SBCERA'S Healthcare Investment Bill Passes Legislature

SAN BERNARDINO, Calif.--(Business Wire)--
The award winning San Bernardino County Employees' Retirement
Association's (SBCERA) legislation allowing for the creation of a
separate OPEB trust to invest healthcare benefits has passed the
legislature. Senate Bill 1586 (Sen. Gloria Negrete McLeod) cleared the
legislature with the bi-partisan co-authorship of Senators Roy Ashburn
and Bob Dutton, and Assemblymembers Anthony Adams, Wilmer Amina
Carter, Paul Cook, Bill Emmerson, Bob Huf and Nell Soto.

"SBCERA has worked hard to become a 'best practices' standard of
public employee retirement systems. We were named Medium Public Plan
of the Year for 2007 by industry leaders, and we recently received the
Award for Excellence in Governance and Fiduciary Responsibility from
the Information Management Network," declared Marvin Reiter, SBCERA
Chairman of the Board of Trustees. "Our goal is to never leave our
retirees in the same situation as employees of General Motors, Ford or
United Airlines."

S.B. 1586 was derived from the Governor's report of the Public
Employee Post-Employment Benefits (OPEB) Commission of 2008.
Post-employment healthcare benefits are contractually-negotiated by
public agencies through the collective bargaining process. S.B. 1586
gives these agencies an additional option for investing their OPEB
funds. SBCERA will be allowed to create a parallel trust fund to
invest retiree healthcare benefits; it will offer the same protections
for retirees and their employers as the existing retirement fund.

"I am honored to have carried this legislation for SBCERA. It
shows that the legislature can work together to advance important
bills to the Governor's desk. The bill does not raise taxes, increase
employee benefits, or add any financial burden to taxpayers. I look
forward to his signature on S.B. 1586," stated Senator Gloria Negrete
McLeod.

The Governor has until September 30th to act on S.B. 1586.

The San Bernardino County Employees' Retirement Association
(SBCERA) provides its members and their beneficiaries with retirement
and related benefits and services which they have earned, commensurate
with their years of service and compensation. The Board of
Retirement's responsibilities and functions are governed by the
applicable provisions of the California Government Code, along with
the bylaws and regulations of SBCERA. It is the responsibility of
those charged with administration of the Association to diversify the
investments of the system so as to minimize the risk of loss and to
maximize the rate of return.

SBCERA
Danielle Jaramillo, Communications Officer
(909) 885-7980, ext. 329
djaramillo@bor.sbcounty.gov
www.sbcera.org

Copyright Business Wire 2008