Deals and People July 18, 2013

Mercer Names Partner for Pittsburgh, Cleveland Markets

July 18, 2013 (PLANSPONSOR.com) – Tracy Stough Grajewski has joined consulting firm Mercer as partner and senior client manager for its Pittsburgh and Cleveland markets.
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Grajewski will be responsible for growing and strengthening client relationships in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and Cleveland, Ohio, as well as throughout the Midwest market. She will be based in Pittsburgh and report to Scott Kiper, Mercer’s office leader for Pittsburgh and Cleveland.

“Tracy brings a unique blend of client management and corporate human resource insights and knowledge gained at leading global organizations. Leveraging this experience will greatly help Mercer clients in Pittsburgh and Cleveland improve their HR capabilities and achieve their business objectives,” said Sue Gilbert, Mercer senior partner and Midwest market leader.

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Grajewski has more than 25 years of experience, including client management and corporate human resources leadership roles of increasing responsibility. She joins Mercer from Highmark, where she served as vice president, Human Resources Operations. Prior to Highmark, she held a number of HR leadership positions at Merck, including: senior director/HR business partner, Merck Manufacturing Division; senior director, HR Shared Services and Operations; and senior director, Corporate Staffing. She began her career at CoreStates Financial Corporation.

Grajewski holds a Bachelor of Science in marketing and Spanish from Juniata College (Huntington, Pennsylvania) and a Master of Business Administration with a concentration in human resources management from Syracuse University School of Management.

Administration July 18, 2013

Pension Systems Oppose Detroit's Bankruptcy

July 18, 2013 (PLANSPONSOR.com) – Detroit city pension systems have filed lawsuits against Michigan’s governor and the city’s emergency manager.
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According to news reports, Detroit filed for Chapter 9 bankruptcy–the largest municipal bankruptcy filing in the nation’s history in terms of debt. But, prior to the filing, the General Retirement System and the Police and Fire Retirement System sued Governor Rick Snyder and Emergency Manager Kevyn Orr to prevent it. Orr has proposed to restructure Detroit’s debt and cut the pension benefits of thousands of city employees.

The lawsuit asked the Ingham County Circuit Court to prevent Snyder from authorizing Orr to carry out the bankruptcy, contending that the resulting pension cuts would violate the retirees’ right to a pension, as guaranteed under Michigan’s state constitution. Now, with the filing already done, there is a 30- to 90-day period for determining whether the city is eligible for Chapter 9 protection and determining how many claimants might compete for the limited resources the city has.

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The bankruptcy petition seeks protection from creditors and unions that are renegotiating $18.5 billion in debt and other liabilities.

According to the news reports, Orr has not specified how pensions would be cut under his restructuring proposal. He and his consultants are in discussions with the boards of the two pension systems about the potential cuts.

Last month, Orr initiated investigations of the two pension systems to look into charges of possible fraud, corruption and waste (see "Detroit Pension Funds Being Investigated").

Orr has also had a commission reviewing whether the pension systems are underfunded and by how much, the news reports said. If the systems are less than 80% funded, Orr currently has the power to remove the boards of the pension systems and to have the Michigan state treasurer appoint a trustee.

The pension systems have combined assets of more than $5 billion and represent more than 30,000 active and retired city workers.

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