CLOSED MINUTES at the IBEW LOCAL 332 Pension Trust

Board of Trustee’s minutes.

I requested meeting minutes(August 24, 2011) from the board of the early seventies. It is my memory that one of the meetings I attended, at the union hall, included a statement from the presenter that spousal support under the Plan would not exceed 50% of the marital benefits. You may recall that my gripe is spousal support taken from my account of way over 50%.

The Trustees have refused my request. In the past they have not always supplied the reasons for their decisions even though the reasons are a requirement. This time they came through with a reason. “ It is not the policy of the Plan to provide meeting minutes to participants and it is not required under federal law.”

Comment: They have not supplied the policy reason and therefore have once again failed to supply anything logical to back up their denial. The fact that federal law does not require minutes be distributed does not come close to meaning that the minutes cannot be provided. Perhaps this compares to a stockbroker who refuses questions about an account?

The Trustee’s second point about the minutes is somewhat more interesting. “Meeting minutes are not required to be provided to a participant unless the minutes ‘constitute an instrument under which the plan is established or operated.’ The minutes you have requested do not constitute an instrument under which the plan is operated and therefore are not required to be provided.”

Comment: IRISA does not require the minutes to be withheld. (Read the Trustee statement.) I am asking for documents that may be directly related to why the plan was accepted by the membership. Many of us thought we were protecting our pensions with the terms of this plan because of statements in those early meetings. And of course not being REQUIRED to supply something is not the same as not being ALLOWED. Have the trustees forgotten their fiduciary duty requirements? They are duty bound to be the fiduciaries of everyone in the plan including me and you.

EXAMPLE
Their sample DRO is wrong (according to the California Superior Court) they must correct the error immediately. It has been four years since the court brought the DRO error to the Trustees attention.

OPINION:
In this letter the trustee’s are trying to show that they are doing “enough”.
WELL
They did enough to cost me $40K and don’t have the guts to pay for their own errors.
Think about it:
Do we want a union representative who only does enough?
Do we want to recruit a non-union electrician who only does enough.
How about a union committee chairman, member or apprentice who does only enough.
Don’t we sell union labor as being much more than enough.
Did we spend over $20K in seminars in 2009 to teach the trustees to do enough?
A fiduciary, by definition, is to do more than enough.
Why are we accepting trustee’s that can only do enough?
Public law requires full government committee disclosures, why is our pension plan free to do as it pleases without being open to the membership?

Why is it the trustee answers never contain more than asked for?

“People are getting smarter nowadays; they are letting their lawyers, instead of conscience, be their guide.” Will Rogers

Happy Trails


Letters referred to above:

August 24, 2011

James Gray
3745 Akron Way
San Jose, Ca. 95117

Board of Trustees
Of the I.B.E.W. Local 332
Pension Trust
P.O. Box 5057
San Jose, CA 95150-5057

Hello Board:

I recently requested minutes of Board meetings and early presentations to the membership concerning spousal benefits from Judy Sargent. Judy replied that minutes are not open to Participants and therefore she could not comply with my request.

Judy invited me to contact you with my request and that is the reason for this letter. If for some reason you cannot comply with this request please supply your reason for the secrecy.

Regards,


James Gray, Participant

Re: I.B.E.W. Local 332 Pension Plan (“the Plan”)
Request for Meeting Minutes



Dear Mr. Gray:

In correspondence dated August 24,2011 addressed to the Fund Office, you requested copies of the meeting minutes from 1971 through 1973. The Board of Trustees considered your request at their meeting of October 13,2011. The Board voted to deny your request. It is not the policy of the Plan to provide meeting minutes to participants and it is also not required by federal law.

ERISA section 104(b)(4) states that a Plan must, upon written request of any participant or beneficiary, provide copies of the latest updated Summary Plan Description, the latest annual report, any terminal report, the bargaining agreement, trust agreement, contract, or other such instruments under which the plan is established or operated. The Department of Labor in Advisory Opinion 87-10A expressed its opinion that Trustee meeting minutes are not required to be provided to a participant unless the minutes “constitute an instrument under which the plan is established or operated.” The minutes you have requested do not constitute an instrument under which the plan is operated and therefore are not required to be provided.

Sincerely,