Mendocino County Employees Retirement Association

Introduction

Most counties in California participate in the State-wide California Public Employees Retirement System (CalPERS). Twenty one counties have their own independent (non-CalPERS) retirement systems. The Mendocino County Employees Retirement Association (MCERA) is the smallest of these 21. MCERA has an independent Board of Directors - some chosen by the County, some by employees.

MCERA has had a very significant impact in the creation of the County of Mendocino's debt. The impact has been in two areas:

• Unfunded Pension Obligations
• Retiree Healthcare Payments

This general section about MCERA is a supplement to the "Mendo County Debt" section (see the menu above). That section reviews the main sources of the County's debt, what went wrong, and what its impact is. The purpose of this MCERA section is to provide more detail about certain aspects of MCERA to "back up" the larger story told in the County Debt section.