RLACEI Submitted by Beverly J. Clark, Publicity Director
Mark Blunk
RLACEI Board Member
New RLACEI Board Member Mark Blunk retired from LACERS in 2010 under ERIP. He was LACERS’ Chief Benefits Analyst for the Benefits Administration Division.
Mark’s illustrious career with the City started in the Water and Power Employees Retirement System (WPERP) as a Management Assistant. Like many City employees, Mark has had the opportunity to be promoted and work for several departments during his career.
After working on a new systems development at WPERP, he was promoted to Utility Management Assistant in the Distribution Engineering Section. He feared the possibility of being laid off, so he applied for a position as Legislative Assistant with City Clerk. This position gave him political experience mainly from the perspective of serving Councilmembers and Council Committees.
Mark then was promoted to Sr. Management Analyst working in the LAPD’s Office of the Chief of Police Inspection and Control Section as part of the civilization process. He was lead auditor for Internal Management audits and compliance auditing for many of the Chief’s directed programs, including Community Policing and change of leadership audits, as well as completing some special investigations.
The Chief’s office placed him in leadership training with many sworn Captains and Lieutenants being trained through the West Point Leadership and Command school, which gave him the honor of teaching some classes on inter-group conflict resolution strategies at Lieutenants’ schools.
Mark transferred to the Police Academy to serve as a Sr. Management Analyst I, technically the Officer-in-Charge of In-Service Legal Training to gain broader supervisory experience. He was then asked by the Chief of Police to transfer to the Internal Affairs Administrative Division to start the design of a new personnel complaint automated system.
He later was promoted to Sr. Management Analyst II within the Office of the City Controller, working as a new Chief Performance Auditor, assigned to develop new Performance Auditing procedures and teams. He then transferred to LACERS as a Sr. Management Analyst II over the Benefits Processing Section, was promoted to Assistant Plan Manager for the WPERP plan, and then returned to LACERS as a Chief Benefits Analyst.
His years with LACERS involved serving members and dealing with members’ issues through staff and hands-on assistance. Mark says his “time spent serving active and Retired City employees has always been and remains some of the most rewarding experiences of my career. My hope is to help serve Retirees again as a Director with RLACEI.”
