PENSION FUND INQUIRY*

1. You have been working for several years as the assistant to Mr. Sven Cache, the
Chief Financial Officer of the city of Minneapolis. Among your many duties is to
write many of his communications for his signature, which in the best-case scenario
means that you write it and he signs it with his autopen. The worst-case scenario is
that you write it, he suggests changes, you write it again, he suggests more changes
and so forth until finally it’s time for the autopen--usually around suppertime. When
the mayor summons him to a meeting about potential abuses of the city’s pension
funds for fire, police, laborers, and municipal employees, you go along.

2. The meeting comes in response to a joint investigation by the Minneapolis Star

and Tribune and WCCO TV about union officials getting inflated city pensions from
the municipal plan based on their union salaries. The investigation highlighted labor
leaders who retired from city jobs and landed six-figure city pensions — and in some
cases received credit toward a second or even third pension from their unions. Some
city pension fund officials were allegedly using a charitable interpretation of state law
to allow union leaders to participate in both city pension plans and union pension
plans, despite a state law aimed at preventing double dipping.

3. The investigation found that many of the labor leaders who are receiving six-figure
city pensions had been on extended leaves of absences from city jobs. The length of
the average union leave according to city employment data is about eight years, while
nearly a third have been on leave for ten years or more, according to the media’s
analysis. One union leader who is receiving a $160,000 city pension had been on a
leave of absence for a dozen years since he retired from the city.

4. The mayor doesn’t look very happy when she enters the conference room with her
aide and advisors. She’s conferred with her advisors and Mr. Cache over the last few
days via telephone, trying to come up with the best approach for handling this
embarrassing and inexcusable corruption scandal that long predated his election.
Indeed, he raced as a reformer. After everybody has finished exchanging pleasantries
and taken a seat, the meeting begins.

5. Mayor: While we can’t be sure that the media has everything right, there sure as
hell is enough there to look suspicious, and I’m determined to get to the bottom of it.
We take these allegations very seriously.

6. Cache: Should I phone all the heads of the pension funds and grill them?

7. Mayor: No, no, this calls for a more formal approach and one that we can
document since we’ll have to let the press know what we’re doing. I want you to
send inquiry letters to each of them by the end of the week. We want you to have
each of the fund managers to conduct a review and provide us with information by the
end of the month.

8. Aide: Yes, ask each of them how they interpret state law regarding union officials'
city pensions and if they know personally about potential abuses of the pension
system. Don’t be accusatory, though, since they’re just allegations at this point.
9. Mayor: The fact is, we have a fiduciary duty to be vigilant stewards of taxpayer
dollars and our employees' pensions, and we want to fully understand the issues. If
they’ve been reading the paper or watching WCCO, they’re certainly expecting to
hear from us. You don’t need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows.

10. Cache: Along those lines, I also think it would be prudent to seek the specific
names and union affiliations of those who are on a leave of absence from the city to
work for labor organizations.

11. Mayor: And their total contributions to their city pensions, not just the tallies but
their annual amounts.

12. Advisor: Wouldn’t we also want to know the names of any other funds that may
provide pension benefits to the union leaders, especially given all the double dippers?

13. Cache: Certainly, and they ought to know that as a trustee of the city’s pension
funds, I have every right to get that information. I’ll also request information on the
benefits these union leaders stand to receive just from the city funds. No wonder our
city’s practically broke.

14. Mayor: Once we get that information, we’ll consider our options. If there’s a
way to recover some of the funds, alter the plans, or prosecute the offenders, we’ll do
it. But for now, we just want the information. Tell them we’ll keep their answers in
confidence but only to a point--if our attorneys deem the public has a right to know,
we’ll have to release the information at some juncture.

Directions: Though this letter would go to all four heads, just send this inquiry to Mr. Morgan Neevis,
Executive Director of the Police Fund. The address is 350 S 5th street, Minneapolis, Minnesota,
55415. Give your address or fake one as the return address. Stick to the facts you’ve been given.
Use Word’s Contemporary Letter format. Put City of Minneapolis t in the banner and your name in
Cache’s slot even though the letter is technically for his signature, which means that even though you
might have done the writing, your boss has signed off on it and is actually sending it.

Sincerely,


Your name


Chief Financial Officer


Here’s what I’ll be looking for:

- The use of the inquiry format

- A clear, unequivocal bottom line and awareness of audience with appropriate

style and tone for official city correspondence

- Effective organization and development of your ideas

- A high impact design easy to navigate (Be sure to review this practice exercise!)
- Accuracy in the facts and in the grammar, spelling, punctuation, and mechanics
(* This case draws from a Chicago Tribune article in October, 2011.