The Municipal Employees' Retirement System (MERS) is holding its 2024 annual conference in Grand Rapids on October 10-11, 2024. Per the MERS plan document, the governing body of each participating municipality shall certify the names of two delegates to the annual meeting. One delegate shall be a member who is an officer of the participating municipality, selected by the governing body of the participating municipality. The other delegate shall be a member who is not an officer of the participating municipality, elected by the member employees of the participating municipality. The election shall be by secret ballot and shall be conducted by an officer of the participating municipality. The election shall be conducted in a manner that affords each member employee an opportunity to vote.

The City Manager recommends that the City Commission appoint Deputy City Manager Sean Hobbins as the Officer Delegate, and Chief Financial Officer Mary Schlicht as the Alternate Delegate. The Alternate Delegate will attend the meeting in the event the appointed Officer Delegate is unable to attend.

The member employees were given an opportunity to nominate any potential employee delegates to be put on a ballot for an election. This year we only had one interested employee and therefore did not hold an election. The employee delegate to attend the MERS annual conference will be Jennifer Jakubowski, Administrative Assistant in the Fire Department and the Alternate will be Tim Raich, Payroll and Pension Specialist from the Human Resources Department.