Month: October 2019

Dorothy Mills’ Passing

Dorothy Mills
Dorothy Alice Mills

With sadness, the VCCCDRA recently learned of the passing on January 22, 2019, of Dorothy Alice Johanson Mills.  Dorothy worked at Moorpark College and Ventura College.   She also enrolled at VC and took classes that lead to an AA degree in 1997.

Dorothy was very involved in Eastern Star being a member of both the Oxnard and Ventura chapters. She served as California deputy Grand matron in 1997. She also was part of the Red Hat Society.

Please use this link to read her complete obituary.

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The VCCCDRA Sponsored Don B. Medley Scholarship has been Established!

On Monday, October 14, 2019, Rene Rodriguez and Pat Gage, VCCCDRA’s President and Treasurer respectively, delivered a check to the Ventura County Community Foundation (VCCF) in the amount of $20,500.00 towards the establishment of the VCCCDRA Sponsored Don B. Medley Scholarship.  Combining  this check with the $3,000 previously received directly by the VCCF from three VCCCDRA contributors, will bring the total amount for the scholarship to $23,500.  This is enough to establish a $1,100 annually endowed scholarship beginning in June 2020.  (The original goal was to obtain sufficient donations to establish a $500 annual scholarship.)

In addition, a password protected flash drive was also delivered.  This flash drive contains the names of the 258 contributors with the amount each contributed and their home addresses in an Excel file, totaling the check amount of $20,500.  The understanding is that this list will be used to send out a letter to each contributor for tax purposes.  Each individual contribution is considered to be confidential information and only Rene Rodriguez and Pat Gage are privy to this information for accounting purposes.

Rene expressed his gratitude to Jim Rivera, Chief Compliance Officer, VCCF, for his help and the smooth transition that he has provided the VCCCDRA to get this scholarship established through the VCCF.

Pat Gage will be the primary liaison with the VCCF for any future contributions to the scholarship fund.  Rene will continue serving as liaison to the VCCF on matters other than contributions until further notice from him or the VCCCDRA Exec Board.

Congratulations to the 258 founding contributors of the VCCCDRA Sponsored Don B. Medley Scholarship.

Rene Rodriguez’ Presentation to the Board of Trustees, Oct 8, 2019

Presentation to the Board of Trustees
By Rene G. Rodriguez, President,
Ventura County Community College
District Retirees’ Association
October 8, 2019

  1. First, I would like to personally thank Board Chair Dianne McKay, Trustee Bernardo Perez, and Trustee Josh Chancer, with whom we have had a chance to meet, on a one to one basis, allowing us to voice the particular concerns that we have found to date with the CalPERS plans, as well as the CalPERS organization.
  2. We look forward to meeting with Trustee Larry Kennedy, and Trustee Gabriela Torres, on a one to one basis, as soon as we can arrange a meeting, to bring them up to date on our current assessment of the District’s proposal.
  3. I PARTICULARY wish to express our sincere gratitude to the Board, having recently learned that the Board plans to slow the process down
    • To give all concerned the time to review, more adequately, the CalPERS plans, as well as the CalPERS organization.
    • This will also give the Board, and the District Benefits Committees, an opportunity to explore other options, other than CalPERS, that will help the Board achieve its financial objectives, as well as maintaining its contractual obligations to retirees.
    • Perhaps the Board can also look into why 30 school districts, city and county governments, have left the CalPERS insurance program over the past 3 years.
  4. I would like to remind the Board, that during the many years that retirees were active employees, exercising their responsibilities as faculty members, classified employees and managers, that they often were willing to forego salary increases, sometimes over long periods of time, to make certain that we kept in place the quality healthcare program that we have enjoyed from the very beginning until the present time.
  5. The meeting that the Chancellor had with the Retirees’ Association Executive Board on September 25, demonstrated to us, that the only way the plan being offered to retirees, the PERS Choice Supplemental Plan, can come up to the standard of healthcare insurance that we have now, is to buttress it up with promises of a short term reimbursement program.  There is no time now to explain all the shortcomings of this band aid approach to our healthcare benefits.
  6. For now, let me say that the Retirees’ Association looks forward to a fruitful dialogue with the District regarding our future healthcare benefits.  Thank you.

 

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