Santa Monica City Employees

“There are ten trustees, all of whom are selected by the members of the participating labor organizations. In the event of early termination of appointment, resignation, or death of a trustee, the board of directors of the labor organization shall appoint a successor trustee for the remainder of that term. The appointment of a trustee may be terminated, at any time, by the entity which originally made the appointment, according to such entity's internal rules, procedures or practices.”

“The contract administrator reviews the form 990 for completeness and accuracy. Trustees also review the form for completeness and accuracy before signing and filing with the irs.”

“Trustees complete a written disclosure of potential conflicts of interest and update that disclosure annually, if needed.”

“The plan has no employees and members of the governing body receive no compensation.”

“The plan documents, other governing documents, and financial statements are maintained at the plan administrator's office and are available upon request.”

“Explanation to irs for refusing to disclose salary information: "the trust does not have information regarding the compensation received by the trustees from the city of santa monica. Five out of the nine members of the board of trustees are paid city employees; three trustees are retired former employees of the city who do not receive compensation from the city; one union officer trustee does not receive compensation from the city. The non-retired, non-union trustees are employed by the city of santa monica and receive all their compensation solely connected to their duties as city employees. Salary information for all california public employees is available on the state controller's website and includes salary information for all non-retired, non-union members of the board of trustees. In their role as trustees, they are fiduciaries and subject to legal prohibitions against self-dealing. They serve on a volunteer basis as trust fiduciaries; they do not receive any additional compensation from the city of santa monica or any other party for their services on the board of trustees. Further, the trust has a conflict of interest policy, which requires trustees to disclose any financial arrangements that would create a conflict of interest. Note also that the disclosure of compensation requested on the form 990 would cause additional administrative burden by requiring the trust to collect this information annually, since the trustees' compensation as city employees varies from year to year, and from trustee to trustee. Finally, and very importantly, the form 990 is public information. It is likely that requiring the disclosure of specific individual compensation by name will dissuade city employees from volunteering to serve on the board. The trust would then have to spend trust assets to hire a professional trustee. Please contact the trust office if you would like further information, and/or would like to discuss this further. The trustees want to be cooperative with the irs, but requesting this compensation information is problematic for the reasons stated above."”

“The santa monica city employees coalition benefit trust was established by agreement between the santa monica employees coalition and the city of santa monica for the purpose of funding a retiree health insurance plan for eligible participants.”