President's Message

Greetings ARHME members and supporters:

First, I hope this message finds everyone well. Things have finally been slowly returning to normal after dealing with Covid for the past couple of years. Not a lot has been happening on the pension front since the changes adopted legislatively in 2017, though some it seems will never give up and continue to advocate for more changes to the City’s pension plans. The mayor did recently enact some changes to the City’s health insurance program to reduce costs to the City going forward, but none directly affected current retirees. These changes, as noted on ARHME’s website home page, will however affect current and future active City employees. ARHME will continue to monitor and respond to any proposed changes that would impact our pension or health benefits. ARHME, because of Covid and its accompanying precautions, has for the past couple of years deferred personal face-to-face contact with our elected and appointed officials. The Board, however, will soon be resuming this very important aspect of our activities, to enhance our visibility and the awareness of ARHME and its members among these officials. This is extremely important as this is the best way to make aware and communicate to these officials any concerns or issues that we may have. Finally, I want to talk about ARHME. From that date in 2007 at our first meeting with 20 present, we now have a membership of nearly 1,000 members. I know I have said this before, and that I will say it again, but it is everyone's responsibility to help continue to grow our membership. This is what gives power to our voice, to make sure that our concerns are listened to and heard by those in positions to affect our pensions and benefits. The power of our voice increases as our membership numbers increase. And please consider joining ARHME PAC as a contributor. The PAC enables ARHME to support those running for elected office that understand our concerns and support retirees. If you aren't currently making a voluntary contribution to ARHME PAC, please consider doing so today. It's your pension and benefits that we are all working to protect. The form to start your contribution can be obtained by going to our website, ARHME.org, and at the bottom of the Home page click on contribute.

Respectfully,

George H. Bravenec

PresidentAssociation of Retired Houston Municipal Employees