COLUMBUS, Ohio (WCMH) – When the State Teacher’s Retirement System (STRS) board meets Thursday, there will once again be a new board member – appointed by Gov. Mike DeWine – and once again, active and retired teachers are angry about that.
Last week, an appeals court magistrate said DeWine lacked “constitutional and legal authority” last September when he removed investment expert Wade Steen from the board. That case is still making its way through the courts, but when Steen’s “replacement” stepped down last week, the governor immediately appointed Ohio State University lobbyist Brian Perera to the position, in defiance of the magistrate’s recommendation.
Retirees and active teachers said DeWine missed an opportunity to help them by reappointing Steen to the board.
“We’re always pleased with the fact that Wade Steen advocated on behalf of the people who are contributing to the system, so it was a real disappointment to us when he was taken off the board,” Ohio Federation of Teachers President Melissa Cropper. “We were happy to see that the decision was made that he should be restored to the board, so yes, it’s disappointing that the governor has appointed someone else.”
Cropper said teachers and retirees want what they’ve earned: a restoration of cost-of-living benefits, the ability to retire after 30 years of service, and board members who protect their pension fund.
“Traditionally, teachers have expected to make less money, but in return, have a solid retirement benefit guarantee to them,” Cropper said. “Now, when they see that they’re not, you know, that they’re not going to get (cost of living) when they retire, they’re going to have to work longer to get that retirement, it has an impact on that decision-making process. It has an impact on whether teachers actually stay in the system or not.”
A retiree watchdog group is working to shift control of the board to so-called reformers who will do away with lavish bonuses for investment staff and end what they believe is mismanagement of the fund.
And they want DeWine to talk to and listen to teachers.
“I think the governor has gotten some wrong information and some wrong advice,” Cropper said. “So I would love to be able to have an opportunity to discuss with him what we expect from our pension system and what our members what our board members are advocating for.”
A statement from the governor’s spokesman Dan Tierney said the governor supports retired teachers getting a cost-of-living adjustment and a forensic audit of the system.
The full statement reads:
As he previously stated publicly, Governor DeWine supports retired teachers getting a cost-of-living adjustment from STRS, and he supported Auditor Faber conducting a forensic audit on the system.. The Governor believes STRS should consider investment strategies to increase returns and that changes to investment vendors should be made through a competitive and transparent public process.
Governor DeWine replaced Wade Steen as his appointee to STRS for several reasons.
Steen’s attendance was a significant issue, as in the months preceding his removal, he missed three meetings and only partially attended three others. The Governor expects his appointees to attend meetings and participate in the boards and commissions to which they were appointed. This is consistent with our office’s approach of informing other appointees that they would be removed from other boards if they did not remedy attendance issues.
The Governor was also concerned that Steen was viewed as acting as an advocate for a specific investment firm at the expense of a thorough, competitive, and public process.
In dealing with Governor’s staff, Steen developed a reputation of misrepresenting his policy positions on the STRS board and generally not being responsive, negatively affecting the confidence the Governor and our staff had in having Steen represent the Governor on the STRS board.
For all these reasons, Steen was removed from his appointment. Governor DeWine ultimately believes the judicial process will find that the Governor acted within the law in removing Steen.
Ohio’s retired teachers deserve nothing less than full attention to these issues. When Steen’s replacement resigned creating a new vacancy, the Governor acted quickly to fill the vacancy so that he would have someone attending STRS meetings as his appointee.
Governor DeWine has shown consistent support for retired teachers and expects his appointee to provide their full service to STRS.
Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine spokesman Dan Tierney