Your Retirement Security: The Current State & Future of OCERS
A union is strong when we leverage our greatest strength, our strength in numbers. This is also true when we are talking about the retirement security of County public workers. Your pension is administered and governed by a nine-person Board of Trustees. Two of these OCERS Trustees are directly elected by you and your co/workers. Currently, you are served by two tireless advocates for retirement security, Trustees Chris Prevatt and Adele Tagaloa. Chris and Adele, along with the other Trustees, work to ensure all County public workers can retire with dignity.
Periodically we provide an update on the latest news about your retirement security!
OCERS Holds 2023 Strategic Planning Workshop and Education Forum
The leadership and staff of OCERS—including elected Trustees and OCEA Board Members Chris Prevatt and Adele Tagaloa—attended OCERS Strategic Planning Workshop and Education Forum in September. OCEA Board Member Iriss Barriga—who will run for the open seat when Trustee Prevatt retires—also attended the event along with members of OCEA’s staff.
The two-day event, which was open to members of the public, provided an opportunity over two days for attendees to hear from OCERS stakeholders including the County of Orange, Orange County Fire Authority, and OCEA—the latter from General Manager Charles Barfield.
The event covered public pension issues and trends, investments, the leveraging of technology advancements and AI in the industry, and, most importantly, provided an in depth look at the state of OCERS and the pension system’s future plans to build a new headquarters near its current building.
As of December 2022, OCERS has nearly 51,000 total members (between workers and retirees) and $20.6 billion in assets, making your retirement system the 121st largest in the nation, and 55th in public pensions from the 6,000+ pension plans available in the United States. OCERS is currently 81.51% funded, and plans by 2033 to pay the largest share of its unfunded actuarially accrued liability.
(Pictured at top from left to right: OCEA General Manager Charles Barfield, OCERS Trustee/OCEA Board Member Chris Prevatt; OCEA Board Member/OCERS Candidate Iriss Barriga; OCERS Trustee/OCEA Board Member Adele Tagaloa; OCEA General Counsel Don Drozd)
OCERS PLANS FUTURE EXPANSION
OCERS has contracted with Griffin Structures to oversee the construction and expansion of OCERS Headquarters. Griffen most recently worked on the County of Orange's Administrative Civic Center, OCTA headquarters, Santa Ana City Hall and more. OCERS current facility was built in 1979 and is facing structural and mechanical issues as the building reaches nearly 45 years of use.
OCERS purchased a building on N. Tustin Ave. which is adjacent to it's current headquarters on E. Wellington Ave. in 2020. In 2022, the OCERS Board of Trustees approved construction on both buildings to create an OCERS campus that will modernize both buildings to accomodate an expanded staff for the next 25 to 30 years. Construction is estimated to take approximately 3.5 years to complete at a cost of $55 million to $70 million.
(Pictured at top: OCERS Headquarters on E. Wellington Ave. in Santa Ana; Pictured at Bottom: OCERS staff at a recent OCEA Hot Dogger; OCEA President Judy Bowling meets OCERS staff during the event.)
PLANNING TO RETIRE? ATTEND THE OCERS RETIREMENT SEMINAR
OCERS staff presents retirement seminars both in person at OCERS headquarters and on Zoom once monthly. Either presentation can be scheduled on the OCERS website. You can also find more OCERS resources at the links below. If you have additional questions related to your retirement, you can speak to an OCERS representative by calling 714-558-6200.
You can also contact one of your elected trustees Adele Tagaloa or Chris Prevatt directly by email at atagaloa@ocers.org and cprevatt@ocers.org, respectively.
In Solidary,
OCEA
Publication Date: October 25, 2023
