Leoff 1 Coalition Update
September 14, 2004
By Mark Curtis

LEOFF 1 fire fighters have several choices for Coalition Board to contact for voicing interests, concerns, questions, comments. Our fire representatives are;
Dave Peery , still active Seattle Fire Local 27 at email: fyrmandave@aol.com
Rich Greenshields, 8911 51st Ave. NE, Marysville, WA. 98270 , Rich is a retired Everett Fire fighter, and recently filled our new At-Large Board position.

The LEOFF 1 Coalition Board has voted to support the defense of the Snohomish County Disability Board in the effort to retain Board authority and responsibility over medical and long term care decision making for their retirees. A civil case there may impact all LEOFF 1 retirees and actives. Employer’s position in this case is one of wanting to vacate all the Snohomish Co. Disability Board existing rules. We have pledged $10,000 towards the defense, as other groups are challenged by Ken Crowder to also step up to the plate. Atty. Joe Fischnaller is the resource person to continue to defend the LEOFF 1 law. Our intent is to clearly to protect those Boards, especially before the next Legislative Session.

To explain a bit about the “Smoothing” law, it was to balance employee/employer contributions to create long term pension stability. However, currently, active members do not make contributions at this time. That could change anytime. We have been in “surplus position” for some time and have had a recovery of up to $757 million. Smoothing fills in the past losses, and we sure did have those losses. We did see a rate of return of 9.89% between June of 2003 and June 2004, while the whole Co-mmingled pension trust fund had a rate of 12.53%, as shared by LEOFF 1 watchdog Bill Kantor. The state considers 8% as a minimum acceptable. At present, we are awaiting the recommendations regarding contributions that the Pension Funding Council will make public in September. While the numbers on the surplus and the affects from Smoothing must wait awhile, we are advised that we would need a real few very good years of solid investment returns, that few economists dare predict. Otherwise, our “surplus position” may be on the way out of surplus. It would appear the Pension Funding Council is aware of the Smoothed funds.