From The President
Rhinelander did a great job hosting the Annual Meeting. I've heard many positive
comments from
members who attended. Thanks to the Rhinelander section for leading the way.
Also, a special
thanks to Mark Klipstein, who filled in for me in my absence.
Bargaining is scheduled to resume in November. We have a meeting scheduled with
DER for
Tuesday November 26. We are also looking at other possible dates in December.
We'll be
prepared to bargain - we look forward to having some productive bargaining
sessions and working
out the details of the 2001 - 2003 contract. See your section president or the
SEA website for future
updates.
By the time you read this, the elections will be completed. I hope you took the
opportunity to VOTE
and make a difference.. It is one of the most important things you can do.
Visit the Hill Day is the
next most important thing you can do - plan to participate. We will be planning
another Visit the Hill
Day this spring - Larry Legro and Mike Schoenfield will be leading the planning
for that effort.
We are beginning the process to develop bargaining topics for the 2003 - 2005
contract. If you have
some ideas please share them.
Have a great Thanksgiving!! Take a moment and think about the people in your
life!! Travel
safely and enjoy this family time.
Continue to be professionally and technically the best at your jobs - it's how
we can best serve the
taxpayers and ourselves! The Association is YOU! Your participation is critical
to the success of
the Association.
Respectfully,
Timothy R. Hanley.. SEA President
WI COALITION OF ANNUITANTS (WCOA) MEETING - October 16, 2002
Joe Stroll was the guest speaker, subbing for Jim Doyle. He indicated
Doyle's funding was low to cover the negative ads by McCallum. He also high-
lighted the NRA claim against Doyle on guns was not founded on fact!
Doyle supports the following:
. Economic development for Wisconsin
. Open government
. Contracting out (couldn't get an answer)
. No tax increases
. Rent not on sales tax list
. School aids have increased.
Pat Lipton provided an update on the current SWIB performance and future
direction.
Year to Date Performance
Fixed Fund Variable Fund S&P 500
August 31 -8.4% -18.9%
Sept. 30 -13.2% -27.5% -28.1%
Oct. 31 -10.1% -22.4%
Market Environment
Largest S&P 500 Downturns Since 1926
Rank Downturn
Months Time Period
Length Recovery
1
-83.4% 34
151 Sept 1929 - June 1932
2
-44.7% 25
? Sept
2000 -Sept 2002
3
-42.6% 21
21 Jan 1973 -
Sept 1974
4
-29.5% 3
18 Sept 1987 -
Nov 1987
5
-29.2% 19
9
Dec 1968 - June 1970
Total Funds Managed September 30, 2002: $55. 58 Billion
Fixed Fund WRS $44.38 Billion
Variable Fund WRS $ 4.375 Billion
External Management Fixed Fund 10.8%
Variable Fund 10.8%
Pat Lipton provided us with two handouts (SWIB Updates):
"When the Markets are in a downturn".
All SEA Board members have copies for your review of details.
SWIB is trying to balance the negative cash flow which was moved ahead
by Act 11. The SWIB investments are being reduced to pay the retirees
monthly annuity payments.
The current retirement contributions by employers are not sufficient to
cover the annuity payments. Act 11 and the increased number of retirees since
1999 have overwhelmed the cash flow.
According to the actuary, with the down market and Act 11, the WRS may not
be able to continue to meet the assumed 8% profit ratio within the system for
the next 5 years.
The actuary also predicts that the WRS annuitants will double in numbers in
the next 20 years (112,600 to 225,000).
The above factors will cause 3% increases in contribution rates for the
retirement system over the next 5 years.
The actuary's overall assessment of the WRS was that because of Act 11, the
poor economy, the market and the inability to find enough workers in the future,
coupled with lay-offs in short term, contribution rates are going to soar; and
dividend increases for retired government workers and money purchase for active
government workers will be non-existent for the foreseeable future. The actuary,
Norm Jones, actually suggested higher wages for workers in the future in order
to
place more money in the fund for investment.
Ed Kehl reported on the Health Insurance Survey conducted by the WCOA and said
that they reviewed over 900 responses.
The next WCOA meeting is scheduled for November 20, 2002.
Melvin B. Sensenbrenner,
SEA Retirement & Health
Insurance Representative
September 28, 2002 Board Meeting Summary
Meeting held at Best Western, Madison Wisconsin
By Bob Schaefer, Acting Secretary
Attendance:
Executive Board: Tim Hanley - President, Mark Klipstein - 1st Vice President,
Larry Legro - 2nd Vice President, John
Bolka - Treasurer, Bob Schaefer - Acting Secretary
Board Members:
Joseph White - Madison Ryan Luck - Southeast President
Jeff Olson - Superior President Nichole Lysne - Wisconsin Rapids President
Bob Pavlik - Green Bay President Jamie Rice- Rhinelander President.
Tom Mugan - DNR President Tariq Masood - State Agencies Trustee
Reiny Yahnke - La Crosse President Mohammed Hayek - Eau Claire President
Sharon Bremser - Central Office
Specialists:
Sandy Henke - SEA Office Mel Sensenbrenner - Health and Retirement
Dismas Becker - Consultant MichaelSchoenfield - Consultant
Guests: Nile Ostenso - Bargaining Team and Treasurer Elect.
Meeting Begins: Meeting was called to order by Tim Hanley at 9:20am. There
were three changes to the agenda, computer
service to Treasurers Report, Dental Insurance changes and National Association
of State Highway and Transportation
Unions to New Business.
Approvals: The August 24, 2002 Board meeting minutes were reviewed. Motion to
approve by Mugan. Second by Hayek.
Motion approved.
The Correspondence Report was reviewed. There were no questions. The
correspondence Report was accepted by Tim
Hanley.
If you have any questions about the above please see your section president.
Legislative Report: by Larry Legro
The guest speaker, Senator Breske, for the Annual Meeting will be attending with
his wife. A motion by Legro to cover the
cost of the meal at the annual meeting for the speaker and his wife was made.
Second by Rice. Motion passed. The local
press will be contacted to let them know that Senator Breske will be attending
the meeting.
Dismas reported that he had been in touch with Marty Reynolds, Ed Thompson's
running mate about attending the
meeting. Initially, he was planning to attend but he is the Mayor of Lady smith
and because of storm damage he may not be
able to make it. We have not heard from him recently. Governor McCallum's office
was contacted but he could not make it.
The Governor asked if a letter could be read instead. Candidate Doyle office was
contacted but we have received no
response. A motion was made by Rice to pay for the meal for those persons noted
above and their guest if they should make
it to the Annual Meeting. Second by Hayek. Motion passed.
The development of the White Paper on Privatization will continue. The paper may
be ready to provide to candidates prior to
the election.. If not, it will be ready for the next Visit the Hill Day (VHD).
Mike Schoenfield will continue to work on the
paper with Dismas. VHD will be next March or April.
A Department of Administration audit is taking place at the Department of
Commerce. SEA members are advised to stick
to facts and avoid opinions that cannot substantiated by facts. Materials that
are provided to DOA, especially written reports
should be copied and sent to the SEA office. Any documents that are drafted need
to focus on facts, be well crafted and
directed at improved public protection or improved public policy. Drafts of the
letter should be shared with fellow workers
for comment before finalizing. Make sure the document is clear and concise
because the audience will not be familiar with
the operations of the Department.
SEA Office Website:
Sharon Bremser reported that we are still missing some data from some of the
Sections. The web site will be down for a little while for warranty work. Check
out the website at www.wisea.org and give
comments to Sharon.
Bargaining:
There has been no new sessions with DER on bargaining. Some comments made at a
DOT meeting are misleading. SEA is available to bargain at any time but will not
bargain unless the bargaining will be substantive. Meeting with DER just to meet
and bargain with ourselves is wasting the taxpayers resources and the resources
of SEA. DER needs to be prepared to actually bargain with SEA on issues that are
of concern to the membership. If DER is ready, SEA is open 10 meaningful
bargaining anytime. Tim will draft a letter to the DOT representative to bring
that person up to date. The Section Presidents will be sent a copy of the letter
sent.
Compensation Committee Report: No Report this month. George Mickelson was reappointed as chair of the committee.
Election Committee Report: by Bob Schaefer
A copy of the tally committees report will be sent to all presidents. The
election results were as follows, Tim Hanley -
President, Mark Klipstein - 1st Vice President, Larry Legro - 2nd Vice
President, John Bolka - Secretary, Nile Ostenso-Treasurer. Bob Schaefer thanked the Nominating Committee of Jamie Rice and Leroy
Stublaski and the Tally Committee ofLeroy Stublaski, Bill Niemi and Sharon Bremser for their help. Congratulations
to all the elected officers for the next two years. Thanks to all the members that ran for office and participated in the
election.
DFTF Committee: Currently SEA plans to collect the demands from the membership in October and possibly November. Demands need to be mailed to the SEA office or given to your Section PresidenL The DFTF form will be in the October newsletter. The DFTF will meet in Stevens Point in January to draft the initial proposals from the membership. There should be only one or two representatives from each Section. Section Presidents should determine who will attend the meeting.
Health and Retirement Report: By Mel Sensenbrenner
Read the newsletter. Mel handed several sheets of articles about the budget,
retirement and health issues. A packet of
information was pulled together and passed on to a newspaper person. See
correspondence report last item. The market is
still having difficulties, but SWIG has taken steps to diminish the impact. Mel
noted that ETF commuter benefits started in
August. The implementation of the Act 11 is creating a backlog because of the
lack of resources. ETF needs at least 26
additional persons to help future annuitants with their questions and concerns.
ETF was contacted by the Feds about the
issue of phased retirements. ETF just reached a decision regarding the
reallocation of funds to the Fixed account.
The Fixed fund may have a negative dividend even with the reallocation of funds
from the T AA account to the Fixed
account as part of Act 11. If there is a negative value there will be a negative
dividend charged against the Fixed account.
On the other hand if it is positive, a positive dividend will be allocated to
the Fixed account. Another real concern is that the
state legislature will once again tinker with our retirement program. The
legislature has already failed to pay 12 months
worth of funds to the sick leave account.
SWIB is pushing hard for improved corporate governance. If there is no
improvement in corporate governance it may result
in changes in the way SWIg does investments.
The Coalition wishes to thank all of the persons that participated in the Health
Insurance Survey.
Ryan Luck asked some questions about a position paper on Act 11 that Barbara
Lawton
is presenting. She is stating that she
is concerned about some upcoming costs associated with Act 11. We agree that
there are some serious problems because
Act II only looked ahead two years and not 5 years. Remember the transfer of
funds from the T AA account was over 5
years. Also, our retirement system has become mature. SWIB must now utilize some
of the investment funds to cover the
annuitants costs.
Grievance Report:
Note: P-xxx indicates personal grievance
A-xxx indicates an Association grievance
GRIEVANCE Agency.
Grievant Grievance
Action
Comments
NUMBER
A-307 DOT2
NGUYEN Denied Work Time to take Arbitration
Pending: Combined with
PE exam
Bellman
A-351 , A-352
P-338 UW-Madison Sanders
Layoff procedure Arbitration Pending
A-350 Dnr-ser
Air Chou PerformanceEvaluation
Settled at Step 2
A-351 Dot 4
Arendt RLS exam reimbursement
Arbitration Pending Combined with A-307,
A-352
A-352
Dot 3 Salzman
PE licensing fee
Arbitration
Combined
reimbursement
Pending
with A-307,A-351
A-355
Psc-ngd Vanek
Compensation for
Arbitration
Combined
time worked
Pending
with A-356
A-356
Psc-ngd stem rich Compensation for
Arbitration
Combined
time worked Pending with
A-355
A-361
Dot 1 Niemi
Assignment of
Arbitration
Combined
scheduled overtime Pending
with A-362
A-362
Dot 2 luck
Assignment of
Arbitration
Combined
scheduled overtime
Pending
with A-361
P-363
Dnr-ser Jorgensen Reinstatement of
Moved to Step
sick leave, work
4
performance
P-364
Dnr-ser Li
Unfair treatment and Filed at
Step 4
Air
use of sick leave
A-368
Dnr-ser air Li
Reestablish P-364
Filed at Step 4
A-369
Dnr-Co Schaefer Add-on is part of
Panel to be
year end leave cash
Selected
out option
A-372
Dnr-ser air Jorgensen Denial of requested
Filed at Step 4
training course
A-373
Dot3 Salzman Rescind
disciplinary
Arbitration
action
Pending
P-374
Dnr-scr air Patel Comments about
Filed at Step 3
individual on memo
P-375
Dnr-wcr Cahoon Removal of letter
Waiting on
air
Step 3 Decision
A-376
Dhfs North
Reimbursement of
To be filed at
damaged eyeglasses
Step 3
Legislative Report November 2002
Larry Legro 2nd VP
State Slogan to Be Changed from "Forward" to "Backward"??
Since the lawmakers cannot seem to get this State into a forward state of the
State, I propose that
they at least acknowledge this and revise the State motto to "Backward" in order
to better
show the path they have chosen to lead us. Note: One actual solution to this
dilemma (state budget
deficits) may actually be to reduce taxes, which has been shown in other states
to revive the
economy and start going "Forward" again. Who will lead us "Back to the Future"?
Or will it be
"Ahead to the Past"? .
Time will tell. I hope all the candidates read this message.
State Senator Roger Breske (12th District) was the main speaker this year for
our 32od Annual
Members' meeting held in Rhinelander the weekend of October 12th, 2002. He
touched upon
all the major issues affecting SEA members, the State of the State, and the
predicted future state
of the state (not a good prediction), Chronic wasting disease and how this
affects
hunting, tourism, and the northern state economies, Roads (including the rebuild
of the
Marquette interchange) and how this relates to tourism, and the northern areas
of the state. He
also gave state employees a kudos, and indicated eliminating us in favor of
private contracts was
not the solution to the budget deficit. I appreciated his attendance. He was
giyen a SEA
shirt (from me) and he was genuinely appreciative of our invitation for him to
speak tous.
Barbara Lawton, Lt. Governor candidate (running with the Jim Doyle on the
Governor
candidates ticket) stopped by and was entirely pleasant, and refreshing (in my
humble opinion).
We allowed her to speak prior to dinner, and she used her time wisely. To
paraphrase, she stated
that she heard that the "Road to Hell was paved by independent, private
contractors" which is of
interest to DOT engineers and Specialists. The other Governor candidates were
invited by our
consultant, Dismas, but none of the other candidates attended.
I would like to thank the entire Rhinelander Section for hosting the annual
meeting. It was--
very well attended this year. Next Year we will be in Green Bay so keep that in
mind, and bring
I this up at your local section meetings about I paving the local treas~ pick up
some of the
expense of attending in 2003. Save some funds for the next Visit the Hill Day
possibly around
April 2003, just when our next bargaining team starts getting ready for the next
2 year contract
that might not occur until those two years are almost over (by iOOS?) We may
never have
another contract again right?, or maybe it just seems that way. I guarantee
something will
happen, but the employer (more specifically DER and the Legislature) needs to
start getting
their bargaining/contracts don~in a more timely mar.ner. An independent
accounting firm told
the legislators that the state should be a bit more timely with its budgets.
Timely contracts are
dependant upon timely budgets. This would also help the bargaining process if
the budgets were
on time too. I had heard that most bargaining units will not even think of going
back to the
table for this wasted 2 year biennium until after the November Sd1, 2002
elections. Make sure
you vote for the good guys okay?, at least vote. Senator Breske did tell me,
that they know who
votes, and they look at this when people contact them. They like to see that you
at least appeared
at the polls, so go in and at least, be counted as being there, even if you do
not actually vote.
Showing up and being crossed off the voter list shows you were at the polls.
Hopefully WI will
not embarrass itself even further and have a snafu at the polls like Florida
seems to have regularly.
Is it Possible that this could be why we have not had any contract talks since
April of2002?
This is an astute observation from someone I know: The tally So Far
Senator Burke-INDICTED
Senator Chvala-INDICTED
Senator Risser-nothing
Senator Panzer-SHE FORGOT THAT SHE DID
NOT FINISH COLLEGE
Representative Jensen-INDICTED
Representative Black-nothing
Representative Foti-INDICTED
Representative Gard-HAS NOT LIVED IN HIS
DISTRICT FOR YEARS
BUT CLAIMS TO.
By the way, as of this writing, these are/were the 8 members of the Joint
Operations Committee on
Employment Relations (JOCER)-the legislative committee that will have to approve
your next
contract, assuming we ever get one.
Legal Issues by Willi Haus
Willi reported that on the resolutions that were determined regarding the $0.30
add-on. Your Section President was
provided with some of the information.
Financial & Membership Reports: by John Bolka
The August, 2002 Membership Report was submitted by John Bolka for review.
Motion to accept by John Bolka, second by
Hayek. Passed unanimously. Another Transfer request was made to move a member
from DOT 7 to DOT 1. Motion by
Bolka. Second by Rice. Motion passed.
The July, 2002 Treasurers Report was submitted by John Bolka for review. Motion
to accept by Bolka. Second by Rice.
Passed unanimously.
John reviewed the budget summary report for the board. John also reported on the
Section reports. Some of the reports were
quite poor and some effort needs to be made to improve record keeping.
Meeting expenses:
Stipends - Vouchers M-12 to M-22 $1650.00
Expenses - Vouchers 02-21 to 02-36 $1169.93
Meeting total $2819.93
Audit Expenses-Vouchers 02-37 $205.04
Motion to pay vouchers by Bolka. Second by Klipstein. Passed unanimously.
Net worth on August 31,2002 was $222,528.08.
New Business:
The Statewide Annual Meeting will be held on October 12, 2002 at Holiday Acres
in Rhinelander
Dental Insurance. Dentacare has informed us per our contract that they intend to
cancel our program. The Dentacare
program will end December 31, 2002. Presidents should not send out any more
brochures. SEA will be looking at other
providers and Dentacare will be assisting in trying to find a new insurance
provider.
Luck made a motion to join the National Association of State Highway
Transportation Unions (NASHfU) for one year. The
cost of the membership is $300. Second by Klipstein. NASHTU was the source of
the report on the cost of privatization that
SEA has used extensively. They are a national organization. The motion passed
(12-1). Ryan will be the contact person for
SEA. SEA will try to start the membership on 01/01/2003.
The meeting was adjourned by Tim at 4:02 pm.
Upcoming meetings are scheduled for October 11, November 2, and December 7. The
November meeting may not take
place if there is no bargaining or issue to consider.
To all members of the SEA
Re: Your Voluntary Dental Program
Delta Dental Plan of Wisconsin has been chosen to replace the current DentaCare
plan that
has been terminated effective December 31, 2002. Benefits with Delta Dental's
Total Access
Voluntary Plan will be effective January 1,2003.
All SEA members should have received a packet of information about this dental
plan. rf you have any questions, please call the SEA Office.