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0 St. Paul Pioneer. Press Tunday, Auguri 28, 19U * 5 A Intense fight expected for pension fund post By Steven Thomma Allers, president of Local 284 of and Bill Gardner the School Service Employees In. Simi( ✓titters lernational, is expected to seek the The executive director of Minne- 171,000•a•year post being vacated sota's largest public pension fund by Mclaren. several board mem• is expected to resign today, and a ppoower play for control of the 12 hers said Mrlaren plans to take a �h with the Cahlomia Teachers 6illioo account spilled over into an etlremeol Association m October. angry confrontation Monday night in a St. Paul hotel. On Monday night, Allersmet be. bind closed doors with eight retire - We Mclaren's expected depot• ment associaUon board members described as loyal to him. The ture from the Public Employees Retirement Association clears the eight represent a majority of the way for controversial union execu- 15-member board, scheduled to ac- five John Allers to consohdate his cept Mclaren's resignation today. powerful influence over the Two members of the minority group's board o1 directors. Please see Pension- 5A Pension.* Big fight expected Continued from Page 1A bloc on the board, Morris Anderson and Richard Patterson, learned of the gathering at the Granada Roy. ale Hometel and attempted to en- ter it. They said they thought the meeting with Allers and Mclareo was called to plan Allers' appoint• ment and that the unannounced meeting violated the state's Open Meeting law. "Do you want to leave or do we call the police and have you thrown out?" Allers asked Anderson and Patterson, who were accompanied by their attorney and a reporter for the St. Paul Pioneer Press and Dispatch. Allers insisted the meeting was unrelated to business of the Public Employees Retirement Associa- tion, despite the presence of associ- ation stsUonery in front of him. Patterson and Anderson later said they had seen what appeared to be a resoiutlon naming Allen to re- place MclArea. "Thu has nothing to do with PERA," Allen told the two bard member. "its a private meeting to discuss matters relating to John Allers." Patterson, Anderson, their attor• Bey and the reporter eventually left the meeting when asked to do so by a hotel employee. The meet• in4 broke up shortly afterward. 'He called his eight supporters together sad told them what their marching orders were annciating Mr. Allers," Patterson said later. Andersoo said be would attend today's meeting "with a lawsuit in hand" and that be would seek a court order blocking Allers' ap pointment if it is carried out by the board. He said be would charge that al.rs don no, unmet quaUfica- lions set for the position. He also suggested he would accuse the board of reaching the decision sub- sequent to an illegally closed meet. ing. When informed of the Monday gathering, Jon Murphy, the special assistant attorney general assigned to the board, said, "It sounds like it would be a violation" of the Open Meeting Law. "Anytime two public officials get together to talk about public business, it should be an open meeting," Murphy said. He said, however, he did not know what was discussed at the meeting. The board's Budget and Personnel Committee normally meets the night before a regular board meeting. Murphy said, but this mooth's committee meeting was canceled. Mclaren said he was invited by Allers to stop at an informal dinner meeting so those present could wish him well in his new job. Al. (bough he arrived late, he said no food was served. He was only pres. ent for 10 minutes before Patter- son and Anderson entered, McGren said, and no retirement association business was discussed. "I didn't feel they) were plotting against the world," McLareo said. John R. Finnegan, vice president/editor of the Pioneer Press and Dispatch, said officials of the oewspapers would consider Iii"ng a civil lawsuit challenging Mon day nday right meeting as a vlo• lotion of the Open Meeting law. The employees' association rep resents 100,000 working public em- ployacs in Kmaesola and 20,000 retired employees. It oversees ac• counting, sets benefits and issues pension checks. But the associaUoo does not control lbe investment of its 12 billion in hods. That task is reserved by state law for the State Investment Board, a group comprising Gov. Rudy Pe ich and other elected of. ficials. The association has criU• cited the board's iovestments and bas attempted to wrest control. Allers ran unsuccessfully for the state Senate in 1980 and for state treasurer in 1982. He was appointed to the PERA board in 1977 when the Legislature decided that one seat should go to a labor representative. Lawmakers changed the law in 1979, saying the labor seat should go to the the largest statewide labor organiza- tion. Ile Minnesota AFLeCIO, the largest statewide labor group, wanted the seal. But the retire• meot association board kept Allen in place. A court order upheld that decision uoW 1982, when he was unseated. Although Allers no longer sits on the board. be Influences the votes of the eight members he met with Monday iugbt, according to Patter. too, Anderson and labor sources. Allen broke with other labor leaden In 1071 and supported Independent -Republica Al QWe in his successful campaign to unseat Democratic -Farmer -Labor Gov. Rudy Perpicb.