DutyBound Advisory · Fiduciary Governance Advisory · Bound to the standard.← Practice siteI know public pensions from the board table. For four years, I helped govern CalPERS. I asked hard questions, made public votes, and kept the retirement security of 2.4 million members at the center of the work.
A board title does not tell you much. The decisions do. I voted on pension policy, health benefits, executive pay, and the systems members rely on.
I led the committee that oversaw executive performance and compensation. I chaired four public meetings in 2023. We worked through salary surveys, peer comparisons, legal pay limits, and how policy would be carried out.
As vice chair, I made motions on dependent eligibility, pharmacy negotiations, and the 2024–28 HMO contracts. The goal was simple: clear rules and steady coverage for members. Each motion passed.
CalPERS competes for investment talent around the world. I pushed for a clear link between pay, results, and risk. We worked through salary ranges, incentive measures, and an updated compensation policy in public.
I asked staff to offer the annual member survey in more languages. I also backed translating CalPERS education materials. Members should not need perfect English to understand their pension and health benefits.
I moved to extend the long-term-care administrator contract for up to 24 months. That gave staff time to choose a vendor, make the handoff, and handle the 2025 benefit increase without needless disruption. The motion passed.
“Jose Luis has served honorably on the CalPERS Board of Administration since 2022. He has been a passionate champion for our mission… During his tenure, Jose Luis has devoted himself to his Board responsibilities, including service as Chair of the Performance, Compensation and Talent Management Committee, and Vice Chair of Pension Health and Benefits Committee. He's been a strong advocate for the diversity, and equity, and inclusion for improving access to health care for all people, and for expanding outreach by supporting translation of CalPERS educational materials into other languages.”
As a member of the CalPERS Investment Committee, my stewardship record includes:
Starbucks — labor practices as a long-term value risk (March 13, 2023). In open session, I raised Starbucks’ federal labor-law violations — including an administrative law judge’s findings — as a reputational, legal, and operational risk to long-term fund value, and pressed staff on CalPERS’ engagement with the company and its voting position ahead of the March 23, 2023 annual meeting. CalPERS voted FOR the shareholder proposal seeking a third-party assessment of the company’s freedom-of-association practices (Item 8), against management’s recommendation.
Freedom of association, 2023 season. CalPERS supported all 11 freedom-of-association / labor shareholder proposals in calendar year 2023, including at Starbucks.
Starbucks 2024 — a prepared position (February 2024). Ahead of Starbucks’ contested March 13, 2024 annual meeting, I prepared written remarks urging CalPERS to engage the company and support the Strategic Organizing Center’s shareholder proposal and its three board nominees, grounded in CalPERS’ labor principles. The fund ultimately withheld votes from the three nominees; my prepared remarks stand as a documented position, not as the fund’s outcome.
ExxonMobil and Tesla (March 17, 2025). I questioned staff on why two of CalPERS’ most visible 2024 votes had not carried — withholding support from ExxonMobil’s entire 12-member board over governance concerns, and voting against ratification of Elon Musk’s 2018 Tesla stock-option award — probing how the fund builds support behind its positions.
Say-on-pay (September 18, 2023). I directed staff to the executive-compensation voting record — CalPERS’ against-votes on say-on-pay had risen from 19% in FY2016–17 to 52% before leveling near 49% — and asked why the trend had plateaued.
Labor Principles motions (November 13, 2023; June 16, 2025). I moved approval of CalPERS’ Governance & Sustainability Principles (Labor Principles) at second reading — carried unanimously — and later moved approval of the prevailing-wage / labor-peace market-study scope — carried 10–0.
In 2021, I won with the backing of SEIU Local 521, CFT, and CFA.
In 2025, my building-and-trades backing included the State Building & Construction Trades Council PAC, NABTU, IBEW Locals 11 and 595, Laborers, Cement Masons Local 600, Painters District Council 36, and Sprinkler Fitters Local 709.
Workers backed a pro-labor voice for retirement security and affordable health care.
Sep 2025I raised more in direct contributions than any CalPERS candidate in history, with building and construction trade unions backing me.
2025The State Worker · Coverage of the 2025 CalPERS board election.
2025CSR cited my commitment to protecting retiree pensions and holding leadership accountable.
2025The national organization backed my continued service on the CalPERS Board.
2025The official election announcement listed the candidates for the statewide member-at-large seat.
I do not treat board service as ceremony. I read the material. I test the tradeoffs. I vote in public. And I remember whose money and future are on the line.
I have had to make decisions in public, explain them to members, and weigh what works now against what will still hold up years from now.
People should be able to understand their costs, benefits, and choices.
I ask what a decision fixes today and what it may cost tomorrow.
Workers know their jobs and their communities. I listen to that lived experience.
Public pension governance is a narrow field. It calls for judgment across funding, benefits, performance, and risk. This is the work I know.
I reviewed and voted on actuarial assumptions, funding policy, pension rules, health plans, and benefit design. These choices have to hold up for decades, not just one budget year.
I chaired the committee overseeing executive performance and pay. I pushed for clear measures, honest comparisons, and a link between compensation, results, and risk.
I brought a labor voice to the board table. I worked on language access, health coverage, long-term care, and the day-to-day systems members count on.
I am a member of CalCPA
California Society of Certified Public Accountants
Minority staff, U.S. Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP Committee), under the late Senator Edward M. Kennedy — economics and policy analysis work, including an authored policy paper on the Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program, written for policy-level readers
Technology Catalyst, Falls Church, Virginia — economics analysis and technology-catalysts analysis work
Joins the Latinas Contra Cancer board; CSEA Chapter 363 Executive Board service begins
Director and Vice Chair, Mirastar Federal Credit Union Board; Chair, Information Technology Security Committee
Voting Delegate, South Bay AFL-CIO Labor Council
President, CSEA Chapter 363
Member-at-Large, CalPERS Board of Administration (elected statewide); Chair, Performance, Compensation & Talent Management Committee (Feb 2023 – Feb 2024); Vice Chair, Pension & Health Benefits Committee (Mar 2023 – Feb 2024)
Immediate Past President, CSEA Chapter 363
Chair, Latinas Contra Cancer; President, RPEA Chapter 41; Santa Clara University Alumni Board of Directors
I am available for work in public pension governance, fiduciary judgment, and the training of AI systems that need to understand both.