Copyright© 2007 by School Services of California, Inc.

                                      Volume 20                   For Publication Date: July 20, 2007             No. 16

OPEB Commission to Meet on Schools 

The Governor issued an executive order in January 2007 to establish the Public Employee Postemployment Benefits Commission to address the issue of unfunded liabilities faced by California’s public employers for other postemployment benefits (OPEB), mainly health benefits for retirees.  

In June, School Services of California staff sent a request to all community colleges asking for their assistance on behalf of the Commission to provide data via a survey on postemployment benefits. Following is a summary of that e-mail:  

The bi-partisan Post Employment Benefits Commission was established to accomplish two goals: 1) determine the amount of unfunded liability in state and local pensions and other post employment benefits (OPEB); and 2) make recommendations to the Legislature regarding possible actions they can take to deal with that liability. The Commission has until the end of the year to come up with recommendations. Additional information on the Commission can be found at: http://www.pebc.ca.gov/.

The Commission has asked for OPEB data to help in its mission. A survey requesting information has already gone out to cities and counties. The response to the survey has been less than overwhelming. This may be due to some misunderstanding about why the Commission is requesting this information.

We want to emphasize that the work of this bi-partisan Commission is in no way related to recent efforts to drastically reduce public employee benefits. In fact, the Commission is charged with helping local agencies address the OPEB liability issue. Survey responses will be used to develop Commission recommendations. All data will be reported at the aggregate level. We will not report your entity’s specific data separately from other similar entities. 

The Commission has scheduled a meeting to address school agencies on July 27 at the University of California, San Diego, titled Providing for the Pension and Health Care Needs of California’s Schools. Several proposed meetings have been scheduled through December 2007 to finalize the Commission’s findings and recommendations on this issue. Since most campuses are in the process of completing their OPEB surveys, we would recommend that you send a representative from your campus to attend the July 27 meeting or view the hearing over the web at the following address:  www.pebc.ca.gov. We encourage districts that have not completed the survey to please complete it. Colleges can submit their data via the online survey tool. To access the survey, click the following link: http://www.eforms.dgs.ca.gov/lfserver/rpm/opeb. 

Questions regarding this information and request can be addressed to Stephanie Dougherty, Research Director, Post Employment Benefits Commission, (916) 445-4372, or by e-mail at stephanie.dougherty@pebc.ca.gov.  

Additional information on previous and current meetings can be obtained at the OPEB website:  www.pebc.ca.gov.

—Jamillah Moore, Ed.D.