Board of PERA accused of retaliation

Group will no longer collect dues for two groups; move comes after lawsuit on raises

The board of New Mexico’s retirement system for public workers voted Thursday to halt automatic collection of fees for two retirement groups from members’ pensions.

Retired Public Employees of New Mexico and the state’s retirement group for the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees will now have to collect the dues themselves, an amount that comes to about $30 annually for each retiree.

The Public Employees Retirement Association board voted 7-5 to stop collecting the fees, a move that raised some questions among members about whether the action sent an anti-union message or was a form of retaliation.

Board member Lawrence Davis, the city of Albuquerque’s budget director, defended the change in policy, citing an “anti-donation clause.”

The total blow to Retired Public Employees could be more than $100,000 a year, which the group uses for its newsletter and to lobby the state Legislature on behalf of retirees, said Miguel Gomez, the organization’s executive director.

In 2019, Retired Public Employees sued PERA Executive Director Wayne Propst in federal court over raises he gave himself and other employees without getting approval from the PERA board.

In September, the New Mexico Attorney General’s Office issued an opinion that Propst did nothing wrong.

Attorneys for Propst filed a motion seeking dismissal of the lawsuit, but Gomez said his group’s attorneys gave notice earlier this month that they would file an appeal.

“This is retaliatory, discriminatory and just plain un-American,” Gomez said of Thursday’s vote.

State Treasurer Tim Eichenberg, an ex-officio member of the PERA board who previously said former and current pension fund leaders had broken the law by issuing raises without going through the proper channels, agreed the action was “obvious” retaliation.

Board members Claudio Armijo, who is acting general counsel for the New Mexico Regulation and Licensing Department, and Loretta Naranjo Lopez, a retired Albuquerque city planner, also called the action retaliatory.

Naranjo Lopez said the PERA board “remains captive and completely under the dominion and control of the director.”

She also called for Chief Investment Officer Dominic Garcia to be fired and claimed the PERA fund’s losses in March due to novel coronavirus-related declines in the stock market were “proof NM PERA is being defrauded.”

Propst said, however, the retirement fund has stayed relatively stable.

Secretary of State Maggie Toulouse Oliver, also an ex-officio board member, noted most of the retirees represented by the two groups were union members at one time. She said she was concerned people may perceive the vote as anti-union.

“Unfortunately, the reflection on this board will be that we are an anti-union organization, and whether or not that’s warranted … I’m concerned about that perception,” Toulouse Oliver said.

Other board members pointed out PERA has collected the retirement groups’ dues for years.

They questioned whether the board’s legal team would have allowed them to collect the fees for so long if the practice violated the anti-donation clause and asked why the issue was only being raised now.

Staff writer Jens Gould contributed to this report.

State Treasurer Tim Eichenberg, who previously said pension fund leaders had broken the law, agreed the action was “obvious” retaliation.