Calpers Challenge Cry Foul over the average choice email

From Adam AshtonCalmness

This story was originally published by CalmattersS Register about their ballots.

Several candidates for the largest Public Pension Fund in California complain that the fund has placed its thumb on the scale of The election for this month By sending a message to all members before the vote ends.

The announcement encouraged the California Public Office Pension System Investment in private capital – the contested issue in the election, with several candidates criticizing investment -related fees.

“Despite the opinion of someone’s private capital, sending such communication, while the members weigh their choice, they run the risk of giving the appearance that employees are trying to form the result of elections rather than allow members to decide on their own,” the candidate Steve Mermel, who disputes the act.

Kalper, a $ 584 billion pension fund, which manages retirement benefits for 2 million people, is controlled by the 13-member council. Its members choose representatives for six of these positions. The other northern ones are either selected employees or appointed to the governor and the legislature.

From August 28 to September 29, about 1.7 million Calpers members voted in two positions in a test campaign, fueled by the money of the Union of the Public Sector.

Kalpers over the past few years intensified its investment in private capital to $ 92 billion as he was looking for a higher return. Calpers leaders maintain that the strategy works even after the fees for private capital are removed.

Last year, Kalperrs reported an investment return of 11.6%exceeding its target by 6.8%. This week, the message to Kalper said in part that “this strong result – the best in the last four fiscal years – is largely guided by the power of our investment in private capital.”

In an interview last week, Kalper Board member David Miller said, “I would point to private capital as a ligu of this strategy. People always say,” Calper, use your size, use your size. ” This is exactly what we do. “

Miller is ready for re -election this month. He faces Mermel, a retired manager of Pasadena and Santa Monica Dom Bay’s firefighter. Bei on social media this week also criticized the time of Kalper’s message.

“Let’s be honest: what they gave us was not a perspective at all,” former member of the board, Margaret Brown, wrote in a letter to the Kalper Board after the message was released. “It was a shiny story announcing that private capital is great. The real perspective means to hear both parties, the risks and the awards. What Kalpers gave us was a terrain of sales.”

Brown is already a leader in a group called the Association of Retired Public Officers, who supports Bei.

Kalper spokesman James Skolary, in a written statement, said the message was tied to a discussion about the overall presentation of the fund at the hearing on board this week.

“We know that our members are curious about private capital, so the publication was determined to coincide with the discussion on board on Monday around our investment recovery, the role of private capital, and the proposed change” to what Kalpers calls the “common approach of the portfolio”.

This article was Originally Published on CalMatters and was reissued under Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Noderivatives License.