Governor’s Signature Protects Retirees

erectile arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;”>Retired Public Employees Association of California (RPEA) Sponsored AB 241

try arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;”>AB 241 requires, under certain conditions, a local public entity to provide the name and mailing address of each retired employee to an organization that is incorporated and qualified under specific state and federal laws for the purpose of representing retired public employees during a bankruptcy proceeding.

When the City of Stockton filed for bankruptcy, retirees from the city organized as a group in order to become a party to the bankruptcy.  This group received approval as a labor organization under the Internal Revenue Service’s Code 501(c)(5).  Upon approval, they were able to obtain donations and hire legal counsel to represent them in bankruptcy court.

The group then requested from the city the names and addresses of the city’s retirees so they could notify them of their intent to seek representation before the bankruptcy court.  The city refused.  As a result, notifying retirees of the organization’s attempt to hire an attorney was made exponentially more difficult. 

Normally, the names and addresses of public employees are exempted from the California Public Records Act (Government Code Section 6250 et seq.); however, there is at least one exception contained in Section 6253.2(b) that allows the names, addresses, and telephone numbers of in-home health care workers to be provided to labor organizations for the purpose of organizing and representing these workers. 

“This is a big win for retirees,” said RPEA President George Linn. “Organizing retirees to be represented in a bankruptcy proceeding by their former employer is an important exception that needed to be made.”

Since the beginning, RPEA has been actively involved in enhancing the lives of retirees. RPEA was founded in 1958 and has more than 24,000 members with 85 active chapters in California, Arizona, Nevada, New Mexico and Oregon. We are the only statewide association representing all PERS retirees. RPEA takes an active and involved role in CalPERS, serving on their Advisory Committee and meeting regularly with CalPERS executives and board members. RPEA works tirelessly to safeguard and promote the retiree benefits of California’s public employees. 

For more information regarding retiree pensions and health benefits or to learn more about the Retired Public Employees’ Association of California, check out our website www.rpea.com.

Get Citizensjournal.us Headlines free  SUBSCRIPTION. Keep us publishing – DONATE