THE OTHER O M E R S
OAKLAND MUNICIPAL EMPLOYEES RETIREMENT SYSTEM
The most obscure charter amendment on the ballot, Measure EE, calls for cost-saving reforms to Oakland's retirement pension plan for certain employees. The measure would enable the city council to terminate the Oakland Municipal Employees' Retirement System (OMERS), the retirement pension plan that the city established in 1939 and then closed to new members in 1970 when the city began contracting with the California Public Employees' Retirement System, or CalPERS.
The OMERS plan — which covered non-sworn employees, meaning everyone except cops and firefighters — currently has a total of just 22 members left in the program. That means annual administrative costs associated with dealing with so few program members are disproportionately high relative to the cost of the actual pension payments each year. Measure EE would allow for the termination of OMERS and the transition to a so-called "group annuity" contract with a private insurance company.
The bottom line, according to the proponents of the measure, is that this change would allow the city to cut down on administrative costs while ensuring the remaining retirees continue to receive all of their pension payments. The city would remain the ultimate guarantor of the payments.'
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