VCERA contracts with PBI Research Services (PBI) for death and beneficiary audit services. In late May 2023, a third-party file transfer software used by PBI, MOVEit, identified a vulnerability in its software that was actively exploited by attackers. The exploit provided attackers the ability to gain access to the MOVEit Administrative Portal only. PBI stated that its core systems and software were not accessed.
PBI confirmed that clients who were potentially impacted were contacted directly. VCERA did not receive direct communication from PBI. To verify that VCERA was not affected by the breach, staff proactively contacted PBI and was told there was no evidence that VCERA records were impacted. Therefore, VCERA believes that its vendor’s data breach did not impact its information systems, Member Portal, or VCERA benefits to retirees and beneficiaries.
This update was provided to the Board of Retirement on July 10, 2023.
VCERA’s 2023 annual benefit statements were mailed to all active VCERA members on May 4, 2023. If you have any questions about your statement, please contact VCERA at (805) 339-4250 or VCERA.info@ventura.org.
June 15, 2023 – The Ventura County Employees’ Retirement Association (VCERA) today announced that Linda Webb has decided to step down as its Retirement Administrator, the chief executive position she has held since January 2015. The governing Board of Retirement is expected to appoint an interim administrator to lead the agency until a full-time replacement is identified following a nationwide recruitment.
“I appreciate the support of the Board of Retirement during my tenure at VCERA,” Ms. Webb said. “They have been attentive and responsive, paving the way for transformative change since 2015.”
“It is with sadness that I am leaving VCERA, but it has been my honor and privilege to serve with you,” Ms. Webb wrote to VCERA staff. “It was not my plan to resign/retire at this time, as I had hoped to continue working here for several more years. However, this is a family-first decision.”
Ms. Webb has been tapped to serve as Executive Director at the Fort Worth Employees’ Retirement Fund in Texas, which will allow her to better care for her family in that region following a recent traumatic accident in her immediate family. Before joining VCERA in 2015, Ms. Webb worked at the Oklahoma Public Employees Retirement System for 17 years, most recently as its Director of Member Services.
Mike Sedell, Chair of the VCERA Board of Retirement, stated: “Over the past 8½ years, Linda has worked with the Board to advance our partnerships with members, plan sponsors, and other stakeholders; to ensure efficient and effective operations; and to assure members that their earned benefits are secure by maintaining a well-funded retirement system. She has worked well with the County of Ventura and earned the respect of her colleagues and staff. We are truly sorry to have to accept her resignation.”
“With our amazing staff, VCERA has made great strides in service to our members, technology and fiscal soundness during my tenure,” Ms. Webb stated. “My appreciation to the staff is deep and sincere, and I believe VCERA is in good hands with the current team in place. I am confident the future is bright for VCERA.”
Election results are in for the General Member, Safety Member and Retired Member seats on the VCERA Board of Retirement. On June 23, 2023, the Ventura County Elections Division issued certified results for the elections held on June 20, 2023. The following winning candidates will serve a three-term term starting on January 1, 2024.
For the General Member election, Greg Bergman received a plurality of the 743 votes cast among four candidates on the ballot.
For the Safety Member election, incumbent Aaron Grass received a majority of the 454 votes cast among two candidates on the ballot. Robert Ashby received the second-highest number of votes and will serve as the Alternate Safety Member.
For the Retired Member election, incumbent Arthur Goulet received a majority of the 1,930 votes cast among two candidates on the ballot. Maeve Fox ran unopposed for the Alternate Retired Member seat.
VCERA congratulates these individuals on their appointments to the Board of Retirement. Below are the vote totals for each candidate:
General Member Election Candidate NameVotes Greg Bergman 258 Derek Fouarge 148 Cecilia Hernandez-Garcia 233 Brandon J. Miller 104
Safety Member Election Candidate NameVotes Robert Ashby 217 Aaron Grass 237
Retired Member Election Candidate NameVotes Arthur E. “Art” Goulet 1,181 Henry C. Solis 743
In the right sidebar of this page are the Certifications of Election Results and the Official Statements of Votes Cast for each election.
One of the factors used to calculate your retirement benefit is your final average compensation (FAC), which is based on your benefit tier and/or hire date. The time period in which your FAC is earned is called your “measurement period”:
For Safety Tier 1 and General Tier 1 members: Highest 12 consecutive months (26 pay periods) of “compensation earnable,” as defined in Government Code section 31461.
For all other members:
Hired prior to January 1, 2013: Highest 36 consecutive months (78 pay periods) of “compensation earnable,” as defined in Government Code section 31461.
Hired on or after January 1, 2013: Highest 36 consecutive months (78 pay periods) of “pensionable compensation,” as defined in Government Code section 7522.34.
Vacation Buydown / Annual Leave Redemption
Government Code Section 31461(b)(2) instructs VCERA to limit the number of annual leave or vacation redemption hours that may be included in retirement compensation to the maximum redeemable hours allowed by Memorandum of Agreements (MOA) for each calendar year. As a reminder, for PEPRA members, Vacation Buydown/Annual Leave Redemption is not includable in final average compensation.
Depending on membership type, VCERA will look at the highest 12 or 36 consecutive months of compensation at retirement. Within that highest measurement period, VCERA will include the number of redeemed leave hours that the applicable MOA allows a member to redeem. For example, if a member’s MOA allows a maximum leave redemption of 200 hours per calendar year, then VCERA will only include up to 600 hours of redeemed leave in a 36-month measurement period for purposes of retirement compensation. Please refer to your appropriate MOA to locate your specific annual vacation redemption limit.
To provide additional levels of security, VCERA has implemented Multifactor Authentication (MFA) on our Member Portal. MFA will assist with prevention of cybersecurity incidents, protect your personal information, and further secure your data against identity theft. MFA requires you to provide two forms of authentication (Member Portal password and one-time PIN code), before access to the Member Portal is granted.
Only members who have a registered account on the Member Portal (https://members.vcera.org/) will receive a verification code during each log in. The verification code will contain a one-time PIN code that you will input on the User Device Registration screen on the Member Portal. If you do not receive the verification code, please check your spam/junk folder(s) or contact VCERA at 805-677-8700.
If you elect to withdraw your retirement contributions, your VCERA membership immediately ends, as does your right to apply for a service, disability, deferred or reciprocal retirement. Therefore, please carefully consider all your options before deciding to withdraw your funds.
You can either refund or roll over your account balance into a qualified plan. Refundable contributions include the amounts you paid into VCERA, any employer-paid portion of employee contributions (if applicable), and the semiannual interest credited on those amounts.
Taxes
VCERA is required to withhold 20% of the taxable portion of any lump-sum distribution greater than $200 for federal tax purposes. The withholding will not apply if you roll over the taxable portion of the distribution to an IRA or qualified employer retirement plan willing to accept a rollover. For more information, download VCERA’s Special Tax Notice.
Disposition Form
To process your withdrawal request, you (and your spouse, if applicable) must sign a Disposition of Retirement Contributions Form and return it to VCERA before a refund of contributions will be issued. The disposition form is available in the VCERA office, but it will also be mailed to you within a few weeks of terminating employment.
If you do not make a written election on the form, you will be placed automatically in a deferred membership status and your contributions will remain on deposit with VCERA. However, you may withdraw your funds at any time by completing a disposition form.
The foregoing is not intended to be tax advice. Please consult a qualified tax professional for more information prior to requesting a withdrawal of your VCERA contributions.
On October 12, 2020, the VCERA Board of Retirement will be considering a matter of general interest and importance to VCERA members regarding the impact of the California Supreme Court Alameda decision on VCERA. You may have received an email containing two letters from the County on this topic.
On September 28th, the VCERA Board Chair appointed an ad hoc committee to address potential litigation over VCERA’s implementation of Alameda. That committee, as well as VCERA staff and fiduciary counsel will be meeting with the County and the unions and their respective counsels on Thursday, October 8th.
VCERA’s fiduciary counsel sent a letterto the counsels participating in the October 8th meeting, which addresses the various issues and objections raised by both the County and employee groups and their counsels in regard to VCERA’s proposed implementation of the Alameda ruling. We provide this letter to help answer questions you may have.
We recognize the impact this ruling and its implementation has on the VCERA membership, and we look forward to discussing these important issues with representatives of the County and employee groups. We welcome your virtual attendance at the scheduled public meeting of the Board of Retirement on October 12th, the agenda for which will be posted on the VCERA website at www.vcera.org.
On September 29, 2022, Governor Newsom vetoed Assembly Bill 826, a bill sponsored by SEIU and the County of Ventura. Had it passed, AB 826 would have allowed, under specific conditions, Legacy members’ compensation for calculating their retirement benefits (“compensation earnable) to include a larger portion of their flexible benefit credit (the amount the employer credits toward medical and other tax qualified benefits for its employees each pay period.) This benefit has been referred to as “cafeteria plan allowance” or other similar terms, but in Ventura County, it is most frequently called “flex credit”.
Because AB 826 did not become law, the portion of flex credit that cannot be received in cash may not be included in Legacy members’ compensation for retirement purposes. NOTE: For PEPRA members (those who established membership after January 1, 2013), no portion of flex credit may be pensionable so the bill would have had no effect on PEPRA members.
AB 826 was originally introduced in the 2021 legislative session, and was amended to apply only to Ventura County, but went “inactive” for the remainder of that session. The bill was amended in the 2022 session to allow the non-cashable portion of flex credit to be pensionable for Legacy members who retired prior to 2026.
Background: The Alameda Decision The veto of AB 826 was the latest in a series of events following the 2020 landmark California Supreme Court Decision, commonly referred to as the Alameda Decision. While generally Alameda clarified the pensionability of pay items such as standby pay, termination pay and certain annual leave redemptions, it also addressed in-kind benefits not payable in cash directly to the member. The Supreme Court in Alameda ruled that retirement boards do not have, and never had, the discretion to include “in-kind benefits” (i.e., cannot be received in cash directly by a member) because they do not meet the definition of “compensation.”
So while the Alameda applied to public pension systems across the state, in Ventura County, the exclusion of in-kind benefits not receivable in cash had a larger impact because Ventura County’s full flexible benefit allowance had been treated as pensionable.
Flex credit is the annual dollar amount contributed by the County to the cafeteria/flexible benefits plan, and credited toward the medical premium deductions that correspond with the employee’s medical and qualified benefit choices. For most employees, this credit does not cover the cost of their premiums, though for some it may. If the flex credit amount exceeds the amount of deducted premium or qualified benefit cost, the employee receives the balance in cash. For employees who opt out of medical insurance altogether, such as when they are already covered on a spouse’s policy, they still cannot receive the entire flex credit amount in cash; the County mandates that an “opt out” fee be deducted from the employee’s flex credit so only the remaining balance is received in cash. The maximum any member could receive in cash is the “employee-only” flex credit minus the lessor of the opt out fee or the lowest priced healthcare plan.
To illustrate, below shows the maximum amount of flex credit that members covered under the County’s Management Resolution were/are provided, and what portion may be received in cash. (Amounts may vary based on bargaining unit.)
YEAR
Flex CreditAllowance
Opt-Out Fee(Non-cashable portion)
CashablePortion
2020
$447
$300.09
$146.91
2021
$472
$333.95
$138.05
2022
$497
$334.75
$162.25
Put simply, had AB 826 passed, it would have allowed VCERA Legacy members who retired on or before December 31, 2025, to include the entire flex credit allowance amount in their compensation used to calculate retirement benefits. So for 2022, in addition to the already-includable $162.25 portion, they would also have included the $334.75 portion. But given the veto of AB 826, only the cashable portion of flex credit is includable for Legacy members.
Next Steps Though the Alameda was issued in July 2020, the VCERA Board of Retirement has delayed excluding the non-cashable portion of flex credit for Legacy members, awaiting the outcome of AB 826. Now that the veto has occurred, the Board of Retirement will turn its attention back to implementation of that exclusion.
At its October 24, 2022, business meeting, the VCERA Board of Retirement voted 4-3 to delay the exclusion of the non-cashable portion of flex credit from compensation earnable for Legacy members, and to revisit the item at its first Business meeting in April of 2023.
