|
| |
Coalition
of Oak Ridge Retired Employees
Minutes
of Board Meeting on
November
20, 2002, 2:00 p.m.
Oak
Ridge Senior Center
Present: Joe Dykstra, Jackie Holloway, Ben Johnson, John Jones,
Charlie Kuykendall, Tom Lemons, Dave Reichle, Gary Riser, Mary Helen Rose,
Joe Setaro, Troy Trotter, Don Wood, Bob Worrell
- Opening Remarks. Charlie Kuykendall raised the question as to
whether we might want at some point in time to include in our CORRE
membership retirees from Bechtel-Jacobs, Wackenhut, and any other local
DOE contractors whose employees have pension plans paid for by DOE. The
pros and cons were discussed, but no conclusion was reached. A study
group will look into the matter in the future.
- Secretary & Treasurer’s Report. Mary Helen Rose
highlighted her Treasurer’s report, copies of which had been
distributed to board members. Balance on hand October 30, 2002, was
$33,429.36, with a total of 1,565 Active Members. Mary Helen has moved
more funds to the Money Market Account.
- Communications. In Wesley’s absence, Kuykendall stated that
another article has been sent to Retiree News on "what
retirees expect of the company."
For the Website, Dr. John Roy Gray is on board, and Lotts is in the
process of transferring responsibility for maintenance of the site to
him. Lotts will continue his oversight role.
- CORRE Charter. Don Wood stated that we are now incorporated as a
non-profit organization in Tennessee. We now need to apply to IRS for
recognition as a tax-exempt organization.
- Legislative Report. Lotts was absent, but had sent a report to
John Jones, stating that known results from our September 25 letter to
congressmen are as follows:
 | Sen. Thompson and Rep. Duncan each sent letters to the Secretary of
Energy expressing their "interest" in our pension benefits. |
 | Sen. Bill Frist’s Washington office was sent the letter, and
Carolyn Jensen (Knoxville office) was surprised that Lotts did not get
a reply. Carolyn asked Lotts to resend the letter and she will follow
up. Lotts sent the letter the same day. |
| John Jones has tried a couple of times to contact Linda Ponce in
Rep. Wamp’s office. Jones and Lotts intend to get a meeting with her
and press for possible congressional coordination of a letter to Madia
and Mitchell. (Jones added that Wamp’s office has most recently been
very busy as a result of the tornadoes.) |
| No word from Reps. Jenkins or Hilleary, and Lotts has not contacted
their offices recently. |
| Mary Helen Rose sent copies (about 70) of a letter to all city and
county elected officials in Anderson and Knox Counties. Copies of the
letter were distributed to board members. Reichle suggested that we
try to get the letter published in The Oak Ridger and other
area papers. |
| Plans are to press on toward getting letters to Madia, Mitchell, and
ORO management. |
- Report of Meeting with BWXT. Bob Worrell reported that he and
Kuykendall met on October 23 with Norm Sparks and Maureen Mendez at BWXT
Y-12, and asked for a response to our position paper. The reply was that
they are beginning their biannual benefit plans review, and will keep
our paper in mind as they develop their review. They agreed to meet with
us quarterly. Kuykendall said he and Worrell hit the minimum-pension
issue pretty hard, and Worrell thinks they are very sympathetic to that
point. Worrell will arrange a meeting soon with Chris Hill of DOE.
(Scheduled for November 27 at DOE, 10:00 am)
- Report of Meeting with UT-Battelle. Joe Setaro reported that he
and Kuykendall met at ORNL on November 5 with Darrell Boykins, Director
of Human Resources, and Mark Wagner, Manager of Employee Benefits. They
quickly agreed to meet with us on a quarterly basis and said they might
want to meet more often. After reviewing our position paper they
acknowledged it did not appear unreasonable. At some point down the road
they expect UT-Battelle will have a separately run pension program for
UT-Battelle retirees.
- Comments and Observations. Gary Riser commented on how pension
funds are allocated to any group pulling out of the combined pension
trust fund and the variables involved. Tom Lemons distributed copies and
discussed three versions of a table on inflation recovery. When cost of
living calculations are made on a compounded basis, you get a more true
picture of how the earlier retirees have been adversely affected than
you get using cumulative data. To further refine his calculations, he
would like to have access to more detailed information on pension
payouts. Ideally he would like to know the pension levels and payouts by
year of retirement. Worrell said he doubts the information is readily
available.
- Special December Meeting Discussion. Kuykendall mentioned the
possibility of having a luncheon meeting in December, but it was
decided to have our meeting at the regular time and place (December
18), with some refreshments to be provided.
- Adjournment. The meeting was adjourned at 4:05 p.m.
Mary Helen Rose, Board Secretary
|
