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was -the first CPA to ever hold that post-'-and later stepped down
to become president of a bank in Kansas Cit I then moved to a
second bank, where I was chairman and chief executive officer,
before coming to the Funds in October, 1981.
I em here to tell you today that these once-troubled Funds
are, in my opinion, the best-managed, best-run Funds of their kind
anywhere. At the direction of the Funds' Trustees, four appointed
by union appointing authorities and four by management groups, we
set out three and one-half years ago to make these two Funds the
models for pension and health and welfare funds in the United
States. I believe we have reached that goal today.
The past of these Funds is well documented and is one with
which you are all familiar. I would like to state emphatically
here and now that that past is indeeu past, and that the present
and future of these Funds are very bright.
An important stel;> toward our situation today was taken in
1977, when the Funds and the Department of Labor agreed that for a
five-year period the assets of the Pension Fund would be managed
by an outsidp asset manager.
While that was a significant change, it failed to resolve the
conflict between the Fund and the Goverlwent because the agreement
was not a court-enforceable mechanism like the Consent Decrees we
were able to achieve after I came to the Funds.
As a result, no improvement was made from 1977 to late 1981
in the hostile relationship bett.,een the Funds and the Government.
When I became Executive Director, the Trustees gave me the
specific charge of turning that relationship around. Today, after