PLEASE READ CAREFULLY:
The September 23, 2005 PERS Board meeting is about two weeks away. While the agenda hasn't been published, we know that the Board intends to take up the question of how to implement the "settlement" agreement in the wake of the Supreme Court's ruling that the City of Eugene appeal (the "Lipscomb case" appeal) lacked any active controversy and was moot. This meeting has generated a ton of interest from active members, inactive members, and most significantly, from retirees. Attendance at the meeting is expected to be at record highs, and PERS members/retiree emotions are predictibly very high, nerves are raw, and the potential for an incendiary flashpoint great. It is pretty common knowledge by now that PERS has been trying to take the pulse of the various organizational entities who have dogs in this fight to determine how many members they expect to show up at the meeting, how many people expect to speak, etc. I've heard rumors of possible changes to the meeting venue, of the possibility of trying to televise the meeting on either cable channels or in closed circuit to meeting rooms away from the main site, and of potential security issues that may compel parking management, and, quite worrisomely, personal security pmanagement.
Please consider this as a very important request:
If you are planning to go to the PERS meeting, keep a close watch on this site for news of possible changes to the meeting location. The meeting is currently scheduled for PERS Headquarters in Tigard at 1 pm on Friday September 23.
If you are planning to go to the meeting, PLEASE plan to behave respectfully and business -like. You can wear your grimmest faces, and you can be angry, but control your anger and stick to the facts. The media will be there in full force and you will be on display to TV cameras and to the print media. It does the cause no good to be hurling profane epithets at the Board or anyone else; it does no good to organize "picketing events with bumper-sticker signs". THE MOST POWERFUL FORCE MEMBERS EXERT IS BY SHEER DINT OF ATTENDANCE AT THE MEETING. Being there in legions, and squadrons, and platoons and sitting stony-faced while listening to the many who will speak against the PERB's planned actions will do more to support our cause than any act of civil or uncivil disobediance that any individual or group might have planned. Don't give the PERB political cover to make its bad decisions by letting the public sees us as "crazies".
In the meantime, not everyone will get to speak and not everyone has something different to say. Whether you plan to speak or not, EVERYONE should write or email PERS Executive Director Paul Cleary, and the members of the PERS Board to express their opinions, concerns, and opposition to the Board's planned course of action. You can find the needed email addreses in a link to the left. Do not wait until the day before the Board meeting to do this. Note also that "fairness" is not a precise legal term, but there are plenty of perfectly good examples of letters that cover the range of issues that the Board has not, so far, taken into consideration as they proceed. If you are looking for such examples, go to the Oregon PERS Discussion Group (OPDG) link to the left.
Remember: the strategy for letters and for attendance at the meetings is to be firm, grim, but most of all business-like and reasonably respectful. Don't do anything that would undermine our credibility or make the public dislike us more than they already do.
The September 23, 2005 PERS Board meeting is about two weeks away. While the agenda hasn't been published, we know that the Board intends to take up the question of how to implement the "settlement" agreement in the wake of the Supreme Court's ruling that the City of Eugene appeal (the "Lipscomb case" appeal) lacked any active controversy and was moot. This meeting has generated a ton of interest from active members, inactive members, and most significantly, from retirees. Attendance at the meeting is expected to be at record highs, and PERS members/retiree emotions are predictibly very high, nerves are raw, and the potential for an incendiary flashpoint great. It is pretty common knowledge by now that PERS has been trying to take the pulse of the various organizational entities who have dogs in this fight to determine how many members they expect to show up at the meeting, how many people expect to speak, etc. I've heard rumors of possible changes to the meeting venue, of the possibility of trying to televise the meeting on either cable channels or in closed circuit to meeting rooms away from the main site, and of potential security issues that may compel parking management, and, quite worrisomely, personal security pmanagement.
Please consider this as a very important request:
If you are planning to go to the PERS meeting, keep a close watch on this site for news of possible changes to the meeting location. The meeting is currently scheduled for PERS Headquarters in Tigard at 1 pm on Friday September 23.
If you are planning to go to the meeting, PLEASE plan to behave respectfully and business -like. You can wear your grimmest faces, and you can be angry, but control your anger and stick to the facts. The media will be there in full force and you will be on display to TV cameras and to the print media. It does the cause no good to be hurling profane epithets at the Board or anyone else; it does no good to organize "picketing events with bumper-sticker signs". THE MOST POWERFUL FORCE MEMBERS EXERT IS BY SHEER DINT OF ATTENDANCE AT THE MEETING. Being there in legions, and squadrons, and platoons and sitting stony-faced while listening to the many who will speak against the PERB's planned actions will do more to support our cause than any act of civil or uncivil disobediance that any individual or group might have planned. Don't give the PERB political cover to make its bad decisions by letting the public sees us as "crazies".
In the meantime, not everyone will get to speak and not everyone has something different to say. Whether you plan to speak or not, EVERYONE should write or email PERS Executive Director Paul Cleary, and the members of the PERS Board to express their opinions, concerns, and opposition to the Board's planned course of action. You can find the needed email addreses in a link to the left. Do not wait until the day before the Board meeting to do this. Note also that "fairness" is not a precise legal term, but there are plenty of perfectly good examples of letters that cover the range of issues that the Board has not, so far, taken into consideration as they proceed. If you are looking for such examples, go to the Oregon PERS Discussion Group (OPDG) link to the left.
Remember: the strategy for letters and for attendance at the meetings is to be firm, grim, but most of all business-like and reasonably respectful. Don't do anything that would undermine our credibility or make the public dislike us more than they already do.
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