Wild swings in the stock market and other investments have caused huge losses this year for pension plans covering thousands of government workers in the Pikes Peak region, but officials said the plans’ long-term investment strategies will ensure the workers’ retirement money is safe.

The Colorado Public Employees’ Retirement Association, PERA, lost $4.3 billion, or about 10 percent of its value, from Jan. 1 through Sept. 22, the plan said in a report to members last month. PERA is the retirement plan for state government workers, the city of Colorado Springs and most school districts.

The El Paso County Retirement Plan lost $47 million or about 16 percent of its value in the first three quarters of 2008. It covers workers for the county government, Pikes Peak Library District, Health Department and the 4th Judicial District.

“We’re built to withstand ups and downs in the market,” PERA spokeswoman Katie Kaufmanis said last week.

The loss figures from each plan include only a partial accounting of the investment market turmoil of recent weeks. El Paso County’s loss includes the Sept. 29 sell-off that resulted in a drop of more than 700 points in the Dow Jones industrial average index, but that’s not included in the PERA figure. Updated PERA numbers weren’t available, and Kaufmanis emphasized the figures reported to plan members are unaudited and don’t account for all the plan’s investments.

The Dow fell 18 percent from Jan. 1 to Sept. 30, a steeper decline than either retirement plan’s assets.

PERA has an investment portfolio of $36.8 billion, down from $41.1 billion on Dec. 31, 2007. It has 80,000 retirees and beneficiaries. The loss was mainly because of declines in PERA’s stock holdings.

Like the El Paso County Retirement Plan, PERA is a defined-benefit program, which means retirees receive the same monthly benefit regardless of market performance. Both plans invest for the long term, expecting losses to be offset by gains as the years pass.

PERA’s portfolio includes a range of domestic and international stocks, plus some money in timber, real estate and cash. It has 232 employees who invest the money and deliver benefits.

“We have taken steps in the past few months to ensure that we have liquidity, and that’s important for us because we pay about $200 million in benefits every month,” Kaufmanis said.

The county retirement plan’s assets dropped from $292.5 million on Dec. 31, 2007, to $245 million at the end of September. The plan has 1,000 retirees and beneficiaries and gets contributions from about 2,200 workers.

Based on the amount that would be needed if every pension obligation had to be paid off immediately, the fund was 91.4 percent funded at the end of 2007, better than many public retirement plans, plan administrator Dave Klemmer said. PERA was funded at about 75 percent at the end of last year.

“It’s been painful,” Klemmer said. “It’s a very difficult market, but we do have an asset allocation policy, and there’s nothing that has happened that would indicate that’s not a good strategy.”

Klemmer said the fund’s assets are diversified in domestic and international corporate stock, bonds, real estate and cash as a hedge against declines. The investments are managed by 13 money managers and monitored by an investment consultant.

Klemmer said the plan won’t know how it fared this month until money managers report in November.

“There’s time for that to come back,” he said. “I think the majority of our retirees and beneficiaries, although concerned, are not panicking.”

New England running back Sammy Morris escaped from defenders Louis Green and Calvin Lowry (on ground) on a 34-yard run during the second quarter Monday. Photo by Mark Reis, The Gazette