Date: Thu, 7 May 1998 To: public_affairs@calpers.ca.gov
From: James McRitchie <jm@corpgov.net>
Subject: public records request
Please consider this a public records request under section 6250 of the Government Code.
An April 15, 1998 a CalPERS press release announced that the CalPERS Board of Administration reduced the amount the state will pay the pension fund for state and school employee retirement benefits during the 1998-99 fiscal year by $750 million. About the same time, the Sacramento Bee ran a story indicating the Board had also voted to cut the state's rate 8 times in the last 11 years.
Please provide me with a copy of the votes by the Board for each of these cuts in the state's contribution rate.
Second request: Please provide me with a copy of any estimate which CalPERS actuaries or other staff may have prepared which reveals the proportion of CalPERS members who are expected to collect pension benefits under the System. If available, please also provide a breakout by retirement tier.
Call me at 327-8642 and I will pick up the information. Thank you.
Sincerely,
James McRitchie
Mr. McRitchie:
As I discussed with you on the telephone yesterday, I am responding to your public records requests dated May 7, 1998. The first request initially concerned the CalPERS' Board's votes which resulted in cuts in the state's contribution rate.
In response to my information that responding this request would require extraordinary staff research time to identify which Board meetings resulted in cuts to the state employer rate over 11 years, you substituted a request for information on the decision this year that reduced the state's contribution rate.
That event occurred at the Board's April meeting. In response to your request, I have collected the agenda item and attachments submitted to the Board on the item. However, the minutes for that meeting, which would record the vote on the item, will be reviewed for approval at the Board's May 20 meeting. Once the approved minutes are available, I will see that you get a copy.
Your second request sought an estimate of the proportion of CalPERS members who are expected to collect pension benefits under the system. As I discussed with you yesterday, both actuarial and benefits staff inform me that no reliable figures of the kind you seek have been developed.
I do have two sets of materials for you that are related to your request. One is the participant materials for the "CalPERS Alternative Benefit Plans Workshop" held in September, 1996, which contain references to non-CalPERS estimates of proportions of retirement system members who do not collect benefits.
The materials I described above are available as you requested for you to pick up, at the CalPERS Executive Office reception area on the thir floor of Lincoln Plaza.
I trust this responds to your requests. I will contact you when the minutes I mentioned become available.
Richard Maness
CalPERS Legal Office
(916) 326-3670
Internet: Richard_Maness@calpers.ca.gov
To: public_affairs@calpers.ca.gov
From: James McRitchie <jm@corpgov.net>
Subject: Public Records Requests
Thanks for you quick response. I am glad you contacted me by phone to clarify my needs before involving staff in an extraordinary effort to sift through 11years of board meeting notes. It isn't my intention to create work and I'm happy to try to reframe my requests if I can still reach my objective. I also appreciate your use of e-mail and letting me pick up the printed material since these measures also reduce any added cost to CalPERS.
In quickly reviewing the material, I see that you did not include the Chief Actuary Report. Since I am examining the reasonableness of lowering the State contribution rate, this information is, I believe, critical to that exercise. I assume the actuary report will have more detail on the critical assumptions, such as lowering the assumed inflation rate from 4.5 to 3.5% and lowering the long term wage groth rate from 4.5 to 3.75%. Please provide me with a copy of that report. Thanks.
From: Maness,
To: "'James McRitchie
Subject: RE: Public Records Requests
Thanks for your reply confirming that you got the materials.
As to your additional question, I recall that the BPAC agenda item attachments in the package this morning contained actuarial analyses for the rates. If you would like more or different detail, please let me know the specifics of what you would like and I'll have someone track them down.
FROM: James McRitchie
Subject: RE: Public Records Requests 05/15/98
What I'm looking for is the detail behind the paragraph titled "Reasons for the Changes in Employer Rates," provided in the April 14th Agenda item 6. I see that agenda item 7 is the "Chief Actuary Report." I believe that could provide the basis. In addition, I see that under item IV, "State and Schools Employer Contribution Rate for 1998-99," it indicates that "last month, the board adopted new economic assumptions to be used in the calculation of the State and Schools 98/99 rates." The object of my search is to have the information which the Board relied on in making the decision to lower the rates, including whatever relevant information was included in the prior month's report which served as the basis of that decision. And, it would be nice to get the information without having to request each document separately through a discovery-like process. Thanks.
Contact: 
jm@perswatch.net