All Members:
On Wednesday, May 6, NYSPEC conducted a teleconference with NYS Comptroller Tom DiNapoli, who has been a great friend to our membership over the years. He was joined by Executive Deputy Comptroller for the Retirement SystemColleen Gardner, and Labor Liaison Kathy McCormack.
Approximately 75 NYSPEC Directors and Legislative Directors joined the call, which, although originally scheduled for one hour, actually lasted about 90 minutes.
All questions that had been submitted in advance (which was the protocol we had established) were answered satisfactorily. Following the call, I received one question regarding buy-outs for early retirement. To the best of our knowledge, at this time there is no legislation pending to address that.
Attached is a synopsis of the call. I am compelled to give a shout-out for such an excellent compilation to Elyse Eversman-Amar. We recently engaged Elyse and her company, Fuse Systems LLC, to update NYSPEC’s antiquated website, which, when completed, will be an excellent resource for our members. While she patiently awaits information we a recompiling for the update, she offered to set up and coordinate yesterday’s call, but I had no idea she was going to prepare the attached document, which I am proud to share with you.
One of the ongoing issues of great concern to Comptroller DiNapoli is the push to force the pension fund to divest its investments in fossil fuel companies. The legislation to accomplish this has been formally opposed byNYSPEC. Many legislators, including many typically recognized as supportive of labor/unions, are signing on as sponsors to this ill-advised measure. The comptroller has asked for our members’ support in convincing legislative leadership and their local legislators to not sponsor and not support S2126-A(Krueger) / A1536-A (Ortiz). NYSPEC’s opposition memo is attached; I encourage all member units to issue their own.
I thank Tom DiNapoli, ColleenGardner, Kathy McCormack, and all the NYSPEC members who participated in the very informative teleconference.
In Unity,
Peter D. Meringolo,
Chairman
