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tv   [untitled]    February 28, 2015 5:00pm-5:31pm PST

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tackles we should listen he's opted to investing in hedge funds his future is a result of his sound judgment when i planned my retirement we alternated my goals over the last years so my portfolio became more conservative this is a common and well proven strategy why then should the city's retirement board do the opt taking larger risks and paying higher fees for that privilege the phrase hedging your bit comes to mind in a disturbing way you want to headlong and bets with the hedge funds this is your bet which is regarded with our money all bets should be off when it comes to
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risky business this is not a game. (clapping.) >> good afternoon board members my name is maria i come today as a s c i u member and activist and i also want to support and give cede dance to the letter you've received from maxine sharpening is i'm particular and very delinquent about making sure we don't have tape down decisions decisions are local i can stand here with certainty saying this was our mentioning members that led this and we researched into this decision
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does, in fact, hold a lot of weighed and that's why i'm here to speak i'm a 26-year-old in terms of working in the city well, not 26 years old far from that but i look forward to ref any first retirement check this july so but i'm here to say that wherever i think of entering into risky behavior or taking a risk i look at the assessment of whether or not it's just myself that is in jeopardy or will be hurt or co-lateral damage so we want you to you know take pause and contemplate that as well we shouldn't be here to countryside another unions and organizations like i support and appreciate our self-determination i also
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uphold theirs as well i believe that how much i know that your job is difficult and i couldn't do your job one of the things i know for sure part of your job is to listen to us; right? the beneficiaries of the system and i know a lot of those make the xhments commitments when you come forward to get our endorsements we want to remind you of 3 particular part of job it's not politicizing we come forward but you're right and duty and again i wish you great success in our decisions from our point of view. >> (clapping). >> michael lion i worked at san francisco general for 15 years alongside city workers they did public workers in
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general work at low wages because they have the promise of a secure health benefits despite the banners optimism this system is starting to fall apart it is from europe they're going to be hitting the united states as obama is just about right now proposing new investment in new invasion of the middle east we'll be hit worse and worse the retirees we're being considered useless less feeders the cities are saying they don't need to pay pepgsz they're trying to take away is. >>and now the san francisco pension board wants to use the hedge funds why do the hedge funds exist because this economy
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is n incapable of making sufficient money money it considers sufficient by creating the things we need housing and health care and education the system can't survive making those anymore all it can do is make paper profits and paper profit are what kill people and make people lose their homes and jobs and that's what hedge funds are all about it is disgusting you guys are thinking about it (clapping.) >> welcome. >> hi, i'm dwayne a social weshg the city and s c i u member thank you for the opportunity for letting us speak up my concern with the proposal
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is one of transparency a lot of people picked up on that as well as the cost benefit ratio of this kind choices the wall street journal said hedge funds are in a 6 year slump they've underperformed in the accepting 5 one hundred and their citing van graduate fidelity and swabbing fund that investments would be had for a quarter of one percent impaired to hedge funds that are 20 percent of the game i think what unshelts settles me is the lack of transparent i looked at the website and found little agendas this information should be shared freely and only
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i realize not every last detail can be auditor in a public forum but more transparency this is why we want to go in this directions to lead us here, here and here and we're trusting those people with those assets thank you (clapping.) >> good afternoon. my name is is richard gale i'm a retiree i've by that retired for are 6 years from city college of san francisco whether i worked for 24 years in the english department back in 1997 through 2000 i was a truest of the local 790 the perverts of 1021 i have some idea of issues here i understand what the fiduciary trust medians i doubt
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that everyone ass is as confident that you do i can think of no idea that could be worse than this possibly back in our reagan was running for president and this stooge came up with the idea of trickle down economics how does that work out for us you know this is not going to work any better i think that because there's much mentioned already on the efficiency of hedge funds in terms of their information they give you the amounts they charge $100 million a year at 28 percent of our investments
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rest of our investments of 72 don't come close to that and going to charge us 2 percent if they derail and what universe is this a good idea? i'm you know i'm concerned because i came late into this system and when i retired i had to pay $28,000 out of my savings to buy the rest of my retirement i don't want any of you messing around with that do the right thing and don't play games with our money i'm going to remind you this is our money not yours thank you (clapping.) >> commissioners and staff my
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name is michael i'm first of all, a police retirees and pa welcome officer and 49 member of the retirement system i want to thank you board members and staff for taking on this momentous decision ass that is before you today it is probably one of the most important decision you as board members make in terms of how our trust fund works i commend you for the time and effort to make sure that you do best for the 3 really important groups that are watching you fiercely the people with liability are the citizens and the taxpayers of the city and county of san francisco they're the ones with the real liability if this decide is not made right and secondly active employees because of prop c they saw their
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contribution rates rise from 7 and a half to 11 or 12 not because of the good work you've done it didn't increase last year and this year i think the same thing but board members and staff active city employees are looking for you to do a great job they want to see it rise towards 7 and a half that's a four and a half percent pay raise if you do this right they'll get and lastly retirees retirees would like to get a full supplemental one cola that can't happen unless the application is going well i'm not fearing hedge funds i've been watching hedge funds for 25 years and gentleman before me
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said why were they created well, it should be a clue they're important to someone they've 7 thousand 5 hundred holding $3 trillion and worldwide one out of $4 managed and hedge funds exams from the public or private pension one out of $4 from a public or private pension we're not early but late hedge funds were create by wealthy individuals that had with an idea in said to manage risk and manage their risk they were looking for returns with bond like down side it's now huge there are 8 hundred institutional quality and we have a - we've been
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looking at 8 hundred institutional hedge funds for us what do i fear it's not hedge funds it is a repeat of 2000 and 2002 and the disaster of 2007 and 9 when the fund headed do you think that's what i fear and putting the risk management controls to me is the prudent thing to protect either of those things happening thank you board and staff and keep up the good work on behalf of all of us thank you. >> jonathan hello, again trustee 7 thousands 5 hundred hedge funds managing $3 trillion that's called chasing returns that's not a good strategy i want to just make a few more
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comments starting with the words truest we've placed our truest in you you have a diet to manage our assets with the interests of us in mind not have jay hewitt but of my interests and the rest of the people in the room right now, i'm wondering if you're making the best efforts to do that why don't i say that there are things about the process that don't make sense number one it appears that mr. coker and hewitt came to you with the recommendations at the beginning of what should have been an open and objective process the answer was hedge funds before the questions were asked and in fact the right questions may not have been asked this is not prudent and careful and not skillful and not delinquent as
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far as i, tell the gentlemen gave you information only how the hedge funds are not risky and they're the observe choices authenticity to the on and objective so again, i have to ask why, why are hedge funds and other investments that have higher fees than other options being pushed so hard by the c i o this makes me dough the integrity of the process i think if you were doing euro job you'd question that when hear that mr. poker and the other gentleman refuse to pick up the phone and ask questions that should have been one of the first steps taken it was not done ever i
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know i'm beating the deadors those are two of the greatest investors to size us to stay away from hedge funds by the way, we have to building that that those gentlemen are smaller u smallest than warren buffett i found articles why hedge with a hedge funds hedge funds are for instructors are hedge funds the ultimate rip off and more evidence that hedge funds are a way to trail the accepting 57 hundred. >> i understand you as trustee may not have been directly involved in developing the hedge funds you are only accountable and at the end of the day the short term the absence of the
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theory and objective evaluation and our duty to manage those and go through an process to look at the prudence and skill thank you (clapping.) >> good afternoon. i'm patricia a retiree and member of the local in san francisco i strongly oppose the 3 or 5 or 10 percent no percentage in hedge funds that is taken from our retirement fund i won't repeat all the things that have been said we've been coming since genuinely june this is clearly is not a prudent investment whatsoever and 81 percent of the retirees average about 2
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thousand 5 hundreds a month for benefits that's an average those way up there for one hundred plus are down there with most of us who average the same as assistant is that is 12 hundred a month in this city how do you live there's been things done when vvl in risky investments and now the mayor want to dip into our pension fund as well where does it end i think it's the one percent we're all familiar with are looking for pots to take money out of and pension funds as a gentleman said one in $4 come from pension funds i want to make one correction it is historically we contributed 7 that is 5 percent that was a
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give back done in the latest 90s by the city employees now the other thing i have one hundred and 50 word statement i'll turn in i'm deegress because of what's been said about the transparency of the board and onness i believe i heard that you were going to vote on this issue in private now that's kind of disturbing i understand there are some things the board has done in private i've been on a board that to me seems how intransparent am i wrong are you going to vote on this in public today is that true? wonderful >> i guess i was misinformed. >> 30 seconds and between 2009
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and 2014 the apprehension fund asset grew by $11.9 billion from $11.9 billion to $21 billion that was out risky investment as i said the only - i thank you and we. >> time. >> we're look forward to this vote and please say no to pension funds. >> (clapping.) hello my name is sighing i'm a retired financial visa cards and planner for a major bank my wife she works she is working at the city of san francisco and she'll be retiring in 5 to 10
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years the main reason i come today even though i have concerns about hedge funds i want to i'm more concerned about 457 b the deferred compensation before i do that i want to make one final comment on the hedge funds remembered in 2007 and 8 when the market crashed we know the reason the market crashed all the hedge funds people they urged you to buy so-called money back mortgage security or whatever the fancy sew names and the hedge fund with all those big guys are by the time against it they make billion dollars and billion dollars of dollars 38 they take our houses away a lot of people went bankrupt because
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of the hedge funds so i want you to remind you that the hedge funds is not for you but for themselves and one other thing i remember a few years ago help also the teachers hedge funds they almost went bankrupt because of those hedge funds they lost billion dollars and billion dollars of dollars b be very careful about those hedge funds and the main thing i come here today combaus because prudential and they claim that they did acceptance up front is much less than great wall and it is point zero 5 percent interest you've got to be decree very, very careful about those people when they lowered the up front ratios they have much higher
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expense ratios then your investing in they claim it's not their fund other people's fund and you also is a consultant i don't know how faith is this consultant working for the benefit of the city and county of san francisco last time. >> 30 seconds. >> i was here in january i don't have a chance but compared the funded with prudential 250i789 december 20th accepting were 67 percent and metro was 6 seven hundred i can send you through the e-mails - time. >> and i'm saying the performance is below average for example you look at the real estate investment plus the
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highest return funds was 28 point plus and the other zero better to be safe than sorry point one percent ratio that's right was 0.01 percent. >> time. >> so the older funds was - >> welcome. >> hi and my name is david hill i work for the san francisco public library good afternoon, commissioners and commissioner cohen bev says hi i was interested in some of
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the things i can go over here and revehicle sore roses and wiener busting i could do that but it would be cheap so i would but i'll admit i was pulled out by some of the agreements made in defense of investing in hedge funds mr. griffin from local 21 said used the phrase regardless of martha conditions well market conditions are the thing that it is postulated it depends on marketing conditions that is strange it is sort of like a man that leaps off a rooftop and of a 10 story building by the 6 floor says okay. so far
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(laughter). >> at the risk of getting heckled another interesting comment the idea that was it one in $4 are invested in hedge funds and then he cited the 2008 9 financial country and says it could have been prevented by more vigorous hedge funds i'm not a environmentalist or a very interesting person (laughter). >> i just don't understand how something how you can look at that situation and say more you know it's you know if you're going out through to market street and beat someone i've been smoking a lot of crack why
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not come up to my place and play russian routine if you say i'd prefer not to go to a russian routine party will you accept the answer don't knock it until you'll tried it larva. >> it seems like like the board is e vesting from oil to fossil fuels and so on and so forth that it seems like a bad idea to move into cripp tonsillitis thank you for your time and thank you (clapping.) (laughter). >> oh. >> okay. so.
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>> good afternoon everybody i'm elaine i work for mta muni i didn't and san francisco representative of san two one siu i'm here front of the you, you with concerned members and public and employees of the city and county my concern as you've heard wait until the last minute is this i'm afraid with this investment for the simple fact is all of us went through the recession before those money we put into the city and we've working hard are for all families to put sweat and time on it i guess why do we invest our own money we've worked for and this is only
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pertaining to members of the family we've worked for and i wonder if any of you would like to invest our own money you've worked for and think about it what's the outcome of it because right now, we're very certainly not agreeing to my of this why not pass all those people that make a lot of money and exempt the retirement and i's and all of us pay dues and why can't we - why you take all our money who gives us the right to do that i'm here and anger with all of those things we keep going back to this i just wonder and question how much will you guys if you invest
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our money out there tell me i work in a bank before and this happened before i'm not going to let this happen to me and all of us here because this money is not about your money this is our money i've worked for this and i'm tired of this leakage and playing games with our money and retirement all of the us in here put money and time to make san francisco all about and you going to come in here and all of us working here and take it especially you guys you put into this position and helping us and make us understand help us to make our money gain and not to invest it and lose it i