In its battle over millions in public employee retirement benefits (see earlier blog of COA opinion here), the Employee Retirement System has so far preserved its lower-court defeat of Wayne County’s ordinance, avoiding the peremptory reversal that often follows a mini-oral argument on the application.  Now on to the full briefing . . . .  The MSC ordered the parties to address on leave granted  the following issues:
 
(1) an identification of the source and nature of the County’s
power to move funds from the Inflation Equity Fund (IEF);

(2) whether the movement of IEF assets to the defined benefit plan without the corresponding offset to the County’s Annual Required Contribution violates the Public Employee Retirement System Investment Act (PERSIA), MCL 38.1132 et seq.; and

(3) whether the movement of $32 million in IEF assets to the defined benefit plan constitutes a “transaction” within the meaning of MCL 38.1133(8).