RH Jones: Our STRS funds are not for political issues

From RH Jones, February 9, 2007
Subject: Reminder. our STRS funds are not for political issues.

To all:

Our STRS funds under ORC 3307.15 are solely for the members.

As reported from the Jan. 31 STRS Bd. Retreat I quote: "The IFS audit indicated to the ORSC that only five of the 45 investment recommendations are KEY. STRS staff agrees on all five KEY investment recommendations." I have a problem with: "...staff agrees..." and #4 "Articulate criteria in broker evaluation for selecting women/minority/Ohio brokers."

I understand the political pressures that all of the Ohio public pension systems are having with the women/minority activist groups; BUT, our STRS of Ohio was founded to provide solely for the retirement of educators --- by the way, most of whom are women, and many are minority. Sidelining investment money solely for the benefit of women/minority brokers in this case is out of the question, if not unlawful. The STRS members who are women and minority educators would be hurt by this ill-conceived thinking just as much as any other educator. Rightly, I suspect women and minority educators would agree with me on this.

Recently, in an Akron speech, an activist, Mr. Andrew Young, (An Ex-Mayor of Atlanta) mentioned that more Ohio public retirement funds should go to minority brokers. I would have liked to have been at that speech to remind him that one of the wealthiest brokers in America happens to be black, and was homeless at one time.(His name escapes me unfortunately; however, verification can be made by reading last Sunday's Beacon Journal.) The almost disparate need is that our STRS funds go to the broker who can give us the highest return on our dollar. Educators, for the most part, can not afford the luxury of allocating our very hard earned retirement money to any broker who may be sub-par.

AND, to think that our STRS staff would agree to the #4 of the investment recommendations astounds me, and is beyond the pale. And, further, they were just given a 3% raise -- may I remind them their raise compounds, also. Unfortunately, our 3% COLA does not.

STRS staff, do your homework! Please know that you are "the bread of life" for us retired educators. We expect better of you and know that you will correct this error. As you know, the IFS and the ORSC has been prone to error, as has all of us.

Robert Hudson Jones, retired STRS member, and proud to be a CORE