Citadel

I've learned about one approach the PERS Coalition plans to take with the PERS Board should the board continue to pursue its efforts to recover alleged 1999 overpayments and reduce benefits for the 36,000 +/- members who retired in the "window" between April 1, 2000 and April 1, 2004. The loose outline is that Greg Hartman, on behalf of the Coalition, has sent a firmly written letter to Paul Cleary, Executive Director of PERS, urging him to recommend to the PERS Board that they NOT pursue recovery on the grounds that the Strunk opinion concluded that the Legislature had clearly defined a new "fixed benefit" for those "window" retirees which, contrary to the Legislature's wishes, must include statutory COLA increases. This, according to Hartman, precludes the Board from applying any remedy of the "settlement" agreement and also makes ORS 238.715 inapplicable. While the letter lays out the legal argument, there is no evidence that the PERS Board is, or will be persuaded by the argument. If they aren't, and pursue their recovery efforts, the Coalition plans to file for a temporary injunction to prevent the PERS Board from proceeding with implementation, while they file a new lawsuit in Multnomah County against the PERB. Do keep in mind that this citadel strategy is for those particular retirees in the window. The Coalition has not revealed its plans for actives, inactives, or post-window retirees, other than to indicate that the White case -- already in Multnomah County Circuit Court -- might be fine-tuned and expanded. We also do not know what what plans OPRI might have. Moreover, OPRI continues to need legal funds because it will almost surely participate in the legal actions either in combination with the Coalition and/or separately. Either or both of these strategies will require megabucks.