Gov. Brown appoints PERS liability task force

Governor Kate Brown on Wednesday appointed seven Oregonians to a task force to address the Public Employees Retirement System’s (PERS) unfunded actuarial liability. The task force is charged with identifying and ranking options for reducing the PERS liability by $5 billion.

“Oregon must keep its promise to retirees, but we must also reduce the legacy costs that are cutting into our public employers’ bottom line,” said Governor Brown. “I expect the PERS UAL Task Force to transparently evaluate solutions that reduce payments from employers to fund the retirement system. As I’ve said before, this is going to be uncomfortable, but we must provide policymakers with clear options for reducing the unfunded liability.”

The task force will hold several public meetings to evaluate solutions beginning in July and will issue a final report to Governor Brown by November 1 , 2017. In examining solutions to reduce the PERS liability, the task force will focus on:

State assets and ongoing concerns. Dedication of one-time and unexpected funds coming to the state. Compelling local employers to dedicate one-time and unexpected funds to buying down their PERS liability.

Governor Brown has directed the task force to not consider privatizing prisons, privatizing state parks, or selling state forests.

Members of the PERS UAL Task Force are:

Donald W. Blair
Blair served as Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer at NIKE for 16 years and held financial management positions at PepsiCo and Deloitte. Blair has also served on the Oregon State Board of Higher Education and on the board and executive committee of Portland Center Stage. Blair holds a Bachelor of Science in economics and an MBA from the Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania.

Monica Enand
As Chief Executive Officer and founder of Portland-based tech company Zapproved, Enand has led the cloud-based software provider in developing a new way for corporate legal departments to respond to litigation while mitigating risk and reducing costs. Prior to founding Zapproved, Enand spent more than 15 years with blue-chip companies such as Intel and IBM. Additionally, Enand serves on the board of the Technology Association of Oregon as well as on the board of Auth0. Monica holds a B.S. in computer engineering from Carnegie Mellon University and an M.B.A. from the University of Portland.

Lawrence J. Furnstahl
Furnstahl is Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of Oregon Health & Science University. Before joining OHSU in January 2011 , Furnstahl served as Chief Financial and Strategy Officer for the University of Chicago Medical Center and Biological Sciences Division, and University Vice President for Financial Planning for Science; Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer for UCSF Stanford Health Care; Vice President and Chief Financial Officer for the University of Chicago; and Vice President & Treasurer and Senior Executive, Patient Services for the University of Chicago Hospitals. In 2015, Governor Brown appointed him to the Oregon Public Employees Retirement System Board. Furnstahl is a graduate of the College of the University of Chicago, where he studied economics.

Bob Livingston
Livingston has served for 25 years in the Salem Fire Department as a Firefighter, Engineer, Captain and is currently in the rank of Battalion Chief. For the past 20 years, Livingston has also served Oregon State Fire Fighters Council as Legislative Director and President. Livingston is the current Vice President of Oregon AFL-CIO; past member of the state Public Safety Standards and Training board; and former member of the Governor’s Fire Service Policy Council. Livingston holds a B.A. of Public Administration from San Diego State University; an A.A. in emergency medical services from Umpqua Community College; and a Masters of Public Administration from Portland State University.

Rick Miller
Rick Miller is the founder and chairman of the board of the Avamere Group, a senior care and housing provider. Miller is also the co-founder of Rogue Venture Partners, a private equity firm that provides funding and mentoring to entrepreneurs in Oregon. A seventh-generation Oregonian, Miller graduated from the University of Oregon and earned an MBA from Portland State University. He serves on the Board of Trustees of Portland State University and on the Oregon Investment Council.

Cory Streisinger
Streisinger is a former director of the Department of Consumer and Business Services, Oregon’s financial regulatory and consumer protection agency. A lawyer by background, she clerked at the U.S. Supreme Court before joining Portland law firm Lindsay Hart Neil & Weigler. She served as legal counsel to Governor Neil Goldschimdt, and then as general counsel to the Port of Portland before her appointment to head DCBS. Now retired, Streisinger is on the board of the Oregon Retirement Savings Plan (OregonSaves) and is active in a number of nonprofit organizations.

Charles Wilhoite
Wilhoite serves as Managing Director with Willamette Management Associates, a national financial, forensic, and economic analysis consulting firm. He is also the leader of the firm’s tax-exempt entity and health care services practice. Wilhoite also serves on the Board of Directors for the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco – Portland Branch; the Portland Business Alliance; Meyer Memorial Trust as chairman; Legacy Health; PacificSource Health Plans; Metal Toad Media; the U.S. Bank of Oregon; and The Nature Conservancy as vice chairman.

The appointments drew quick fire from one Republican state lawmaker:

State Sen. Dennis Linthicum, R-Klamath Falls, said he was appalled: “The governor’s pernicious PERS task force is just another act in a drawn-out political drama to push false choices, to peddle false narratives and to kick the can down the road. Oregonians should be appalled that instead of working with the Legislature to address real issues with real solutions, that the governor is cowering behind a so-called task force that will do nothing but perpetuate the problems plaguing Oregon’s financial system. Millennials should be outraged, and so too should retirees who are being tricked into thinking any PERS reforms will hurt them, when the opposite is true. If we do not reform PERS now and do everything we can to diffuse the ticking PERS bomb, we will see our credit downgraded. It seems as though the governor is betting our state’s credit rating on her re-election efforts and that is not only wrong it is dangerous.”