ARSCE Summer Luncheon CANCELLED

The June 10 Summer Luncheon is CANCELLED due to the coronavirus pandemic. No online payments have been or will be received. Check payments will be returned. We regret having to make this decision, but believe it’s in everyone’s best interest. Stay well!

Your Retirement Advocate Since 1973

We are ARSCE – Association of Retired Seattle City Employees, with an emphasis on retired folks and their families and friends. We are the advocate for members of the Seattle Employee Retirement System, keeping an eye on actions at the local and state level which might affect us.  And, we encourage retirees and active employees to keep in touch through our bi-monthly ARSCE News, and our quarterly luncheons.   The News covers City Retirement System issues, and includes columns and articles by active and retired employees featuring everything from travel experiences to other employee get-togethers, to books and films, and to a variety of other items of interest to retirees.  Please join us for our quarterly luncheons – a great chance to meet up with old friends and associates – and enjoy the ARSCE News, our bi-monthly publication. The News will keep you current on City Retirement System issues, and also includes columns and articles by active and retired employees featuring everything from travel experiences to other employee get-togethers, to books and films, and to a variety of other items of interest to retirees.

We maintain this website to provide users with information about ARSCE.  You’ll find the ARSCE event calendar, information about membership and the luncheons, names and contact information for the officers, and a lot of documentation, including our Bylaws, past issues of the ARSCE News, and link stop other information sources of interest to retirees.

Enjoy this website, and if you are a current or retired City of Seattle employee, we hope you are a member or that you will consider becoming a member.

ARSCE President John Masterjohn’s message, May-June 2020:

Well I am sorry to have missed the Spring Luncheon. I understand it was a small group, but the food was good and so was the company.

Before we get to the serious part of this article, I am sure you want to hear about our road trip, which is why I wasn’t at the luncheon. We took the long way to try and get some sun in Arizona. We went down through Yakima to Denver, then to Santa Fe and finally to Chandler, Arizona. We went just in time for them to shut down Spring Training games. So no baseball and only 2 rounds of golf because of rain! It was cold, too. We took the more direct way home; first night in Las Vegas we got a room for the last night that the hotel was open. There were no casinos, no restaurants–take out only. They gave us a room on the top floor with a view of the Strip and it was like a ghost town, not a car or a person in sight.

We got home safe and sanitized and we haven’t ventured out much since, like the rest of you, I’m sure, just to go to the grocery store and back.

Now for some information on the Seattle Retirement System. We’ve received inquiries from members wanting to know how our benefits are being affected by the high swings, mostly down, in the stock market because of the coronavirus. Executive Director Jeff Davis put out an update on the SCERS (Seattle City Employees’ Retirement System) investment portfolio. I’ll share an excerpt that gives the most important information to our members:

“Stock markets across the globe have experienced rapid and significant losses. Interest rates have fallen substantially, and the Federal Reserve has taken significant steps to shore up the economy. The consensus expectation is for a deep recession lasting through at least the middle of 2020. For our members there are a few key things we would like to emphasize. The first, and probably the most important, is that this will not impact employee benefits. SCERS has a well-diversified investment portfolio with sufficient funds to ensure all pension obligations are met and all expenses are paid. SCERS is a long-term investor and, while this downturn is severe, we expect investments will fluctuate over the short term. In fact, just last year the value of our investment portfolio increased by over 17%.”

We have put the entirety of Jeff’s update on the ARSCE website and on our ARSCE Facebook page. We will be monitoring this situation and updating our website when appropriate.

Please stay safe and health, 

John Masterjohn

Contact Mr. Masterjohn at president@arsce.org