Stocks higher, what about county's retirement fund?

Now that the stock market is higher than it's been since 2007, how is the Stanislaus County Employees Retirement Association doing? There were front page stories when the county took money away from the retirees and employees to pay its own bills, claiming the unfunded liability caused by the stock market collapse made the employer contributions so much higher when the fund lost 40 percent of its value in 2009.

Well, what's the status now? The fund gained more than it lost since then. Where's the front page story about how much the unfunded liability has lowered? Where's the Jim DeMartini quote about how he overreacted to a short-term incident in a long-term plan?

MICHAEL CAINE

Modesto

Editor's Note: We asked Rick Santos, executive director of StanCERA, for an update on the fund. His reply:• StanCERA assets as of June 30, 2012, stood at $1.39 billion. On June 30, 2009, the fund stood at $1.10 billion and on June 30, 2007, StanCERA's assets were valued at $1.46 billion. So while the fund has performed considerably well since the market lows of 2009, we are still below our highs of 2007.

• Additionally, assets on hand as a percentage of the benefits earned have increased from about 59 percent on June 30, 2009, to 78 percent on June 30, 2011. This still leaves a funding gap of around 22 percent of the benefits earned as of our most recent valuation date.