Protect Our Benefits is an organization whose goals are to enhance the dignity and quality of life of all San Francisco City and County retirees and preserve their health and retirement benefits. The opinions are those of the writer.

SFERS V. CCSF (PRE-1996)
Notice received on 7/27/2018: “By the order of the Supreme Court, the case has been transferred from Division Four Appellate Court to Division One Appellate Court.” (Our understanding is that the transfer was due to retirements in the Division Four Court.)

Health Service System
Concerns have been raised by United Health Care members regarding skilled nursing care facilities in San Francisco—or lack thereof. POB believes that retirees should have access to the best health affordable health care, and urges HSS to make every effort to increase the number of skilled nursing care facilities available to our members.

SFERS Retirement Board
As of 6/30/18, the SFERS Retirement Fund was valued at $24.4 billion—up roughly $2 billion for the fiscal year—and paid out $1.5 billion to retirees. For the fiscal year 2017/18 SFERS fund was up 11.3%, which will likely be upgraded to 11.4% or 11.5% after the actuarial report is completed. These numbers bode well for the approval of a supplemental COLA.
July 1, 2018 was the start of our new fiscal year. For the month of July SFERS fund had gained 1.02%.

Protect Our Benefits
Good news! POB is officially a tax-deductible educational charitable trust. “Thank you” for your patience, and bearing with us. The Protect Our Benefits (POBT) purposes are to make charitable contributions, conduct research, provide objective information about problems affecting retirees, engage in litigation and limited legislative advocacy, and promote our rights and benefits in general.

Individual Contributions to POBT are tax deductible.

In addition to POBT, a second entity, the Protect Our Benefits, Inc. (POBI), was created. The purpose of POBI is to promote the civic and social welfare of city and county retirees through research, education, and extensive legislative and litigation advocacy designed to encourage positive laws, regulations, decisions, and public policies that benefit retirees. Individual contributions to POBI are not tax deductible.

POB is just about to launch our new and improved website. It will contain the history and mission of POB, and current issues that could affect you, the retiree. Check it out soon on our website.

Once again, your donations are greatly appreciated, and now they’re tax deductible. Please mail them to Protect Our Benefits Trust, P.O. Box 210250, San Francisco, CA 94121-0250. Also, please stay informed at protectourbenefits.org or Facebook.

Remember: “United we stand; divided we fall.”