PENSION LITIGATION UPDATE
January 29, 2008

At today's meeting of the Orange County Board of Supervisors, the Board discussed directing their outside counsel, Kirkland & Ellis, LLP, to move forward and "obtain a declaration of unconstitutionality and injunction against OCERS prohibiting it from paying out, in any month following Court declaration any increase pension benefits arising from Resolution 01-410 that are based on years of service rendered before June 28, 2002 and taking various actions to ensure that the rights and interests of affected active-duty and retired peace officers are protected to the greatest extent possible".
What that all means is that the Board considered whether or not to take action to remove the 3% at 50 retirement formula for all of your service prior to June 28, 2002.

Over one hundred active and retired members joined the AOCDS Board of Directors, Staff and the law firm of Morrison & Foerster at today's meeting. Presentations were made to the Board of Supervisors by President Wayne Quint, attorney James Bennett from the law firm of Morrison & Foerster, President Joe Kerr of the Orange County Professional Firefighters' Association, President Arlene Pavey of the California Teachers' Association Retired as well as several members of the community.

Despite these efforts, the Board of Supervisors unanimously (5-0) voted to move forward to seek an injunction from the courts to have OCERS re-calculate current and future retiree benefits to reflect service at the 2% at 50 formula for service prior to June 28, 2002.

Regardless of this action, our legal team believes we will be successful in any court that the County seeks relief from. Our resolve remains firm that the County continues to be "wrong on the facts and wrong on the law". Be advised that the AOCDS does not stand alone in this fight. We have received commitments of support from numerous organizations and groups throughout California.

We do not believe that this issue will be resolved overnight. It appears that we have a long road ahead of us before we are able to convince the County to stop wasting hundreds of thousands of taxpayers' dollars in this futile effort. Please be assured that we will continue this fight until this issue is resolved in favor of the men and women of the AOCDS, both past and present, who have placed their lives on the line to make the Orange County community a safe and wonderful place to live.

AOCDS BOARD OF DIRECTORS