Seeking Clout At CalPERS

San Francisco

Priya Sara Mathur, a member of Local 3993 (Council 57), is running for a seat on the board of the California Public Employee Retirement System (CalPERS), the nation's largest public pension fund.

Mathur, a principal financial analyst for the San Francisco Bay Area Rapid Transit System (BART), is one of four candidates seeking to replace Michael Flaherman — another member of Local 3993 — who is retiring from the board after serving two terms.

The 13-member CalPERS board oversees a $149-billion pension system that provides retirement and health benefit services to more than 1.3 million state workers. Mathur is running for the public-agency seat, which represents about 280,000 current and former public employees. They will vote by mail-in ballot during October and November.

Because of its size, CalPERS' investment decisions can have an impact on markets around the world. That, says Mathur, is why someone with her economics background and concern for workers' interests should be a board member.

"My first responsibility, if elected, is to make sure retirement funds of workers and retirees are protected — and optimized. Someone like me, involved in labor, is more likely to care about the needs of regular, everyday working people."

Among her concerns is CalPERS' plan to increase health insurance costs while eliminating several HMO options in an effort to reduce expenses. "We have to figure out other ways to deal with this problem," she declares. Mathur is also closely watching CalPERS' lawsuit to recover $268 million in losses from WorldCom executives and the major underwriters of WorldCom bonds issued in 2001. CalPERS, she says, must be seen as a force to be reckoned with by the companies it invests in.

AFSCME members serve on pension-fund boards in about a dozen states and cities, including California, Ohio, Washington state and New York City. Nationwide, members have a total of $1 trillion in pension assets invested with 150 retirement systems.