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From The Directors ...
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| By Brendan Ward, Director | |||||
| First of all, I want to wish all the Union brothers and sisters a very happy and healthy Holiday season. There are two topics I wish to discuss in this issue. First is the issue of future Health Care benefits. I’ll refer to an article in the Chronicle published on November 13, 2006: San Francisco has an unfunded liability of about $3 billion dollars in future Health Care costs for its employees according to the City controller.
San Francisco paid over $100 million this past fiscal year for health costs out of the City budget. It’s projected that this amount will increase dramatically in the future. The “elephant in the room” is how these costs will be paid in the future. An initial meeting was held between the City and Union officials in September. The next meeting will be held in December. Health coverage itself will not be reduced. But the article stated the formula for paying these future costs may include increasing the employee contribution in future years. It is way too early for any decisions to be made. Any changes in the premium payments would have to be negotiated in the contract. Nothing has been decided at this time. We will report back to you the contents of the December meeting. Another Retirement seminar was held in late November. 35 members attended the seminar and received information on topics including retirement benefits, health care, estate planning and Deferred Compensation. The two-day seminar was very successful and I would like to thank the SFFD employees who took time to answer questions for the members. This is a reminder that another seminar will be held February 21st and 22nd of 2007. |
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