Your Retirement Advocate Since 1973
We are ARSCE – Active and Retired Seattle City Employees Association, 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, September/October 2019:
Well, let’s start out saying how good the June luncheon was! We had great hamburger and brauts with all the trimmings. Our next luncheon will be at Amante’s Pizza & Pasta in North Seattle. Our guest speaker will be Eli Mizrahi, President of Pacific Group Advisors. He will share with us how to help your grandkids with college, leaving your money to heirs, and talk about creating a living trust. Personally, I am planning to spend all of our money before I go. “Just kidding, in case any of our kids read this.”
Edie Jorgensen and I met with Jeff Davis [Executive Director, SCERS] on some issues we had with Seattle City Employees’ Retirement System (SCERS). We discussed SCERS having made some revisions on your retirement statement where some things were changed or left off all together. Also, we discussed having SCERS do a direct deposit of the automatic dues that are taken out of our retirement checks once a year. We asked if we could get a list of all the new people who retired so that we could send each a letter to introduce them to ARSCE. Jeff said that they would have to get permission from the employees to give out their addresses.
SCERS held an alection for the open seat on the Board and it was filled by Jaya Bajpai.
The funding ratio decreased to 68.2% from 69.9% in 2018. This was due to adopting new assumptions and 2018 investments falling below the assumed rate of return. There was discussion on funding the pension plan. Mr. Glen Lee stated that the City is committed to funding the ARC [Annual Required Contribution]. There is 100% chance the City will be able to fund the system. These last items came from the June Board minutes.
Now I am going to get on my soapbox and ask all of you to call or write the City Council about using the golf courses for low income housing. We do not need to lose any Parks land or any green spaces inside the City.
Now another sad note about our friend Alan Hovland. His two daughers Amy and Sarah notified ARSCE that they scheduled a service for Alan on August 18th, 2019 at the Leif Erickson Lodge in Seattle. Unfortunately, we received this notification too late for our last issue of ARSCE News. Our thoughts were with them and I was glad to meet them and share some memories of their father.
That’s all for now.
John
Contact Mr. Masterjohn at president@arsce.org