Comments on: Transitions for Washtenaw County Staff

By: K B

K B — Tue, 28 Jun 2011 15:37:37 +0000

The county is projecting a $17 million deficit for 2012 and 2013 and they decided to eliminate the Budget Manager position. Interesting….

By: Mary Morgan

Mary Morgan — Fri, 17 Jun 2011 14:05:38 +0000

The Casper Star-Tribune – a newspaper in Casper, Wyoming – reports that Bill Reynolds has withdrawn as a finalist for the city manager job there. Reynolds told Casper officials that he's taken another job, but did not indicate what position he's accepted. [link] According to recent media reports, he has also been a candidate for town manager in Gilbert, Arizona [link].

By: Tim Athan

Tim Athan — Wed, 15 Jun 2011 17:16:31 +0000

I like the flamboyant hair that Wes Prater sports in your picture!

Or did Bill just utter something that made Wes’ hair stand on end?

By: Mary Morgan

Mary Morgan — Wed, 15 Jun 2011 17:08:10 +0000

Re. "There is not a $17 million dollar deficit. This is projected only." That is correct – the deficit that the county is addressing is for 2012 and 2013, as the article states. The county staff is currently developing that two-year budget, which must be approved by the end of 2011. For a detailed update on both the 2011 budget and work on the 2012-2013 budget, see Chronicle coverage: "County Budget: 'Not Out of the Woods'"

By: Ralph

Ralph — Wed, 15 Jun 2011 15:51:06 +0000

There is not a $17 million dollar deficit. This is projected only. The COunty’s books are balanced. The County carried over $3-$5 million from a year ago.

By: Leah Gunn

Leah Gunn — Wed, 15 Jun 2011 14:29:33 +0000

You are correct, Vivienne.

By: Vivienne Armentrout

Vivienne Armentrout — Wed, 15 Jun 2011 02:35:29 +0000

Thanks for the clarification. Reporting on this has been somewhat confusing. But the general employees were still moved to a defined-benefit plan.

By: Leah Gunn

Leah Gunn — Tue, 14 Jun 2011 22:38:45 +0000

Actually, the general employees were never moved to MERS (a state run plan) – they were transferred to the Washtenaw County Employees Retirement System (WCERS). That system is managed locally by the count. The Retirement Commission, which oversees it, consists of County employees representing union and non-union employees, plus two Commissioners. The county employees in MERS are in the Sheriff’s Dept.

By: Vivienne Armentrout

Vivienne Armentrout — Tue, 14 Jun 2011 17:08:57 +0000

It wasn’t long ago (January 2009) that county employees were moved to MERS (a defined payment retirement system) to resolve unhappiness of many more junior employees with MPPP (a defined contribution system). Defined contribution systems [this was a 403(b), similar to a 401(k)] are the current trend for most private employers, so the county was actually going countercurrent in reverting to defined payment. (Senior employees were in WCRS, defined payment type but employees hired beginning in 1984 were enrolled in MPPP.) One thing MPPP had going for it was that it was portable. This was said at the time to be a benefit to employees. Upon leaving the county, the balance could be converted to an IRA.

Something never discussed, at least where I saw it, was how much it cost the county to convert MPPP members to MERS. MPPP balances were transferred to MERS but those balances could vary widely depending on the level of risk and choice of plan individuals chose. Without seeing any figures, I imagine that the county had to put in a fair amount of cash to make those employees’ balances meet the requirements of the new system. Still, it was apparently thought to be a good choice to resolve a labor negotiations item.

So how can Conan Smith now be talking of returning employees to a portable system? This churning of benefit method doesn’t seem to make sense either from the (longer-term) employee viewpoint or from the employer’s viewpoint.

By: Alan Goldsmith

Alan Goldsmith — Tue, 14 Jun 2011 16:50:21 +0000

“He has been interviewing for county administrator jobs elsewhere, and had been one of three finalists for the county administrator job in St. Croix County, Wisc. When The Chronicle has pressed for additional details about Reynolds’ leave of absence, county officials have characterized it as a personnel matter and declined further comment.”

Nice. Someone on medical leave interviewing for other jobs (and being paid for by my tax dollars) is a personnel matter. Got it.