James Brekk

It is about governance. The Board of Investments does not pick the stocks in which LACERA invests — it governs how the financial experts grow and protect the fund. The Board adopts sound strategy, hires and holds accountable the experts who execute that strategy, challenges their assumptions, and focuses on the fund's mission: your financial security. That is a governance job, and it is the job I have done my entire career. For nearly three decades I helped build and lead the systems that run LACERA, and because technology reaches into every corner of the enterprise, that work took me into every part of LACERA and ultimately into helping steer it, as its Chief Information Security Officer, then Chief Information Officer, and finally Interim Deputy Chief Executive Officer.

The retirees of Los Angeles County have now entrusted me to carry that enterprise-wide judgment — and a living memory of how LACERA got here — onto the board that governs more than $91 billion across the trusts that fund our pensions and healthcare, the largest county retirement system in the nation, so the people who earned these benefits always have one of their own at the table.

Though I was elected to the retiree seat, the Board of Investments governs one fund for every LACERA member — those drawing a benefit now and the active employees still earning theirs. Their security and ours are bound together, and I am mindful of both.

One fund, one mission: your financial security — never diverted for any purpose that does not serve retirees.

• I know LACERA end to end. Investments, accounting, healthcare, and the systems that pay your pension all run on technology I built and led. Understanding how the whole institution fits together — and why its decisions were made the way they were — lets me catch the risks a narrower view would miss and ask the sharp questions on your behalf.
• I managed enterprise risk. As LACERA's first Chief Information Security Officer, I built and oversaw the safeguards protecting the systems and operations the fund depends on — exactly the operational and risk oversight this board owes its members.
• I have led the way this board must lead. Running LACERA's enterprise — and serving as Interim Deputy CEO — meant setting strategy, hiring the most capable people, holding them accountable, and challenging what was put in front of me, not doing every job myself. That is exactly how a prudent Board of Investments works.
• Independent judgment, then collaboration. My values and my commitment to the members I serve are not negotiable — but progress is built, not declared. I will work with fellow board members, LACERA staff, and the County to move sound decisions forward, holding firm on the one question that comes first: is this in the best interest of the members we serve?
• I have long answered the call to serve. Beyond my LACERA career, I served more than 16 years as a volunteer Reserve Deputy Sheriff with the L.A. County Sheriff's Department — the same duty, integrity, and public trust I will bring to this board.
• I serve you right now. On the RELAC Board I chair both the Investments, Finance, Audit & Budget Committee and the IT Oversight Committee — the same fiduciary oversight this seat demands, already underway on your behalf.