Message from Rene Rodriguez, President, VCCCDRA
Because Steve Hall, Chief Negotiator for the local AFT, made such an impassioned presentation to the Board of Trustees on January 21, I decided that I could not deliver the written statement that I had prepared for that evening, and instead, made an impromptu presentation trying to highlight and support some of the remarks that Steve had made regarding retirees.
What follows is a recording of my impromptu presentation and a copy of the written remarks that I had planned to make that evening is posted below the audio link. I went ahead and distributed the written remarks to the Board after my presentation.
Impromptu presentation by Rene:
Written Remarks that were planned to be made
to the Board of Trustees but were distributed after
the verbal presentation (posted above)
By Rene G. Rodriguez
January 21, 2019
My name is Rene Rodriguez, President of the college district Retirees’ Association. I served the college district as a faculty member and as an administrator in various capacities on all three campuses and at the district office. I retired as Vice President of Business Services from Oxnard College in 2004 after 34 years of service.
I wish to thank the Board for continuing to meet on an individual basis with representatives of the Retirees’ Association to discuss matters of mutual interest and concern to the Board and to the Retirees’ Association.
I also wish to thank the Board of Trustees and the Chancellor for helping to facilitate our next joint meeting on Thursday, January 23, with representatives of the District, Burnham, CalPERS (including Anthem and Kaiser representatives from CalPERS), OptumRx, the AFT and the SEIU. This will give the Retirees’ Association an opportunity to ask questions based on its review of the CalPERS health plans being proposed by the District.
This meeting will help us prepare for the General Meeting that we have planned with retirees on February 5, to share with them our assessment of the CalPERS health plans as compared to our current Anthem/Blue Cross and Kaiser plans.
In another matter, I noticed in the goals for your planning session at your recent Saturday meeting on January 11, that in mentioning all of the constituents that you serve as a Board, the students, the employees and the community, and the goals that you have set for them in the coming year, I noticed no mention of retirees as an important constituency. I am not sure if this is an oversight, or if you truly mean to exclude retirees as an important constituency and resource of the District?
Certainly the years that representatives of the Retirees’ Association have been meeting with Board members on an individual basis, have demonstrated the important resource that retirees have been to Board members in sharing with them an understanding, and historical perspectives, of educational issues that surface and keep resurfacing over time. Surely it’s time to start thinking of retirees as an important ongoing resource to the Board and to the college District, and include them in your talks and planning sessions to find ways to maximize the use of this readily available and invaluable resource.
I thank you for your kind attention.
