Cast your vote today for SERS board candidates
State employees: Don’t let the holiday weekend catch you off guard! If you haven’t already sent in your SERS ballot, make sure to mail it today to meet the May 31 deadline and ensure your vote gets counted. Keep reading for more information on the AFSCME-endorsed candidates.
A mail-ballot election for positions on the State Employees Retirement System (SERS) board of trustees is now underway. AFSCME recommends that state employees support David Morris, Pat Ousley and Cameron Watson, outspoken defenders of the pension benefits state employees were promised and earned.
If you are a state employee enrolled in SERS, you should have already received your ballot earlier this month. Ballots must be received by SERS by May 30, so be sure to mail yours back right away!
At a time when public employee pensions are under unrelenting assault from politicians of every political stripe, state employees need to make sure their voices are heard on the SERS board.
David Morris has been a member of the SERS Board of Trustees since 2009. A Social Service Program Planner III in the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services, he has 32 years of service with the State of Illinois. He has served as the president of AFSCME Local 805 for more than 10 years and is a member of the AFSCME Council 31 Executive Board.
Morris serves with the AFL-CIO as a Union Counselor for dislocated workers and others in need. He is active in his community, serving on the United Way committee that recommends allocations for local service agencies.
As SERS trustee, Morris has been a firm advocate for protecting the gains that state employees have made and for assuring full funding of the pension system. He believes it is essential to preserve the retirement security that state employees have worked so hard to secure.
Patricia Ousley has been a member of the SERS Board of Trustees since 2009. She has worked for the Illinois Department of Employment Security for nearly 40 years, most recently as an Unemployment Insurance Revenue Analyst. She was president of Local 1006 and serves on the AFSCME Council 31 Executive Board.
Ousley is active in her community, serving as a trustee at her church, and as a vice president of Visionary Friends, a nonprofit group that works with inner-city schools in Chicago. The Chicago Federation of Labor named her its 2012 Woman of the Year.
As SERS trustee, Ousley remains a staunch advocate for the interests of state employees on all matters before the board. She is a strong voice for protecting the gains state employees have made and for full funding for the SERS in order to ensure the system’s fiscal stability.
Cameron Watson is a Correctional Officer at Jacksonville Correctional Center with 18 years’ service to the people of the State of Illinois. He was the longtime president of Local 3549 and serves on the AFSCME Council 31 Executive Board.
Watson is a veteran of the U.S. Army and serves as a volunteer firefighter and emergency medical technician in his community.