A Busy and Informative Spring Luncheon

Almost 70 ACREA retirees dined on delicious Mexican food and listened to presentations from -

• County Manager Mark Schwartz who took questions and talked about the challenge of vacancy rates of commercial properties in Arlington. He also talked about retiree health insurance costs and the County’s contributions.
  
  And

• Charlie Sabatino who is a volunteer with the County’s Agency on Aging and the Virginia Insurance Counseling and Assistance Program (VICAP) He explained that there are approximately 9 plans available to retirees living in Arlington each with different benefits. VICAP volunteers, like Charlie, are state certified and provide free and unbiased Medicare Counseling.

Details can be found in the Summer 2026 ACREA Newsletter

Spring Luncheon = Success

Over 60 retirees attended the May 7, 2024 luncheon (and 12 joined in virtually). A tasty lunch was cooked by member Gregg Kurasz and his wife Rae.

Attendees received updates by County Board Chair Libby Garvey, Deputy County Manager Shannon Flannigan-Watson, and Retirement System Director Susie Ardeshir.

Our next luncheon is scheduled for Tuesday, October 1, 2024.

The Fall 2023 Newsletter is Here and with the past years newsletters in the newsletter section.

The ACREA Fall Luncheon, October 3, 2023 

The luncheon was a success on a beautiful fall day.  There were about 50 members attending and several guests and speakers. 

The fall luncheon offered a new feature of question-and-answer tables where representatives from Human Resources, VOYA, and the Retirement Office sat and spoke with ACREA members who stopped by. It was also the third consecutive luncheon that offered a virtual attendance option for those unable to attend in person.

Attendees at the fall luncheon enjoyed a very thorough presentation on avoiding scams and fraud by Corporal Juan Pablo Montoya of the Arlington County Police Department. Corporal Montoya emphasized repeatedly the importance of never giving personal information, such as name and address, as well as Social Security number, credit card, or bank account numbers, to strangers who call, and also stressed that this information should never be posted online. Stop and think before responding to unknown callers or callers purporting to be someone that they may not be. Normally just hang up. But if you have some idea that the call might be valid, hang up, look online to find the company or organization the caller mentioned, and then call the number found online to check out the validity of the call. If the caller claims to be someone you know in a dire situation, needing money right away, hang up and call the person back at a number you have for that person to verify the situation. To view the entire presentation online, click here.

Lynn Porfiri, Chief of Staff to County Manager Mark Schwartz, gave a very interesting presentation highlighting important projects being done by each county department and mentioned awards won by various departments.  She made special mention that the Police Department won three awards recently, including a very prestigious one from the Department of Justice. She also noted that many departments are short-staffed, and recruitment is currently a major activity in most county departments. Also of note, the Manager’s Office has hired a Racial Equity Officer and is examining issues in the county through a racial lens to see how race impacts many areas of community life.

The annual ACREA business meeting at the end of the luncheon was conducted by ACREA Vice Chair Lisa Grandle. She introduced the current ACREA Board Members and conducted the election of a new member, Bob Tilman. There was also a vote on the proposed by-laws change that was approved.  Board Treasurer, Gail Rosner, informed the membership that the balance of funds in the ACREA treasury as of September 30, 2023, is $14,032.42.

Here is a link for the special presentation on Fraud and Scams by a member of the County’s Police Department. (see attached link)

And here is a link for the information sheet from the retirement fund.

Carl Newby, ACREA Chair

Note our mailing address has changed: