Late last year, the CRS got a new Executive Director, Mike Barnhill. In an effort to get to know him, CMERA recently asked him questions about himself and his plans. Below you can see his replies. (This is the complete, unedited version of the article that appears in CMERA’s Spring 2022 Newsletter.)
CMERA: Could you provide us a brief description of yourself including your experiences and the qualities that you have that are assets for you as the new Executive Director of the CRS?
CRS Director Barnhill: I grew up in Pittsburgh and went to college in Ohio (College of Wooster, 1986). I’m a lawyer by training (Cornell Law School, 1993) and have spent most of my career working for the State of Alaska (23 yrs) in a variety of roles including Assistant Attorney General, Deputy Commissioner for the Departments of Administration and Revenue, Investment Officer, as well as Policy Director for the Office of Management & Budget. For a brief period of time, I was Acting Commissioner of the Department of Revenue, and with that position I served as Trustee for the Alaska Retirement Management Board, as well as Trustee for the Alaska Permanent Fund Corporation. In these various positions I served in every functional area of the Alaska PERS and TRS retirement systems, including legal, benefits, health administration, investment, and trustee.
Bottom line: I love public pension system administration! I find every aspect of it interesting, challenging and enjoyable. It has and will continue to provide a lifetime of learning and growth opportunities along with a meaningful and important mission: provide vital services to our active and retired public servants and assist them in securing a successful retirement.
CRS is a substantially smaller system than Alaska PERS/TRS, but here I get the opportunity to be involved in all aspects of pension administration on a daily/weekly basis, and I am very happy to have that opportunity and be in service to our members.
CMERA: We realize you have been in this position for a short period of time, but from what you have seen during that time can you tell us what are the CRS’s greatest strengths as well as most concerning weaknesses?
Barnhill: The greatest strengths of CRS are its trustees and staff. This is a group of people who are committed to the mission of CRS and work very hard to see it realized. I like to say that all public pension systems have to do the same things in order to achieve their missions, regardless of their size. The Alaska systems are about 10x as large as CRS both in terms of members and staff. So, I tell folks here that we are doing miracles every day with a staff of 12!
The corollary to having a small staff, is that CRS has not recently had sufficient staff to be proactive with member education. At the March meeting, the Board approved our request to add a Member Counselor position. This position will be responsible for conducting member education sessions, as well as pro-active member outreach, including one-on-one counseling sessions and going to various work-sites to do member outreach. Retirement is a complicated and sometimes stressful transition for many people. Our goal is to proactively provide the education, information and resources that our members need to achieve a successful retirement. Soon we’ll be posting this position–we’ll be looking for someone with a strong customer service background, with an empathetic ear who just loves the subject area of retirement and helping people to prepare for and make this transition. Please spread the word!
CMERA: What to want to accomplish during your first year in office?
Barnhill: One of the first things I worked on with the Board was the development of a strategic plan with goals and objectives for CY2022, but also a list of longer term objectives. The Board approved that plan at its March meeting. Having a documented list of both short and long term objectives helps keep us all on the same page, and working together to move the system forward. Here’s the approved list for CY2022, along with the status of each item (click link below to view):
CMERA: Customer service is very important to retirees who have questions and concerns. In the most recent past most retirees have complained about customer services in CRS lacking in many ways. How do you plan to improve CRS customer services?
Barnhill: Customer service is super important and forms the core of the Department’s values statement (“…we constantly strive to deliver excellent customer service by providing timely, accurate, and useful information in a courteous and professional manner.”). What I have observed in my time here is staff who care deeply about the mission of CRS and who are very committed to its success. Note, CRS doesn’t have staff dedicated to a call center, which is common in many retirement systems. Instead, our operations staff are basically doing double duty: pension operations plus call center. As I heard in one of our education sessions, “there are 10,000 members and only 10 of us CRS staff, so please be patient!”
As noted, retirement is a complex process in the best of circumstances, and the CRS probably has more than its share of complexity. For the average layperson, it may be difficult to understand the benefits that are available to them, and what steps they need to take to prepare in advance for a successful retirement. Possibly a root cause of past member experiences that were disappointing has been the gap in our member counseling staffing, which the Board has now addressed as discussed above. One of our goals is to address that complexity head on by pro-actively providing education, resources, and counseling to members.
I am also continuing to review how we staff our member-facing functions (phones, front desk, correspondence), and I may have more recommendations for the Board’s consideration later.
CMERA: Are you willing to work with CMERA to help retirees understand their benefits and resolve problems, so that they have their optimal retirements?
Barnhill: Yes, 100%. My goal is to continue helping this system move forward to serve its members and help them achieve a successful retirement.
CMERA: Are you aware of the many outstanding issues related to the CSA that are currently in court? We would also like to note that there are other issues that have not been submitted to court, but are waiting for a resolution of the first group of issues to be resolved.
Barnhill: I think I am aware of all or nearly all of the outstanding CSA issues, and either have or can provide recommendations on pathways for resolution. In this regard, I see my role as a semi-neutral “technocrat” that can offer ideas and processes to help the parties resolve outstanding issues so that the system can successfully function and our members achieve their retirement goals.
As a lawyer who loves all things pension, CRS is an interesting opportunity for me because it functionally operates under the supervision of the federal district court. I don’t know if there are any other systems like this in the country. But my goal is the same: find a way for the system to operate, resolve issues and thrive under whatever governance system is in place.