Leonard Muzyn's TVARS Blog

At its March 12, 2021, quarterly meeting, the TVA Retirement System (TVARS) board approved an amendment to Section 3(2) of the TVARS Rules and Regulations that would restrict any individual who is or was a participant in TVA’s Supplemental Executive Retirement Plan (SERP) from being eligible to serve as a director on the TVARS board:     TVA RETIREMENT SYSTEM    NOTICE OF AMENDMENT TO THE     RULES AND REGULATIONS OF THE TVA RETIREMENT SYSTEM (TVARS)     April 12, 2021   At its March 12, 2021, quarterly meeting, the TVA Retirement System Board of Directors (TVARS Board) approved by a 4 to 3 vote an amendment to Section 3(2) of the TVARS Rules and Regulations. This amendment adds a new subsection to Section 3(2) that would restrict any individual who is or was a participant in TVA’s Supplemental Executive Retirement Plan (SERP) from being eligible to serve as a Director on the TVARS Board until it is determined by actuarial valuation that th...

In the recent election for a director vacancy on the TVA Retirement System Board, employees voted to re-elect Samuel J. L. DeLay, senior program manager, Energy Use Technology, Operational Research & Support, Innovation & Research, Chattanooga. His new three-year term will run from Nov. 1, 2020, to Oct. 31, 2023. Of the 2,728 votes cast, DeLay received 1,508 (55.3 percent). Wesley M. Conkle received 660 (24.2 percent); Julia E. Koella received 560 votes (20.5 percent).

Please check your TVA email for your ballot mailed from "TVA Retirement System" on Tuesday September 8th. (Note: Only current employees can vote in this election.)

From:  Delay, Samuel J < sjdelay@tva.gov > Sent:  Monday, June 22, 2020 4:06 PM To:  Delay, Samuel J < sjdelay@tva.gov > Subject:  TVARS Board Nomination – Samuel J. DeLay Folks, I am running for re-election to the TVA Retirement System (TVARS) Board of Directors (term from November 1, 2020 to October 30, 2023). In order to qualify for the TVARS Board Election ballot, I usually ask for petition signatures, in the office, from 25 people.   Please help me qualify for the election. This year, due to COVID 19, and many people not being in the office, the election rules allow emails to substitute for signing the petition. From the election guidelines: Due to many employees working remotely during the COVID-19 pandemic, TVARS will accept nominations  by e-mail   from an employee’s TVA e-mail account  to:   TVARSBoardNomination@tva.gov   To nominate me,  you   need to cut and paste this sub...

I would first like to take this opportunity to wish all TVARS beneficiaries a wonderful Christmas.  All the best in 2020! The following 2020 COLA, interest crediting rates, and IRS contribution limits were reported by TVARS. The following financial update was based on TVA regulatory filings and reporting by Dave Flessner, Business Editor of the Chattanooga Times Free Press.  Cost-of-living adjustment (COLA) for 2020 For 2020, the COLA for eligible retirees and beneficiaries will be 1.54 percent. TVARS Rules and Regulations provide that eligible retirement benefits (pension and supplemental benefits) will receive a COLA based on an inflation measure, which is the Consumer Price Index — All Urban Consumers (CPI-U) — an index maintained by the U.S. Labor Department that measures the price changes in a broad group of various goods and services purchased by consumers. Under TVARS Rules, the COLA is calculated as the percentage change in the average CPI-U for the period of N...

Report from the 7th Director Search Committee – Sam DeLay, Chair Please add this to the minutes for the meeting, June 6, 2019 as item A-6647, or the appropriate number. The committee met on June 5, 2019 and discussed the election progress and the prospects for another round of interviews, currently proposed for July 2019 by the TVARS Executive Pat Brackett. It was recognized that the Board would likely not be able to reach consensus on the candidates to make a selection of the 7th Director and the committee recommends another path for electing the 7th director. The committee recommends modification of Section 3(2)(a) of the Rules and Regulations of the TVA Retirement System to amended to delete the language marked through and to add the language underlined to enable retirees to elect their own representative. As part of the items for this meeting, “Attachment – Description of Instant Runoff Voting” TVARS' election service provider proposed an Instant Runoff process which ...

Next month marks the two-year anniversary of the March 2017 GAO TVARS Report .  The GAO recommended that TVA "take steps to have its retirement system adopt funding rules designed to ensure the pension plan’s full funding."  The GAO went further and recommended using a "closed amortization period" to ensure that the plan is fully funded at the end of the period.  TVARS uses an "open amortization period."  What is the difference to TVA retirees?  $4,360 million according to the GAO: Notice that in both cases, TVA begins by owing the pension $6,000 million and paying $452 million in the first year.  So far, so good.  What do we notice about the payments TVA is required to make as the years go by?  Well, using the "closed amortization period,"  the annual payment remains $452 million.  However, the way TVARS does it, using the "open amortization period," the annual payment is reduced by $3 million to $5 million as each...

The following rates were approved at the December 3, 2018 quarterly TVARS Board meeting per our elected Board members Jim Hovious, Sam DeLay and Mike Belcher.  They are effective January 2019: Retiree COLAs:  2.21% for original, cash balance, and supplemental pension benefits based on 2.46% CPI increase less 0.25%. Current Employee Interest Rates: 6.0% on Cash Balance accounts for those hired before January 1, 1996 based on 6.0% minimum. 4.75% on Cash Balance accounts for those hired on or after January 1, 1996 based on minimum of assumed investment return of 6.75% less 2.0%. 4.75% on fixed annuity accounts based on minimum of assumed investment return of 6.75% less 2.0%.

I served five consecutive three-year terms as an employee-elected director of the TVA Retirement System (TVARS) from November 1, 2003 through October 31, 2018. This blog contains my personal opinions and not official opinions of the full seven member TVARS board or TVA management. I worked very hard during my terms to keep TVA employees and retirees informed of matters that could affect their system and their benefits. I voted and campaigned against the two TVA last minute “take it or leave it” proposals for benefit reductions in 2009 and 2016. These were both approved by 4 to 3 votes without TVARS board deliberations, negotiations, or attempts to form a consensus. I repeatedly proposed proper funding per industry best practices and GAO recommendations, public board meetings, open elections among all retirees for the retiree 7th director position, and rules to keep board members free of conflicts of interest arising from contractual TVA relationships and TVA executive retirement be...

Mike Belcher won the TVARS Board runoff election with more than 55% of the vote. Thank you Mike for running, and thank you everyone who voted! I am sure Mike will represent all of us well.

The TVARS Board has the power to reduce your TVA 401(k) match.  The TVARS Board has twice voted 4-3 to reduce pension benefits.  Reducing your 401(k) match is the obvious next lever to pull. An average of less than one of every three employees voted in the initial election this year for one of the three elected director spots on the TVARS Board.  The runoff election ends October 10th.  See election details here . Please encourage other employees to vote, especially those who have not been with TVA very long and may not realize that the TVARS Board controls the amount of their 401(k) match. It is important to elect someone who will work with Jim Hovious and Sam DeLay to protect your 401(k) benefits.  The term of the current seventh director ends October 31st.  The seventh director has been the fourth and deciding vote in reducing pension benefits.  Per TVARS rules, selecting a new seventh director requires four votes from the other six directors....

Because no candidate received a majority of the votes cast in the initial election that ended September 5, a runoff election will be held between the two candidates who received the greatest number of votes, Michael Belcher and Julia Koella. Belcher received 840, and Koella received 1,227. Other candidates in the initial election and their vote totals were as follows: Robert E. (Eddie) DeBusk II, 431, and Daniel T. Kirk, 469. Click on the names below to view detailed information on the runoff candidates. Michael L. Belcher  – Reactor Unit Operator, TVA Nuclear, Browns Ferry Nuclear Plant Julia E. Koella  – Accounting Policy & Research Specialist, Corporate Accounting, Financial Services, Knoxville Election-America, Inc., an independent election firm, will mail election ballots to employees’ home addresses and will also email voting information to employees at work. Employees will be able to vote online or by phone during the runoff election that runs from Sept...

At the September 12, 2018 TVARS Board meeting, Jim Hovious, Sam DeLay and I continued to push for much needed reforms.  The Board blocked all of our efforts with 4-3 votes.  In every case, the four person majority consisted of the retiree and the three TVA-appointed directors.  The retiree director phoned in for the official meeting, but as has often been the case, did not participate in any Board discussions prior to the official meeting.  The following reforms were either voted down or tabled by the retiree and the three TVA-appointed directors:  Election of the retiree director by all retirees Assure TVARS reaches full funded status per GAO recommendation Public TVARS Board meetings Prohibit the retiree director from TVA business relationships Disqualify any director who participates in TVA’s fully funded Executive Retirement Plan

The TVARS Board has the legal authority to initiate changes in the employee 401(k) match and pension benefits. Per decades old labor agreements, the TVARS Board is structured to give equal representation to labor and management. Of the seven member board of directors, three are employee-elected, three are management-appointed, and the seventh is selected by those six. Per these labor agreements, labor and management do not directly bargain for retirement benefits as long as this structure holds. If the structure is violated, labor has the right to directly negotiate for retirement benefits. TVA is implementing a plan which violates the structure of the TVARS Board with the support of the TVA Retiree Association (TVAR A ), current seventh TVARS Board Director Allen Stokes, and the three management-appointed TVARS Board directors. The TVAR A  is an influential retiree organization supported by management which has no legal authority over the 401(k) match or pension benefits. This p...

Allen Stokes, the retiree TVARS director, will have an opportunity to vote with the three TVARS elected directors on Tuesday to overturn the "term limit" rule . Allen Stokes, with support from someone in TVARA leadership (as evidenced by the May 9, 2018 letter from TVARA President DeWitt Burleson to CEO William Johnson and TVARS Chairman Brian Child ), voted for the term limit rule on June 15, 2018. Why would someone in TVARA leadership ask Allen Stokes to vote for a rule which eliminates the most knowledgeable and well-known champion of TVA retirees from the TVARS Board? Why would Allen Stokes vote for it even if asked? I can at least understand why Tammy Wilson, VP, Treasurer and CRO, Christopher Hinton, VP Compensation & Benefits, and Brian Child, Director of Forecasting & Financial Planning, voted for the "term limit" rule. They are ambitious, want to advance their careers, and do not want to jeopardize that by voting against CEO William Johnson's ...

To:  board@tva.gov July 24, 2018 Mary Margaret Painter TVA Senior Board Services Specialist Ms. Painter, This is a follow-up to my letter of July 20, 2018 . Please inform the TVA Board that I have reluctantly filed a whistleblower complaint against TVA for targeting me for removal from the TVARS Board of directors through passage of the following amendment to Section 3(2) of the TVARS rules: "An individual is eligible to serve as a director of the board (either elected, appointed, or selected) no more than three full 3-year terms. Any partial term less than 3 years for which an individual has been elected, appointed, or selected under the provisions of this section 3(2) for the unexpired portion of a predecessor’s term does not count toward this term limit of three full 3-year terms. Notwithstanding the above, any individual who has already served as a director for three full 3-year terms as of the effective date of this provision will be eligible to continue as a membe...

I asked the TVA Board today to veto the amendment to Section 3(2) of the TVARS rules which disqualifies me from running in this year’s election. Please support my request by emailing the TVA Board at board@tva.gov . Please copy and paste one of the following or write your own: Please veto the amendment to Section 3(2) of the TVARS rules passed by the TVARS Board which unfairly targets Leonard and limits my choices. I would like the opportunity to vote for Leonard. Please veto the amendment to Section 3(2) of the TVARS rules passed by the TVARS Board with a 4-3 vote. TVARS hasn’t had term limits throughout its 79 year history. It shouldn’t adopt them now just to target Leonard! Thank You See my email to the TVA Board here . I tried to give a good overview of what is going on so the TVA Board members might better understand. This could also help you explain to others who are not very familiar with what is happening. Again, thank you all very much.

An agency of the U.S. government, the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA), was accused today of meddling in its employee election for an employee representative on its pension board. The TVA Retirement System (TVARS) Election Committee formally requested TVA's Inspector General to intervene on behalf of TVA employees to stop the attempt to disqualify an employee candidate "after the employee election was underway, throwing the employee election in chaos." TVA and the TVA Retiree Association, "neither of which represent employees, are seeking to change employee elections to deny employees their right to re-elect a long time TVARS board member who most employees know has served TVARS members well." The election committee also asked for funding of independent counsel to review the rule change "passed Ex Post Facto" to "deny both the candidate and the nominating employee’s due process in the TVARS election and should be illegal based on the United St...

Please share with others and consider voting for me The voting period is August 20 - September 5  The TVARS board recently approved a term limit amendment to the rules by a 4-3 vote which attempts to disqualify me. Please do not let the confusion surrounding this amendment undermine the power of your vote. Please vote for me if you would like me to continue working for you. I am qualified to serve. My nominating petitions, signed by many of you, were accepted before this amendment was approved. The timing and effect of the approval of this amendment clearly demonstrate that: It is an ex post facto attempt to nullify my candidacy and remove me from the board with four votes instead of the legally required five. It is in retaliation for my providing information to the GAO team auditing TVA’s finances which clearly demonstrated the need for additional TVARS funding. TVA made an additional $500 million contribution in 2017 following the release of the GAO report to Congress...

The TVARS Board approved a July through August 2018 window during which Cash Balance employees who had less than 10 years of service as of 10/1/16 may elect to transfer their Cash Balance accounts to the 401(k). Cash Balance employees who had 10 or more years of service as of 10/1/16 may elect to receive 401(k) only benefits going forward. If they elect to receive 401(k) only benefits going forward, they may also elect to transfer their Cash Balance account to the 401(k). Please be careful and understand all that you are giving up if you make any of these elections. They are completely voluntary. No changes will be made if you do nothing. Look for a letter from Fidelity soon to explain this in more detail. Please study it carefully. Two different letters will be sent. One to those who had less than 10 years, and another to those who had 10 or more years. If you choose to make any changes, they will become effective October 1, 2018. I have put together below a list of frequen...