide races I care most about. These are the races where PERS members/retirees can thank supporters and punish opponents.

Shorty Wanna Be a Thug

I'm a bit rasty after watching several of Greg Macpherson's TV advertisements. These aren't ads for Macpherson as much as they are attempts to bitch-slap John Kroger. The one I find the most offensive is below:



Not only is this ad factually wrong (Kroger has practiced in Oregon), it is demeaning and offensive to John Kroger. While I have no idea whether Macpherson is shorter or taller than Kroger, Macpherson has amply demonstrated to me why he is an undeserving thug. Besides orchestrating the pillaging of PERS member and retiree benefits, he is following the same playbook as those who "swift boated" John Kerry. We don't need any more of this in Oregon politics. We don't need Greg Macpherson as Oregon Attorney General. I hope you'll join me in marking your ballots for John Kroger as Oregon's next Attorney General. With friends like Greg Macpherson, we don't need any more enemies.

Thug Passion

Just when you thought things couldn't be worse for Oregon PERS members, the news is floating around that Ron Saxton is encouraging his supporters to write him in as a Republican for Oregon Attorney General. The Republicans couldn't find any candidate to run in this month's primary for the AG position. Candidate-for-Life Kevin Mannix decided to run for the Oregon 5th District Congressional seat vacated by Darlene Hooley. As a result, the R's didn't have anyone credible to float for AG. They had all but decided to concede the race to either John Kroger or Greg Macpherson. Now, I'm reading in several different places that Saxton supporters have decided to write him in as the Republican nominee on their, otherwise, blank ballot for AG. He doesn't have to get very many write-in votes to make it to the November general election. My worst nightmare would be Ron Saxton vs Greg Macpherson. Talk about a race between two thugs. Yikes!

Longshot

Oregon's mail-in ballots are starting to arrive in mailboxes around the state. Mine came today. While I'm still pondering some major decisions (e.g. for whom should I vote in the presidential lottery), I've definitely settled on a candidate for Oregon's Attorney General and for Oregon Secretary of State. In the former race, it's a no brainer. John Kroger is the man of the hour. He's public employee friendly and definitely has no exposure to the PERS legislation in the 2003 legislature. His opponent, the smooth and over-confident Greg Macpherson, wears the millstone of the PERS reform in 2003, having authored or sponsored much of the legislation that came back to haunt PERS members and retirees. I want Macpherson out of politics for awhile, and I want this to be a lesson in political payback. Kroger is a strong candidate on his own merits, which makes the decision to oppose Macpherson quite easy. Send pretty boy Greg back to Stoel Rives. In the Secretary of State race there are a number of strong candidates, but the standout, in my opinion, is Vicki Walker. She opposed the PERS reforms in 2003 and has had the courage to take on a number of establishment figures since then. I'm not as optimistic about Vicki's chances of winning in the primary, but if she can make it to the November ballot, she stands a decent chance. Kroger can win outright this month; the Republicans were unable to field a candidate for Attorney General, so whoever wins in the primary will be the next Oregon AG.

Frail Grasp On the Big Picture

In the past several days two somewhat different views of the Kantor decision in the Arken/Robinson cases have come down. The first, from Aruna Masih, counsel for Bennett, Hartman, Morris and Kaplan sent the following note out to the Arken plaintiffs:

"As you will recall, in last year's decision, Judge Kantor found in favor of you and Robinson petitioners, but on grounds we did not raise. Therefore, we asked Judge Kantor to clarify this decision,asking him to rule specifically on the main claim we did raise on your behalf, which was that you have a contractual right to keep the 20 percent earnings because in the Strunk case, the Oregon Supreme Court held that the 2003 Legislation created a new entitlement to a fixed retirement benefit based on the 20 percent earnings plus COLA. Also, we alleged that even if you did not have a contractual right to keep the 20 percent earnings, you retired in reliance on the fact that your retirement benefit would be based on the 20 percent earnings plus COLA and that reliance was reasonable.

In yesterday's decision, Judge Kantor ruled against us on that breach of contract and reliance (promissory estoppel) theory. Therefore, the contract claim will have to be decided by the appellate courts. While we are disappointed by the decision, we want to remind you all that we have always expected this case to be decided ultimately by the Oregon Supreme Court. We are busy researching ways to petition the Court of Appeals to certify the appeal directly to the Supreme Court so that you do not have to wait even longer for a final decision on this issue.

In the meantime, Judge Kantor's initial decision protecting all window retirees under the Section 14b reasoning still stands. We are certain Judge Kantor will be asked in the Robinson case to enter some judgment regarding that ruling within the next few months. We will keep you updated on the trial court's progress in the Robinson case as well as the appellate progress in this case."

And then later the same day, PERS posted its take on the Kantor ruling. It is longer and can be read at the PERS Website

"

Casino Nation

We all know that gambling in Las Vegas or elsewhere always favors the "house". Traditionally, gambling establishments make their lucre by setting the odds in such a way that the "house" wins only slightly more than half of the time so that people won't get discouraged and stop throwing their money at this ultimately lost cause (for the gamblers). The house never loses because it has an infinite amount of money to play with and it can eventually bankrupt any player and recoup its losses relatively quickly. If I were inclined, the true moneymakers on the stock market would be the companies that run/own gambling establishments.

What does this have to do with PERS? Nothing, except for the fact that PERS has things set up so that the "house" always wins, 100% of the time. I have been tallying the results of emails I've received from my many faithful readers who appealed their "brown envelope" from PERS detailing the outcome of their recalculation of benefits based on the Strunk/Eugene "remediation." The results would make a Las Vegas oddsmaker blush with embarrassment. I have actually gotten email or read reports elsewhere of 987 people who have appealed so far. The results are clear - *no one* has gotten an appeal passed past PERS. We are 0/987 as of this morning. No successes in 987 reports. PERS is taking no prisoners with these appeals. People report that the appeal responses are as generic as their appeals are specific. It looks as if PERS isn't spending any time at all with the appeals. It just sends out a near form letter with some canned responses to the standard appeal bases. I don't post this to discourage you from appealing; I post because I find the outcome to be so preposterous. It doesn't matter what the courts say. It doesn't matter what attorneys say. It doesn't matter that this defies all rational expectation. PERS isn't going to let anyone win for any reason except for a bonafide arithmetic mistake. And you have to have some awfully good information to figure out whether PERS made a mistake or not. The numbers don't jump off the page. The computational algorithms aren't obvious and PERS doesn't make a habit of sending you an explanation of how they obtained the results. You can get this information, but you have to request it specifically.

Judge Kantor: if you read these kinds of things, you might want to know that most of us out here in PERS land are getting pretty fed up with your lame non-excuses for a non-ruling. PERS is running amok and they're doing it claiming you gave them permission. If we have any hope of restoring our benefits before many of us die off, you are going to get off your behind and issue a ruling - soon. Our patience is wearing thin.

The Downward Spiral

I just sent in my resignation email as a moderator of the Oregon PERS Discussion Group (OPDG). I've been a moderator there for nearly the entire duration of the newsgroup - nearly four years now. In an earlier post, I commented on how nasty the political invective had gotten over there and that the site seemed to be in the thrall of some rather conservative and libertarian individuals. Nothing that has happened since my observation last week has convinced me that I was wrong to make that comment. The conversation - such as it is - has taken on a rather ugly and nasty tone. Some members seem hellbent on posting deliberately provocative political commentary unrelated to the group's charter. While I have no problem with political commentary, there is a time and a place for it. The Oregon PERS Discussion Group is *not*, in my opinion, the place for this kind of discussion. When I agreed to be a moderator, the group's focus was on PERS and retirement issues. So long as the discussion remained approximately around those broad topics, I had no difficulty. But now, with PERS news spare, the economy generally in the tank, and the seemingly endless foot-dragging by Judge Kantor and PERS, the participants in OPDG, of whom there are actually few, seem content to trade insults and abuse over presidential politics. As I noted over there, if I want to read that kind of commentary, I have plenty of places I can go for it. More to the point, there are far more intelligent discussions of politics on other newsgroups, and far better blogs around than mine for such discussion. I will continue to contribute PERS commentary to OPDG, but I will not be associated with its administration any longer. I think the group is making a gigantic mistake to go down the path it has chosen to go. I've been participating in newsgroups for about 20 years now and I've seen far too many destroyed by deviating radically from the original intent. The moment you open the door to way off topic discussion, the downward spiral begins.

Changing of the Guards

Ah, 'tis the silly season. Today, various candidates and their mouthpieces stopped by my house to offer themselves as my salvation in Salem. My current state representative - Greg Macpherson - has chosen to run for Attorney General and is taking himself out of the race for his seat in the Oregon House - House District 38. Amongst my visitors today was a representative for Linda Brown, running as a Democrat, for the Legislature in House District 38. Her opponent in the Democratic primary is Chris Garrett. I'm not a shrinking violet as you might guess and I'm pretty focused on giving legislative candidates my opinions on what should and should not be done in Salem. Candidates and their spokespeople are always pretty surprised when I come down so hard on Macpherson and am emphatic that I will *not* support a candidate who maligns public employees or PERS. I have a very short fuse these days and all someone has to do is to suggest that public employees might be getting "too much" of something for me to drop that candidate *off* my radar. I don't know who I'll support yet in the HD 38 race, but both candidates in the democratic primary know my opinions about public employees and PERS. Let's see who is the first to make it clear that public employees don't deserve to be demonized and that PERS isn't some gigantic slush fund that can be used to save the public from its own perfidy. I'm glad to be getting a new representative in Salem. I just hope whoever it is will be better than the current one.

Love Is Free

Politics costs money. SEIU just ponied up $120,000 to help out John Kroger in his campaign against PERS public enemy number 2, Greg Macpherson. Clearly SEIU feels pretty strongly that Macpherson sold out his labor supporters in authoring and backing much of the legislation that we all now feel heftily in our pocketbooks. As far as I can tell, this is the largest amount of money any of the unions have given for any statewide campaign and underscores how important the AG race is and how badly SEIU wants Macpherson off the public stage for the next few years. Now if AFSCME decides to pony up an equal amount, Kroger might be able to put Macpherson away permanently. I don't have much hope that AFSCME will do so, however, as they are the union representing the attorneys in the Department of Justice. That unit endorsed Macpherson. Apparently, their pensions are no so important. All I can say is that my money went to Kroger and I'm hoping he'll have staying power to get to 50% + 1 on May 20th. Go John.

Back To Black

One of the most important Oregon positions is the Treasurer. The state treasurer is nominally the head of the Oregon Investment Council, which directs the investments of the PERS fund and all of the other state agencies. The State Treasurer, currently Randall Edwards, has done an excellent job in the face of some extraordinary forces at work in the US and World stock markets. The main candidates for this years opening are Ben Westlund (formerly a Republican, now an Independent) and Allen Alley, whose ads seem to appear quite regularly in the Google ad box above. Just about all the major unions and most major Dems and Republicans have endorsed Westlund for the position. Westlund has had a lot of legislative experience and has had some business experience. I suppose he'll do a good job as State Treasurer. He would have a strong, professional staff to work with and the Oregon Investment Council is about the best any state has these days. Whoever wins the election will be managing the PERS fund for the next four years. I think it quite incumbent upon us to research the candidates and vote for the one who can make our money work the hardest. What we don't need is a Treasurer who thinks that PERS can be a slush fund for some other derelict agency. That happened in the 80's with SAIF. We don't need a rerun of that. Fortunately, I think the law prevents that from happening, but then again, we all thought that PERS had to obey the law too. Boy were we wrong!

Keep It Simple

I just had a brief message from Greg Hartman expressing his frustration to join ours with the lack of news from Judge Kantor's courtroom. He doesn't have any more idea when things will start moving than I do.

Back to our regularly scheduled rant.

Shake Those Windows

My post yesterday and the comments thereon seem to rattle some windows over at OPDG. I didn't expect the comments to be reprinted there - it is a breach of netiquette to do so without permission - but that's life. There is no question in my mind that the venom level seems to be rising and that the worst offenders seem to have a very conservative, libertarian bent. To reiterate my thoughts from yesterday, I really, really, really dislike politics as a basis for discourse, especially in a forum dedicated to PERS discussion. Ordinarily civil people become animals when advocating political positions, especially when it comes to Presidential politics. You will not see any political endorsements of Presidential candidates here, although I may take a stand on local politicians who had some influence on the PERS decisions of the past few years. I think it fair to target those who made decisions affecting our livelihoods so directly. And I'm especially upset at those politicians who professed their loyalty to public employees all the while stabbing them in the back. And, I want to reward those politicians who made a point of opposing efforts to disrupt the benefit flow to retirees and to active PERS members. By and large, this is a blog about PERS and to the extent that it is possible, I want to keep it about PERS. If I want to discuss something else, I'll start another blog. Maybe I'll call it - Ramblings from Chairman Marc. Don't be looking for it anytime soon, however. It'll be a cold day.....

Judge Kantor still has not ruled and Francisco Franco is still dead.

Don't Bottle It Up

Another wave of recalculation letters must have gone out. The PERS discussion group has a bunch of new members who've just discovered the group. They got their letters last week and are wondering what hit them and what to do. Many are just plain pissed. It is nice to get new readers. In addition to getting some useful advice, new members of OPDG are getting a serious dose of the politics of the PERS discussion group. If you are a liberal, you'll find yourself outnumbered and outgunned on OPDG. The conservative viewpoint seems to dominate all political discourse (I use that term loosely), and any attempt to interject a liberal opinion or point of view gets strangled by the chorus of conservative, libertarian views espoused there. It is somewhat surprising to find a group of mostly retired public employees so anti-liberal as one finds at OPDG. I guess it is true that as one gets older, one gets more conservative. I certainly haven't found my "conservative voice" yet, although I confess to be a bit more intolerant as I get older. I guess it is that "cranky curmudgeon" in me that comes out every now and then. I tune out most of the rhetoric and just participate in the PERS discussion. My life is too short to become enmeshed in the animosity expressed by the head-bangers there. They just don't bottle it up, which is healthy, I suppose. God help you if you are an Obama supporter, or even worse, a Hillary defender. I haven't decided yet who I will vote for in May. I have decided that I won't be voting for McSame.

In the meantime, we still don't have any progress on the PERS front. Judge Kantor seems to be spinning his wheels and there are no extant rumors that suggest or even hint at the timing of a ruling. Perhaps Judge Kantor feels that if he never rules, we'll all just go away. We may not go away voluntarily, but we may all die and our estates may not want to pursue this any further. I hope it doesn't go that far. I hope that Greg Hartman is right that a decision may be made by June. I'm sure getting tired of writing all these blog posts that report no news. I'm getting mighty tired of reading all the political rants everywhere. I hate election years.

Walk On

Just a quick note here to let my readers know that I will be voting for Vicki Walker for Oregon's Secretary of State. Vicki strongly supported PERS members and retirees during the 2003 legislative session, and will do an outstanding job as Secretary of State. That makes two endorsements for me in this upcoming May 20, 2008 primary. I have not made my decision on who to vote for in the US Senate race (Merkley or Novick), for President (Clinton or Obama), or in the Oregon 5th Congressional District (Darlene Hooley's seat). Similarly, in House District 38, there are several outstanding candidates and I have no particular favorite amongst them. I don't get to vote in the Portland races and so have no preferences there either, except that Sam Adams has not been a friend of public employees. I *may* make some other recommendations as we get closer to May 20th, but for now, the only races that interest me are those for Secretary of State and for Oregon Attorney General. In that latter race, John Kroger is the man.

Pimping My Ride

The old spin-meister, Greg MacPherson, is still pimping his record on the basis of his performance in reforming PERS. He's also fabricating a tale about "open government", which sits awfully well with those of us who were victimized by the open-government initiative inside PERS. Those cretins, along with our upstanding employers, conspired together to come up with a "fix" for the PERS problems that didn't happen to consider the impact on a primary stakeholder, PERS members and retirees. If this is the kind of "open government" Greg wants, I want no part of it. This blog is proud to go on record as endorsing John Kroger in the upcoming May primary for Oregon Attorney General. We need an honest Attorney General, not one who talks out of both sides of his mouth at the same time.

I Will Survive

This is dedicated to all PERS members and retirees and is our collective "finger" to PERS.

Run, Run, Run

Attorney General candidate John Kroger picked up AFSCME's endorsement on Tuesday. Previously, SEIU and the OEA endorsed him over his opponent Greg Macpherson. This means that Kroger now has the endorsement of the three largest public employee unions. Since there is no Republican running in the May primary, whoever wins in May will run unopposed in November and will be the next Oregon Attorney General. This is an important race. Some previous AGs have gone on to run for Governor, including Oregon's current Governor, Ted Kulongoski. To help you sort this race out, I need only remind readers that the 2003 PERS reform legislation was authored principally by Macpherson, who continues to defend his actions in the face of widespread opposition from public employees. We need to work together to show Mr. Macpherson the door back to his law firm. If Macpherson loses in the May primary, he will have given up his seat in the Legislature as well. This would take him out of politics for the next two years, at least, and probably deny him the name recognition he would need to run successfully for the Governor's office. If there is any politician who needs to go, it is Greg Macpherson. Support John Kroger. Tell your friends to support John Kroger. Now is a good time to send a really strong message to Macpherson that we didn't (and still don't) appreciate his tampering with our PERS benefits retroactively or prospectively. Help send Greg back to Stoel, Rives. They need him far worse than we do.

Dirty City

I just heard that Judge Kantor has resigned from the bench and has turned the Arken/Robinson cases over to Judge Judith Scheindlin, better known to some of her fans as "Judge Judy". She has promised to whack those PERS moles the next time they pop out of their holes.

Money

PERS posted the final earnings for 2007 yesterday. Tier 1 regular accounts were credited at 7.97% on actual earnings of 10.10%. Tier 2 (and presumably IAP) members received 9.47%. The variable account earnings were a measly 1.75%. Tier 1 members may be puzzled why the credited earnings rate is less than 8%, the Tier 1 rate guarantee. Recall that the PERS Board and the PERS Coalition agreed that legal expenses attributable to the Strunk case would be apportioned over actives, inactives, and retirees in proportion to the actual benefits received as a result of the Strunk litigation. Tier 1 active accounts were assessed 0.03%, which explains the discrepancy (8.00% - 0.03% = 7.97%). The riskier variable account took a beating in the last quarter of 2007 and the final crediting reflects that. Retirees will see their 2008 COLA reduced by a similar amount to the Tier 1 reduction in July 2008.

Radio Nowhere

Awhile back - around Christmas time - I agreed to participate in a radio discussion about PERS on KBOO. The time has arrived and I will be on with Frank Goulard, a PCC Math Professor, to discuss PERS and other retirement issues tomorrow night (Monday) March 31. The show airs live from 6 - 7 pm. The show allows for call in questions and either Frank or I will be happy to take questions germane to our discussion. I don't have much of a feel for the show or its format, but I've done many radio call-in shows before, especially in my former life as a college professor with a research interest in human evolution. These impromptu sessions can lead to some interesting discussions and frequently get into some hot debates. If you are interested, the show airs on 90.7 FM Portland, 91.9 FM Hood River, 100.7 FM Willamette Valley. If you want to read more about the show, check here under "Fifth Monday".

Where Am I?

OK. I'm in Southern California visiting relatives and friends. Tonight we went to dinner at a local hangout. During dinner two celebs walked in. I wouldn't have recognized either but my daughter, who has radar for such things, spotted both immediately. The first was Fran Drescher, who is reputed to star in some program called "The Nanny". I didn't recognize her. But the second star radiated appeal. She was Scarlett Johansen, who showed up in sweats, a ponytail, and glasses. I was quite surprised at how tiny she was. There seemed to be some business transaction taking place - something about a script. We tried to overhear as much as we could, but it would have been too tacky to have listened too closely. My daughter did *not* try for a photo or an autograph, as we explained that stars are entitled to their privacy too. Nevertheless, they do hang out, just like regular folk. All I can say is that we were dressed more nicely than any of the Hollywood types in the restaurant. So, any guesses as to the restaurant where we ate? It is famous, although you have to keep up to have noted this one.

Many The Miles

It is time to take the show on the road. Spring break approaches and the family is skipping out of Dodge City for the first time in almost 6 months. This is, I think, the longest stretch we've been in town without a break in more than twelve years. Even when my wife was post-surgery, we managed to get out of town several times after the first three months. Everyone in the house has cabin fever and so we're off to a big city to play, see museums, and generally have a good time. If we're lucky, the weather should be good too. That was an important consideration. After living in Oregon for nearly 40 years, I have to confess to being a bit rain-weary and cranky.

I leave (on Friday), with the expectation that nothing will be decided on the PERS front. There is no news leaking out of any source. Indeed, the most exciting thing to happen in the past two weeks was the series of deleted comments from last week's post. You know it is time to cash in your chips when that becomes news fodder.

I took delivery of my Mini today, so if you see some bearded guy driving around in a white Mini with black racing stripes, that could be me. Hopefully, this will reduce my frequency of visiting the local neighborhood Chevron station. Those $50 fill ups were getting to be really old. Now the SUV will be reduced to hauling dog and larger groups of people or for road trips. I'll happily take 37 mpg for awhile.

I don't plan to post anything in the next week unless some *real* news about PERS shows up. Things are so slow right now that there hasn't been a new post on OPDG for about 3 days. That is close to a record. Hopefully we won't die of boredom before Judge Kantor makes some decision -- any decision.

Thriller

My last post, "The Walk", was intended as a non-news update. Surprisingly, it generated a series of interesting comments concerning the timing of the Arken ruling. There was a fair amount of give and take and some information passed back and forth in the comments. Unfortunately, the original commenter has decided to remove all the comments and has left the post looking a bit odd. I have a pretty good idea why the comments were removed, although I don't plan to share my suspicions publicly. Suffice it to say that the commenter bet on an early June resolution of Arken/Robinson and then offered some guesses as to why this might be the case. I have no idea whether there is any substance to the guess - when Judges issue their rulings still is a real mystery to me, a non-legal person - but it seemed to me that the person making the guesses was in a better place to know about this than me, who depends on rumor, back-channel communication, and educated guesses. I also guessed that the commenter was trying to get me to ease away from my prediction of a ruling as early as the end of next week. I'm not ready to do that, although the thriller of real information contained in the previous series of exchanges has gotten me to rethink whether Judge Kantor is in a position to release that early. He may be way too behind the 8-ball at this point to get the ruling issued that soon.

The Walk

Will be somewhat slow for a while. In the game of dog versus man, the dog won. Sometime soon now, I will be having some torn cartilage removed from my knee. This resulted from a chance encounter with our 80 pound "puppy" who collided with me at full-speed. Kneedless to say the least, I visited the orthopedist this afternoon and he gave me the bad news. Not that this was a surprise. I've known the knee was a mess for about a month, but it is always sobering when you finally get the news. Fortunately, Jim knows how to fix these problems, and my Czechoslovak trainer is slavering at the opportunity to work my "upper body" (god knows it needs help).

I wish I brought you other news, such as the outcome of Judge Kantor versus Arken or Robinson, but alas, the Courthouse is quiet for the nance. I'm still betting that we'll have a decision before the end of next week. Otherwise Judge Kantor will have to go away for Spring break with these millstones hanging around his neck.

Keep Mediocrity At Bay

Opinion Polls & Market Research

Beat It

The various unions involved in the PERS Coalition are slowly beginning to turn the screws on Greg Macpherson. Both SEIU and OEA have now told Macpherson to "beat it" and have endorsed John Kroger's candidacy for Oregon Attorney General. I can't imagine AFSCME, OSPOA or any of the other unions endorsing Macpherson either. Hopefully we will see the last of Macpherson after May's primary. As a longtime resident of Macpherson's district, I won't be sorry to see him go either. There are several highly qualified candidates seeking his seat in House District 38. If you wonder who Greg Macpherson is, then you weren't paying attention during the 2003 Legislative session when Macpherson helped Governor Kulongoski perform an autopsy on a still-living patient - PERS. Go Kroger.

Comin' Around Soon

While I haven't heard anything substantive about Judge Kantor's week off, I do know that the Arken/Robinson cases have been in violation of UTCR 2.030 for some time now. According to Oregon Trial Code Rules, matters under advisement for more than 60 days can draw attention, and matters under advisement for more than 90 days can provoke more than just attention. Thus, it isn't surprising to me that Judge Kantor finally took a week off to get Arken/Robinson under control. If he truly made his decisions this past week, then Greg Hartman is being quite generous in his assessment that he expects a decision within the next two months. To be sure, if Kantor has made a decision, it is more likely that we should see a decision in the next few weeks, as all Kantor would be left with doing is dictating the case, having it typed, proofread, and issued. I doubt that will take several months.

I've also heard that Judge Kantor held a telephone conference about the White case - another case that has been "in the works" for about 3 years now last Friday. That might account for Hartman telling OSU employees/retirees that White was "on" in August. It seems to me that if White is finally going to be heard, then the whole question of the "settlement agreement" is now back on the table. I *think* that is good news for both actives and retirees.

On an unrelated front, my Mini Cooper has now made it to US shores and might show up in my driveway before the end of the month. If my luck with ordered cars holds true to form, it will arrive about the same time I leave for Spring Break. Nevertheless, it can't come too soon now. Gas prices have hit $3.85 in my neck of the woods and that SUV of mine is mighty thirsty. It would be cheaper to put Grey Goose Vodka in the tank. Of course, my Mini, like all of its BMW relatives, runs only on premium fuel. You can't have everything.

In true form, my friend Jim sent me the latest IKEA catalog item to save me money before my Mini arrives. With IKEA, the basic idea is that by assembling the furniture with simple tools, you can save yourself some money. In homage to money saving, here is IKEA's way of buying a car:

And here are the tools needed to assemble it:

Let It Happen

Nothing new to report on the Judge Kantor front. No contradiction to my last report, although OSU sponsored a talk with Greg Hartman and Paul Cleary. During this talk, Hartman said he hoped for a decision from Judge Kantor in the next two months - safely within my source's predicted timeframe - while Cleary, the PERS executive director, trash-talked window retirees for sucking at the public trough (or so says an attendee). In the meantime, Dawn Morgan is busy talking to Corvallis retirees, but I haven't heard what she is saying. Dawn is not one of my favorite people.

Hartman doesn't speculate what will happen if Kantor rules in favor of retirees, and Cleary acknowledges having set aside a sizeable sum of money for "future litigation". Sounds to me like PERS is covering its bets. But Cleary cautions that the decision as to whether to go forward with appeals rests with the attorneys "...and the employers." Hartman thinks that, whatever happens, Kantor will encourage the Supreme Court to take jurisdiction and bypass the Court of Appeals.

All of this is premature. No ruling yet, but stay tuned. If my source is right, we should be seeing a ruling in the "real soon now." Maybe Judge Kantor would like to get a Spring Break too. His wife is a school teacher.

Second Hand News

I've heard from a reliable source that Judge Kantor has asked to be removed from all other cases next week so he can finish up his rulings in the Arken/Robinson cases. If this is true - and I have no doubt that it is - we may have a decision much sooner than anticipated. Let's all hold our collective breaths and hope for a decision by week's end.

Wanna Be Startin' Something 2008

My last post triggered a fair amount of email. It would be nicer if people would just post comments to the blog, but I know some people don't want all these exchanges to be public. One recurrent question is: to whom do we write to complain about Judge Kantor's extreme slowness in finalizing his Arken/Robinson opinions. In the old days, if a Judge delayed a case too long, he/she could have pay withheld - a modest cattle prod to get someone moving. Today, that no longer seems to be the case what with caseloads being what they are. Nevertheless, Judge Kantor does have two supervisors - the Honorable Dale R. Koch, Presiding Judge Multnomah County Circuit Court, and the Honorable Paul J. De Muniz, Chief Justice of the Oregon Supreme Court. *I* am not planning to engage either Judge Koch or Justice De Muniz, at least not quite yet. I can't stop anyone else from writing to complain, but I'm not going to enable the practice by providing the email addresses of either Judge. Neither Judge is hard to find, but if you want to complain, you're going to have to do the heavy lifting yourself. If you wanna be starting something, you better be prepared to run with the big dogs.

Stand In The Fire

There isn't a PERS retiree I know who isn't waiting impatiently for Judge Henry Kantor of the Multnomah County Circuit Court to issue his long-awaited decision in two PERS-related cases: Arken et al v PERS and Robinson et al v State of Oregon and PERS. These cases were originally heard in 2006. Judge Kantor issued his preliminary findings almost 6 months ago. His order stayed PERS' ability to collect "overpayments", but did not address the question of whether PERS could continue "adjusting" benefits. Absent any explicit prohibition, PERS has been merrily reducing ("adjusting") benefits for Window retirees as part of the Strunk/Eugene remediation. In the meantime, lawyers from the PERS Coalition and others are puzzled and frustrated by Judge Kantor's delay in ruling on the balance of the motions in the trial. At stake is PERS' ability to "adjust" benefits and its necessity to go back and readjust those benefits to levels ordered by the Oregon Supreme Court in its Strunk decision.

I have been at a loss to understand what is holding Judge Kantor up. Today, based on some rather open-ended discussions with several people, it occurs to me that Judge Kantor is up for re-election this year. His term as Multnomah County Circuit Court Judge expires January 5, 2009. This means he either stands in May 2008 or November 2008, I'm not sure which. If he will be running for re-election, what incumbent wants to have his name and picture splashed all over the papers with a potentially unpopular (pro PERS retirees) ruling. We're rapidly approaching the filing date for the elections and we should know whether or not Judge Kantor has any opposition. I'm betting that Judge Kantor will *not* release his ruling until after the elections, either May or November. He is going to maintain as low a profile as possible until then.

Guess it is time to do a bit of digging at Multnomah County. Perhaps it is time for Judge Kantor to stand in the fire. Or then again, perhaps not. What do you think?

Comfortably Numb

Did you know that as of today exactly 1700 days have passed since July 1, 2003? That is the day our COLAs were taken away from us. That is the length of time that, according to the Oregon Supreme Court, PERS has been breaking the law and depriving us of what is constitutionally ours. No matter how you slice it, dice it, or chop it, the Supreme Court said that neither PERS nor the Legislature could withhold a COLA on a payable benefit. The Oregon Supreme Court also said that PERS couldn't recalculate benefits; that the Legislature had defined a new "fixed" benefit which was owed a COLA. So, have we become so comfortably numb that we've forgotten that decision - which is PERS' fondest hope - or do we need to remind them again? I thought that the 1700th day mark would be an appropriate occasion, especially in a leap year.

God Bless This Mess

On Wednesday February 20, the United States Supreme Court issued a far-reaching 9-0 verdict in the Case of Larue v DeWolff et al. This case concerned the applicability of the federal ERISA law to 401-K retirement plans. The question was whether the plan administrator had to bear fiduciary responsibility for properly executing employee instructions for changes to investments in the plan. The Court held that ERISA applied (lower courts had rejected this argument) and remanded the case back to the lower courts for re-argument and for a new verdict. There is no guarantee that LaRue will ultimately win on remand; the only guarantee is that LaRue will be able to argue that ERISA applies in his situation.

Since the nub of the original case involves a "breach of fiduciary responsibility", writers have inquired whether this case has any bearing on PERS going forward or on any cases currently under legal review. I'm not a lawyer, but it is my understanding that ERISA does not apply to public employee pension cases unless the plans have explicit 401-K options. While it might be argued that Tier 3 as well as the IAP plans are 401-K "like", they are not, in fact, 401-K plans. Thus, it is my sense that this opinion will be helpful to employers of private companies with 401-K plans, but will offer no guidance to workers hoping to litigate against Oregon's PERS system.

I tried to extract the relevant part of the Supreme Court's decision and reprint it below. Unfortunately, there was too much html to make it read clearly. Consequently, here is the link instead.

Here's To The Meantime

PERS "window" retirees can expect to take a one-time benefit hit on August 1, 2008. The "hit" is a result of legal fees awarded to the PERS Coalition and to OPRI in the Strunk Case. As stipulated in the Supreme Court's fee decision, PERS is responsible for paying out $763,367 in legal fees resulting from an OPRI and PERS Coalition "victory" on the COLA freeze provision of HB 2003. This will be apportioned over all retirees based on their benefit on July 1, 2004 with restored COLA adjustments. According to PERS and in the stipulation, the average deduction will be 1.38% of the benefit payable on July 1, 2004. In my case, that will be more than 100% of the COLA payable on that same date. According to the COLA calendar, my cohort was entitled to a 1.36% COLA on that date. So figure that you'll lose the equivalent of about one month's COLA to pay for our "win" in the Supreme Court. The "good news" is that this is a one-time deduction, not a permanent reduction to the benefit base.

Someday, after I've had too much food and too much good wine, and in the meantime someone will have to remind me again exactly what I won in the Supreme Court. After all these years, I have to confess that "victory" is an elusive concept.

And, PS, before you write me all worked up, this agreement was worked out by the Court will the full support of the PERS Coalition and OPRI and, of course, PERS and all the other robbers in this case.

Money Maker

I'm a longtime fan of Nigerian scam emails. For those of you unfamiliar with this particular genre of money scam, please use your Google search engine and put the terms "Nigerian scam" into the box. You'll be treated to both an explanation and a summary of the more egregious variants. What always amazes me is that people fall for this stuff. Even a cursory examination of the grammar, syntax, spelling and content reveals that they must assume I am a complete and utter idiot. Meanwhile, I just keep adding them to my collection. A few days ago, I received a new variant. This one is so preposterous and funny that I thought I'd lighten the news load a bit and reprint it here as a public service. Not a single character has been changed. What follows is an exact transcript of the email I received:
==========

From Mrs Jenifer Bruce
N[38 Rue Des Martyrs Cocody
Abidjan,Cote d'Ivoire


ATTN:
DEAREST ONE OF GOD
I am the above named person from Kuwait. I am married to Mr.Abram Bruce, who worked with Kuwait embassy in Ivory Coast for nine years before he died in the year 2004. We were married for eleven years without a child. He died after a brief illness that lasted for only four days.

Before his death we were both born again Christian. Since his death I decided not to remarry or get a child outside my matrimonial home which the Bible is against. When my late husband was alive he deposited the sum of $2. 5 Million (Two Million Five Hundred U.S. Dollars) in the bank here in Abidjan in suspense account.

Presently, the fund is still with the bank. Recently, my Doctor told me that i have serious sickness which is cancer problem. The one that disturbs me most is my stroke sickness. Having known my condition I decided to donate this fund to a church or individual that will utilize this money the way I am going to instruct herein. I want a church that will use this fund for orphanages, widows, propagating the word of God and to endeavour that the house of God is maintained.

The Bible made us to understand that blessed is the hand that giveth. I took this decision because I don’t have any child that will inherit this money and my husband relatives are not Christians and I don’t want my husband’s efforts to be used by unbelievers. I don’t want a situation where this money will be used in an ungodly way. This is why I am taking this decision. I am not afraid of death hence i know where I am going. I know that I am going to be in the bosom of the Lord. Exodus 14 VS 14 says that the Lord will fight my case and I shall hold my peace.

I don’t need any telephone communication in this regard because of my health hence the presence of my husband’s relatives is around me always I don't want them to know about this development. With God all things are possible. As soon as I receive your reply I shall give you the contact of the bank here in Abidjan. I want you and the church to always pray for me because the Lord is my shepherd. My happiness is that I lived a life of a worthy Christian. Whoever that wants to serve the Lord must serve him in spirit and Truth. Please always be prayerful all through your life.

Contact me on the above e-mail address for more information’s, any delay in your reply will give me room in sourcing another church or individual for this same purpose. Please assure me that you will act accordingly as I Stated herein. Hoping to receive your
reply.
Remain blessed in the Lord.
Yours in Christ,
Mrs Jenifer Bruce

===========

Do you think Mrs Bruce will succeed in her efforts to gain access to your bank account? You've been duly warned, my public service for today.

All The Pigs, All Lined Up

I've received quite a bit of mail from readers upset by the latest piggishness from the PERS Board. People are understandably upset that active members have to give up 0.03% of their guarantee in 2009 to cover attorney fees involved in restoring the 8% guarantee. Kindo ironic that the legal fees reduce the "guarantee" anyway. And retirees are fit to be tied as PERS comes after them again for some, as yet, unknown amount of the 2008 COLA. All because the PERS Coalition won back the COLA, although there is some dispute about exactly what retirees won because PERS gave with one hand and took away with the other. Arken and Robinson should tell us whether that sleight of hand is okay or not.

I have bad news for all of you who have written and the rest of you who are fuming. What PERS is doing is precisely what PERS' attorneys (the California Pigs), the non-State attorneys (the Bill Gary Pigs), the State's attorney (Steven Walters and the Oregon AG's Office Pigs), *and* (drumroll, saving the best for last) the PERS Coalition attorneys (principally Greg Hartman). They signed this agreement back in early 2007, and none of these merry band of robbers bothered to complain during the sham of a PERB hearing last Friday.

Like pigs at a trough, all the lawyers have been paid, and we've all be suckered into believing that this litigation was for our own good. Somehow as my benefit is cut by $xxx (fill in your own large number here), my COLAs are based on some bogus amount that isn't what the Supreme Court said it should be, and now the final thuggish act of taking out attorney fees from our benefits, we now know that the system is rigged. Ostensibly it is for our benefit, but the custodians of our fate would sell us down the river in a heartbeat for legal fees. Be careful who your friends are and know who your enemies are. They might be the same people. Snarl.

Punish The Monkey

Just when you thought the news couldn't get any worse, the PERS Board managed to come up with yet another way to punish us monkies. You remember that 2% COLA that the PERB so graciously reinstated last August? You remember how they then reinstated all the COLAs back to our date of retirement or 7/1/03, whichever was later, but turned around and reduced our benefit to one based on 11.33% crediting for 1999? You keepin' up so far? Of course, this latter action is the subject of litigation that has officially passed the two year mark without a formal ruling (that would be Arken and Robinson). You may have also read, in my previous post, that PERB is planning to reduce the 8% guarantee for 2009 to 7.97% to pay for legal expenses PERS incurred when they lost in the Supreme Court. Well, guess what? The other shoe dropped today. Retirees will get to shoulder their share of the Strunk legal expenses too. That will be achieved by temporarily (2008) reducing the 2% COLA we would be getting in August to something less than 2%. I don't remember the exact amount, but it will be small. Of course, this all misses the crucial point, which is that when you sue PERS you end up suing yourself. You get to pay for the legal fees whether you win or lose. If retirees/actives lose, PERS collects from the PERS Coalition and/or retiree groups. If PERS loses, it collects from retirees and/or actives. I've officially named this game - "punish the monkey" for it doesn't matter what the outcome, it is a lose-lose proposition. We're the monkeys and PERS just smacks us around no matter what. This is just another example of how PERS acts in the best interests of those whose money is entrusted to them by force.

P.S. I was not at the PERB meeting today. I'm collecting information from a variety of sources and will try to post a more comprehensive report when my sources report back. But this report came in quickly and it seemed important enough to ruin everyone's 3-day weekend.

Between The Lines

The PERS Board (PERB) meets this coming Friday (Feb 15). The agenda is chock-a-block with interesting tidbits. Perhaps the most interesting item is the Board's decision to fund the Strunk litigation costs by reducing the guaranteed rate on regular accounts for active members from 8% to 7.97% during 2009. While this is a trivial amount of money for most members, the problem is that this sends the PERB down that slippery slope that got them into trouble with the Oregon Supreme Court in the Strunk case. The court was quite clear that regular accounts are to be paid no less than the guaranteed rate. The "between the lines" interpretation here is that if the PERB gets away with this action, it is the first step towards reducing the guarantee.

If you explore the agenda further, you discover that the PERS Staff is asking the PERB for permission to set aside several hundred thousand dollars for "future litigation." It doesn't take too much imagination to reconcile this agenda item with the reduction in the guarantee to pay for the Strunk litigation costs. The PERB must expect the PERS Coalition to sue - as well they should - to prevent this action.

There is still no word from Judge Kantor on the verdict in Arken or Robinson. Judge Kantor was excused from hearing a nasty murder case; one presumes that his caseload must be horrendous. I hope this means that he'll have more time to rule on those cases he's already heard. God knows, he's had six months to think hard on Arken/Robinson. The verdict can't be that complicated. I can easily envision the outcome. Maybe that's why he's a judge and I'm just a retired college prof <g>.

Not much else to report. My posts will probably diminish a bit over the next few weeks as I await for the verdict on my knee. I blew out all the cartilage over the weekend and I'm trying to get in to see the orthopedic surgeons soon to get the repair scheduled. It is no fun to have a 75 lb dog take a header right into the lateral knee while neither she nor you are paying attention. I can honestly say this this is the first mortal being to have ever brought me to my knees.

My Mini Cooper is on the boat awaiting its journey from Oxford, England to South Carolina to Portland. I hope to take possession of my new gas sipper by about this time next month. I'm still trying to figure out why it takes nearly a month to sail from England to the east coast. In my condition, I could swim faster.

Happy Valentines Day to all. Enjoy your time with the valentine of your choice. I have two lovely sweethearts to spend my evening with. I have two more who'll call. What more can a guy want?

A Few Small Repairs

As you can see, I've done some remodeling to the site. All the previously available features are still here, but they may be relocated from their usual places. The "dots" started to bore me and I decided it was time for a few small repairs. I can't quite get the AdSense box right at the top and I'm still working on it. I have it there because it pays the bills. Hosting a blog isn't free, but the AdSense revenue pays for my hosting charges and for the software I use for posting quickly. Please leave comments for me about the color scheme (positive or negative). I make no claims to any design sense at all, and I use prefigured templates so that they look like I'm an artiste.

Nothing new to report on PERS except for the possibility of some minor housekeeping bills in the Legislature. Doubtful they'll come up in the Special Session, but AFSCME's Don Loving reports on several proposals floating around. None of these are relevant to retirees, but several may affect former PERS workers returning to work for a PERS employer. Stay tuned for more news.

Instant Karma

On Friday, my OPRLF refund check arrived. No muss, no fuss. They accepted my feeble records without me having to dig through archives located about 10 miles away from me and in the dustiest facility I could manage. I appreciate OPRI's willingness to bend a bit on the record-keeping. I understand their need to have us contact them. Since the donation period ended more than 2 years ago and began almost 5 years ago, it is likely that many of the donors moved. If you didn't notify OPRI of your current address, they wouldn't have any way to get your contribution back to you.

So, if you donated to OPRI's Legal Defense Fund (OPRLF) between July 2003 and August 2005 (check OPRI's web site for precise dates), you can get a refund equal to 72% of your total. For many, this is a significant amount of cash. If you want to see what your money bought, check the archives at the Oregon PERS Document Library. All the legal paperwork for the Sartain case (OPRI's portion of the Strunk consolidated case) are posted there.

Still no new information about the Arken and Robinson cases. Judge Kantor seems in no particular hurry to issue his ruling. Either he is spending a lot of time trying to get things right this time, or he hasn't bothered to start and will throw something together when he figures everyone has waited long enough. We're up to 170 days and counting. Another few weeks and we'll hit the 6 month mark. Perhaps he's trying to break his previous record of 8 months to issue a ruling replete with errors.

The blog cleanup is taking longer than I'd hoped for. I discovered that wholesale changes to the blog format cause many of the features I've added (countup widget, links, comments, etc) to vanish. All I want to do is to modernize the "look", not eliminate features. I need to be able to completely backup the existing blog before switching over to the new format. I want instant karma, but so far all I'm getting is instant hangover.

P.S. I have changed the format colors. I'm nowhere near finished, but at least there is a change of scenery to begin with.

Nine in the Afternoon

The blog look is getting a bit tired and so I'm going to be experimenting with some new Blogger features over the next week. I have to be sure that I can preserve all the posts before I start changing things around. In the meantime, I'm starting with a new posting engine to see whether there is anything useful or different to "Blogo" than with "MarsEdit", which is my former tool. I've been trying to extract some PERS news, but there simply is nothing to report. Even over on Oregon PERS Discussion Group the conversation has declined to a trickle. It is either nine in the afternoon, or it is the calm before the storm. You decide.

Speak No Evil

Several recent nice stories about OPRI. They *are* trying much harder. First, informants report that OPRI is very much on the ball in getting requested refunds back to claimants. Turnaround time seems to be days. Second, my own special request was handled quickly and efficiently. Vern Fisher emailed me and explained the problems involved in tracking down records for contributors. Nevertheless, he found one of my "missing" donations and will assist me in processing my refund. The record he found was one I have stored in an offsite location. He's saved me a trip into town to search through one of about 30 boxes of records stored when we moved last year. I really appreciate not having to visit that dusty facility. I'm hoping to leave that for my children to sort through :=>. In any case, after all my complaining about OPRI, it is nice to be able to report something quite positive for a change. Thanks Vern! I've also engaged in communications with several Board members and I'm optimistic that OPRI may finally be in for some positive change. Some of the older members may resist kicking and screaming, but I think we're finally poised for a culture change. Change is good.

Never Missin' A Beat

This picture says it all. The whores at the Oregonian just can't leave it alone. Stick it to PERS members. I was tempted to use another title from the same CD, but I resisted out of respect for the sensibilities of others. It was entitled "F**k Everyone". By the way, this wasn't from the version delivered at home. This came from a downtown newspaper rack and must have been the Saturday final. Can you say, slow news day? My response - lying f**kers!

Big Casino

This has been a pretty rocky month for most of us who invest in the stock market. After about four years of pretty good returns, the chickens are coming home to roost. There doesn't seem to be any refuge in foreign markets. I'm pretty impressed with the low-level french flunkie who managed to squander $7.2 billion from Societe Generale, perhaps triggering a big selloff on European markets. In short, no matter how diversified one is, there has been pretty much no refuge from the market's wild gyrations of the past few weeks. It truly has been like a giant casino, where the house almost always wins. Apropos of that, the Boregonian has a story in this morning's paper about how PERS has done during the past week. According to the report, PERS has lost about $5 billion of asset value during this month's swoon. Not to worry. The PERS fund is well-funded and remarkably well-managed. If any group of investors is prepared to weather this, the Oregon Investment Council seems especially magical when it comes to earning money in nearly any market. This may not be the banner year we'd hoped for, but there isn't much risk out there that the OIC can't mitigate. They're playing at the big casino, but they have the skill of a card counter without doing anything that pisses off the casino management. Keep the faith. I only wish I had my personal portfolio collectively invested in the way of the PERS Fund. I might be losing less money that way.

Way Down in the Hole

I love doing my taxes. It always puts me of mind of just how much the government takes from us and how remarkably little we get in return. I'm always feeling I'm way down in the hole. I started preparing my taxes as usual this year as all the little bits of paper start showing up in my mailbox. I've finally decided that all those deductions I've meticulously kept track of over the years - personal exemptions, medical expenses, state income taxes, property taxes, business expenses - aren't worth the paper they're printed on. Once you get into the AMT, where we've been now for about ten years - the government takes those away from you and you no longer get to deduct them. You can list them if you want, but you can watch the TurboTax calculator just stick in place as you start adding them. So I told myself last year that I would just shoebox them all this year and see what happens. We can't avoid listing the state income taxes withheld; they're part of the W-2 and 1099R forms. Thus, the moment they get entered (or downloaded this year), the AMT bell starts going gong, gong, gong. It announces that you've made to AMT territory and most deductions don't matter any more. Welcome to the twilight zone, to the parallel universe known as AMT hell. This is quite liberating actually. Of course I'd like to only have to pay my fair share of taxes, not my share plus the share of about ten other people. On the other hand, my taxes just got a whole less complicated, especially now that we don't have to bother with my wife's business expenses - medical licenses in three states, medical societies, continuing medical education, travel expenses, etc. It was a pain to keep track of all that. No more those. I just bend over and let the government extract what they can.

Speaking of taxes and government, I got my PERS 1099 statements yesterday. Note the plural. I got two tax statements from PERS. I had forgotten that the year between one's 59th and 60th birthday marks a special occasion in tax land. About half way through you turn 59.5 years old. That magic point marks the crossover point where you are no longer subject to the IRS's special hell for taking "early distributions" of retirement income. In PERS-land, this event is marked by getting two 1099 forms. One form has Box 7 marked with a "7", which means "normal distribution" (i.e. you've reached official IRS retirement age and you can withdraw without a penalty). The other 1099 has box 7 marked with a "2), which means that you were subject to "early distribution" rules. It hardly matters when one is taking a PERS pension plus an annuity, but the IRS keeps track of these sorts of things. So now I'm street legal; I am really old enough to retire. If you get two 1099R's from PERS this year, you might have turned 59.5 sometime during the year; otherwise, you may be getting a variable distribution. If you got two for any other reason, it might be that PERS just likes to play with your head. Have fun doing your taxes. I'm having a blast doing mine. The AMT has only cost me $7000 so far this year. If I'm lucky, I can keep it under $10,000. Way down in the hole.

Falling or Flying

The OPRI Board is whole again. Russ Gregory has joined the OPRI Board as the local school district employee representative. By my count there are now four members who retired in 2000 or later. That gives "window" retirees slight control over the decision-making process and future direction of the organization. I don't anticipate an immediate change in the current direction; it does take time to learn the ropes and organizational history. But, I think it fair to say that there are a significant number of recent retirees - many OPRI members - who aren't satisfied with many things about OPRI. OPRI seems very slow to act. OPRI doesn't communicate well with its members. Unless you know an OPRI Board member, OPRI may not communicate with you at all, especially if you have a question. OPRI is taking its direction from a paid lobbyist. OPRI should be setting its own agenda, not the lobbyist's agenda. I hope that with a more active Board, all of this will change. I hope that OPRI will become responsive to its membership. I hope that OPRI will become more active in trying to increase its membership ranks. Word of mouth isn't sufficient any more.

Many of these problems could be classed under the heading - better and more modern communications. From all the different sources I have, I understand that some on the Board still do not use email as a principal means of communication. In this day of cell phones, instant messaging, emails, text messaging, high gasoline prices, it astonishes me that people can't grasp just how important immediate communication can be in this rapidly changing world. I don't see how anything productive comes from having to mail out agendas, or to pick them up by driving to a central locations. I don't see how timely issues can be put on meeting agendas when communication is limited in this way. This was an issue Martha Sartain complained about, and was one of the reasons that Greg Scott volunteered to redo the OPRI web site. From my observations over the past year or so, not many of these things have changed dramatically. Few of us use OPRI as an information source. It's information is "so yesterday" by the time it gets posted on the OPRI website. And this is the point I don't get. OPRI is often the last to communicate this information to its members. Why shouldn't it be out front? You can't do this living in the 19th century. Queen Victoria's mail system and Henry Ford's transportation system no longer cut it. We're all living in Tim Berners-Lee's world and we expect and seek information instantaneously. OPRI needs to move way forward on this front if it expects to sustain itself over the next 10 - 15 years or longer.

I'm willing to cut the new Board some slack, give it time to get its act together, and start acting like it is in the latter part of the 20th century. There is no excuse for not modernizing this end of the organization. A majority of the Board *must* grasp this. Hopefully they can gently nudge the others on the Board to the modern world The new Board *must* emphasize that they want to connect with newer retirees by starting to act like they understand the wants and needs of more recent retirees. Most of us are willing to wait - a little while - to see whether the new board is falling or flying. Hopefully, we'll see some flying. We don't need any more falling. The other side is too sophisticated to afford us the luxury of terminal anachronism.

Note added later today: I actually had occasion to want to email OPRI today. I discovered that there is no email contact on their web site. I *can* email their lobbyist, but why is OPRI paying a lobbying firm to handle email? This is what I mean by an organization that just isn't nimble, that just isn't with it, and that actively seems to be trying to disengage with its own membership. They've got to try a whole lot harder than they're doing. A post office box and a lobbyist email address just aren't sufficient these days. Worse still, the lobbyist email address is a dead letter box. My emails just bounce back. Thus, except by sending snail mail, there seems to be no way to contact OPRI. This sucks.

Weird Fishes/Arpeggi

Those comics over at OPRI have made me laugh again. You know, the Oregon PERS Retirees Association. The group that begged us for money to fund the Sartain case to which many of us donated legal fees. Their legal defense fund, the OPLDF, received a fat check from PERS to settle up the PERS litigation. OPRI promised it would refund donations to the extent they were reimbursed. We now know that they were reimbursed at about 72 cents on the dollar and so they are offering refunds to donors at the rate of 72 cents on the dollar less a one dollar service charge. Fair enough. But the things that makes this whole thing distasteful are (a) I have to tell OPRI that I want a refund; otherwise they'll just keep my money and (b) I have to prove my donations to get a refund. Both of these are aggravating. Why should I have to tell OPRI I want a refund? Why can't they ask me if I want one? Second, why do I have to dig through *my* records, now some 3 to 5 years later, to prove how much I donated. Why can't OPRI dig through their records - they have to keep them by law? OPRI would be far more likely to win friends if they took the initiative here rather than expecting me to do their heavy lifting. Of course, it's my money and I want it back. You can be damn straight that I'll find the records. But I shouldn't have to be doing this. OPRI could make my workload a bit lighter. After all, that's what databases are for. There are some weird fishes down there in Salem (sorry to my Salem-resident friends. Not you, it's the folks who live at PO Box 12945, Salem, OR 97309).

House of Cards

I spoke too soon in my post earlier today. The mail brought me PERS' form letter declining to share my wealth with me. They turned down my appeal. My appeal form looked suspiciously like a legal documents complete with all kinds of cool phrases like: "In the matter of the appeal of Marc Feldesman" and "Review Determination". The bottom line is the somewhat rude and unsurprising and unoriginal "Calculation Upheld." I stood open-mouthed in disbelief that they could actually turn down *my* appeal. The nerve of them. And here I thought that after writing mean things about them for a few years they might be sufficiently afraid that they'd treat me differently than all the other hundreds, possibly thousands, who have already appealed.

As I said this morning, I have a local attorney experienced in these matters who volunteered to take my case pro bono. I still haven't decided whether it is worth the time or effort. I suspect that once the attorney finds out how many stun guns PERS throws up in his face, he might rethink his offer. My guess is that he needs paying clients far worse than he needs this grief. It is probably better to wait for the horse to Kantor. Perhaps then the house of cards will finally start falling down.

I Write Sins Not Tragedies

I expect you were waiting for another PERS post. Alas, there is nothing new to report aside from the hundreds of people appealing their PERS benefit adjustments and getting turned down for the same reasons. From the looks of the letters, PERS doesn't even have enough respect for us that they can write these form letters on actual stationery. For all I know, they are pre-written and one paragraph is added just to make it look personalized. I myself haven't gotten my appeal response, although it is approaching the 45-day mark. I expect my form letter will arrive real soon now. I'm still debating whether a contested case would be a useful thing to do. At least one attorney friend of mine has volunteered to do it for me on a pro bono basis, but I'm still not sure I'll go through with. I have some slim hope that Judge Kantor will get off his duff and issue an opinion soon - maybe even before I file my income taxes for this year.

While I tend to share relatively little personal information on *this* site, I've been trying to reduce my carbon footprint a bit. I drive a big SUV that gets crummy gas mileage. We can't afford to get rid of the car because we still need it for travel and for hauling the dog around. But I've decided to buy a new toy that gets far better gas mileage - 32 combined MPG - without purchasing an ugly hybrid (sorry Prius owners, but those cars have no style and I'm a stylin' kind of guy). So, yesterday I took the plunge and bought myself a new Mini Cooper. If I can figure out how to use the MiniUSA site to capture the image of *my* car, as configured, I'll post it. Like any fuel-efficient car, Mini's are not exactly plentiful on the lots these days. Mine is on order and won't be here until late March. I drove one for hours yesterday and I've never been in a 118 hp car with so much power and is so much fun to drive. Of course, it will be an utter pain in the rear on the Sunset Highway (26) at about 5 pm, but while I'm creeping along, I'll take comfort in the fact that the miles per gallon is an underestimate and that I won't be spewing out hydrocarbons costing me $3.25 or more per gallon for 15 miles per gallon. I'll try to figure out how to post a picture in case anyone cares. My daughter - 16 in April - is already pissed at me because I bought a manual transmission and I'm not going to teach her how to drive it right away. She can drive the car we've saved for her, poor mistreated child. Here's my soon-to-be gas-sipper

You Know I'm No Good

There is a penetrating and occasionally nasty commentary about Greg MacPherson's latest "Mac Report". You can read it on Jack Bog's Blog under the heading entitled "Macpherson Takes a Hard Left". As most readers know, I hold Macpherson accountable for much of the current PERS debacle and the assault on public employees and PERS retirees. Jack's analysis and the reader comments add much further dimension to my distaste for Macpherson and why I wouldn't want a pension lawyer being the state's top attorney. He's too one-dimensional to be qualified for the job. And, if you don't want to read the analysis, just keep in mind that Jack Bogdanski was a law partner with Greg Macpherson and John Kroger teaches with him at Lewis and Clark. Few others can claim that degree of knowledge of both candidates. I can't imagine any PERS member or retiree *willingly* voting for Macpherson, but in case you've been out of the loop for awhile, John Kroger is a far more qualified person for the job and he doesn't carry the PERS baggage that Macpherson does.

Think of it this way. If Kroger defeats Macpherson in the May primary, Macpherson not only doesn't get the AG's job, but he's also out of the Legislative pictures. It isn't too often that you get to kill two birds with one vote. Go Kroger.

Where Have All The Flowers Gone?

Here we are on January 1 in the year of our lord, 2008. We stand at the threshhold of the 40th anniversary of one of the most significant years in American History - 1968. Think about it. Bobby Kennedy, Martin Luther King, Johnson's decision not to run for re-election, the Chicago 7 and the Democratic National Convention, the Tet Offensive and the list goes on. It was one of the most difficult years of my life and in many ways formed the person who I am today. Well, enough ruminating. If you enjoy this history, I suggest reading Tom Brokaw's latest book "Boom" for a trip down memory lane. My wife bought it for me at Christmas and I've been dashing through it since. It is an amazing way to turn the spigot of time backwards - not always pleasant, but astonishing in retrospect.

I could maunder on all day about the distant past, but my post today is really a followup on a post a few weeks back entitled "Last of the True Believers". In that, I reported that Steve Delaney, who had been Associate Director of PERS, was leaving to become the Director of Orange County's Public Employee Retirement System. As we crossed over into the New Year I began to think about all of the past PERS luminaries who've left since the reform legislation, and the unfortunates left to carry out the task of being waterboys (and girls) for the current group of Gubernatorial lackeys (the PERS Board). I won't name all names, in part because I've lost track and in part because I don't want to reveal my own ignorance. But, it appears that the list of departures not only left a gigantic hole in the PERS institutional memory, it wiped out a gigantic swatch of intellectual firepower. We have David Bailey, who had been the Associate Director from the late 1990's to 2003, who is now the Director of the PERS System in San Mateo County (San Francisco and environs), Craig Stroud, who went back to his position with DAS, Steve Delaney who is the new Director in Orange County, Jim Voytko, who is now the president of a consulting group in Portland that helps Public Employee retirement systems in, at last count, 20 different states and hundreds of municipalities, and Marsha Bacon, former director of customer service at PERS, who was, at last sighting, working with Jim Voytko at his current employer. In addition, dozens of former customer services and second tier analysts have left PERS for other positions, or have retired and taken positions in the private sector.

So, I wanted to take this opportunity to congratulate the Legislature and the Governor, and Greg Macpherson, for achieving a number of things. First, they managed to drive out the largest wave of talent in the public sector at any time in history between early 2003 and the end of 2004. While all the agencies and districts have limped on, anyone visiting a public agency today will see the consequence of this exodus. Way to go Leg and Gov. Second, they managed to piss off the largest wave of retirees in Oregon history. And the anger is only building as the courts continue to drag their feet and PERS, in its current incarnation, continues its reckless and willful disregard of the law. They say that the lord works in mysterious ways. I suspect that the mystery will be cleared up during 2008 as a large number of incumbents in the legislature get their walking papers. I also suspect that their will be a very unpleasant backlash if the PERS Coalition wins at the Circuit Court level and the PERB continues to press for "summary judgement." Retirees aren't going to take all of this quietly, kindly, or lying down. This one certainly won't. And finally, the Legislature and Governor managed to drive away the largest collection of talent and experience INSIDE PERS itself, leaving the only the hardened, the inexperienced, the talentless, and the immobile group that today acts so maliciously and ruthlessly towards retirees. One often wonders whether this group behaves the way it does because they *can't* retire and are stuck in deadend jobs, or whether they are too stupid to realize the damage they're doing. I guess time will tell.

Where have all the flowers gone? Laughing all the way to the bank. Welcome to 2008 - a year of hope, of opportunity, and most of all, of justice.