Message from Ann Smith Re PSC Litigation
As an update to the Purchase of Service Credit (PSC) issue, we wanted to provide you with Ann’s message and legal complaint which have both been emailed to all of our PSC litigants. If you have any questions regarding the lawsuit, please contact Lora Folsom at 619-264-6632 or psclitigation@sdmea.org (please only email her from your personal, rather than City email address).
In addition to the complaint, we are also attaching an article which was published in the Union-Tribune last Friday.
Dear All:
Thanks to your personal efforts, the extraordinary assistance of MEA’s staff (hats off to Mike, Lora and Nichole!) and my staff here at Tosdal, Smith, Steiner & Wax, I have filed a Civil Complaint this afternoon on your behalf against both the City and SDCERS. The Complaint and Summons have also been served on the City Clerk and on SDCERS.
This Complaint is 59 pages . . . detailing the history of the City’s and SDCERS’ wrongful conduct that has led to the injustice you have all experienced with regard to your pensions. Most of you have heard me address SDCERS and the City Council about parts of this history.
Now the whole story is told in this Complaint as we seek the Court’s intervention in remedying the injustice that has been done. You may not know this whole story yourselves – though you certainly know better than anyone the painful consequences for you and your families. Put some extra paper in your printers and spend some part of your weekend reading our ten causes of action – including the first cause of action for “equitable relief against judgment” exposing how the City acted fraudulently in procuring the judgment that SDCERS is now using against you.
While we all know that filing this Complaint by itself will not reverse the harm you have experienced, I hope you will take a small bit of satisfaction in knowing that YOUR VOICES ARE FINALLY BEING HEARD IN A COURT OF LAW AND EQUITY.
Special Note About Injunctive Relief
While most of you who are retired have endured the hardships necessary to select an option under SDCERS’ “choose your poison” correction process, some of you have delayed in the hopes that we might find the means to halt this process before the upcoming deadlines on September 8th or 15th. Having scoured your Intake Questionnaires, we are very aware of the innumerable hardships you have each endured since SDCERS first presented you with this bombshell PSC news – which you have poignantly recounted in your Intake Questionnaires. However, I have made a professional judgment that we cannot meet the very stringent requirements for injunctive relief. The harms which you have each incurred – bad as they are — are not “irreparable” as the law defines this requirement for injunctive relief because these harms can be remedied by money damages.
Options Deadline. If you have not already acted on SDCERS’ “options letter,” please be sure to do so by the deadline SDCERS imposed. Be assured, however, that the objective of this litigation is to hold SDCERS and the City accountable for their wrongful conduct such that they are required to make you whole for all of your financial losses and compensate you for your emotional distress and mental suffering.
Next Steps. By law, the City and SDCERS will have thirty (30) days to respond to our Complaint. We will certainly update you about any developments as they occur. If you have not completed all your paperwork or have not yet given MEA all of the documents we requested, please take a few minutes and get this done.
But first, get comfortable . . . read and (I hope) relish the attached complaint. The battle is on. My best regards to all, Ann Smith