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Retirees accuse Fund board of hiding info
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Posted on Apr 18 2012
By Moneth Deposa
Reporter
Reporter
Donna Cruz, a retiree who has been attending meetings of the NMI Retirement Fund board, didn’t expect anything to happen so quickly in just a matter of hours.
Speaking at the 9am board meeting yesterday, she questioned why the board was “so secretive” when it suddenly formed the pension holding corporation. Cruz said that if not for media reports, she would not be aware of the existence of the new corporation. The Fund, based on documents, established the new corporation on April 11.
But according to Fund counsel Carolyn Kern and board counsel Viola Alepuyo, the creation of the new corporation is part of the legal strategies that was approved by the board and had to be kept confidential for some period of time to prevent any “counter-actions” against the Fund. They assured, along with the trustees, that there was no intention to keep the matter secret as members and retirees deserve to know all matters pertaining to the pension program.
The board then went into more than two hours of closed-door meeting yesterday, only to announce some hours later that the Fund has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in federal court. A staff meeting was immediately held among the agency’s employees while board members headed toward the Legislature and the governor to inform them of their latest decision.
Cruz said that “there’s so little information coming out from the board.”
Glen Hunter, who was at yesterday afternoon’s news briefing, questioned the trustees’ action when members and retirees were not even consulted or informed about the bankruptcy plan.
“They [members and retirees] were not even aware that bankruptcy is even on the table,” he said, adding that because of the lack of proper information dissemination, it looks like the board railroaded the action and took a “drastic measure.”
The Fund called for a meeting for members and retirees last night at the American Memorial Park. The objective was to explain the board’s recent decision and its impact on members.
