By JOHN EBY

Cassopolis Vigilant

Cass County commissioners last week voted 13-1 to offer a Municipal Employees’ Retirement System (MERS) defined contribution option to a prospective administrator-controller.

“In MERS,” explained Interim Administrator Chuck Clarke, “Cass County has eight divisions. The courts have their own, the general unit, the sheriff has a couple, Animal Control.”

On one side of creating a ninth specific division for one person was former chairman Robert Wagel, R-Wayne Township.

“I have a problem with this,” he said. “ We already have a defined benefit program to offer to an individual and I feel it should remain that way. We’re going to be presenting a package to an administrator one of these days. I would think that administrator would be more interested in signing off on a defined benefit than a defined contribution program. Over the long haul, we may have to contribute more money to the program.”

Nebraska “a few years ago switched over from defined benefit to defined contribution,” Wagel continued. “The state is on record now as having more retirees drawing food stamps than any other state in the Union because they switched that over. This is not a good thing to be doing — especially when you’re offering a contract to a potential administrator.

“I would also like to see,” Wagel added, “a rep from MERS come down here and explain exactly what is involved in this situation. Although (Clarke) spoke with the rep, I think that person should be here to tell everyone.”

Wagel unsuccessfully attempted to postpone action.

Commissioner Debbie Johnson, D-Howard Township, was absent.

Wagel said, “I just listened to a program at the MAC (Michigan Association of Counties) convention telling all about the disaster in the defined contribution program. I know organizations are attempting to cut costs, but if we’re trying to get someone here and really making that effort, we need to have a good package, and a good package is a defined benefit program. Employees are beginning to get upset because there is the feeling there that once we do this, the trend is going to be that we transfer our county employees over to that program. I don’t know about you, but I don’t want to see our county employees living in a poor manner when they retire.”

Commissioner Charlie Arnold, R-Cassopolis, countered, “With the information we have, the average time spent on the job by an administrator is five to 5 1/2 years. With a defined benefit, the soonest the person would be vested is six years. Six, eight and 10 years. Which means if the administrator left after five years, they leave with nothing. This is specifically designed for the administrator’s unique position. It’s not a fulltime employee as we think of one, staying around and working for 20 or 30 or 35 years. With defined contribution, at a minimum they leave with what they put into the program. Making a good package, Bob, is exactly what I’m trying to do here. As attractive a package as possible. If it was me coming in and interviewing for this job, I would prefer the DC over the DB. We can set this up so they get what we put in, too, after the first year if we want. That’s up to us, and I would hope we do that to make a more attractive package for a prospective candidate.”