Report on 3/15/07 STRS/CORE meetings from Mary Ellen Angeletti

Attorney General Marc Dann addresses STRS Board
From Mary Ellen Angeletti, March 15, 2007

Subject: CORE/STRS Meetings - March 15th

Glenna Barr will be sending out detail minutes of the CORE meeting later.

I have already sent you the Public Speaks speakers. Since the two speakers spoke on the same subject regarding the changing schedule for the STRS Board meetings, Ms. Ramser addressed the reason for needing to adjust the schedule again this month. Apparently there is an attempt to consolidate the STRS business into one day or to reduce the current number of days (Wed. Thurs. & Fri.) in the interest of saving travel time, expenses, and accommodate teaching schedules for the active teacher members. Dr. Leone asked if consideration could not be given to a motion to have Public Speaks, health care, and pension benefits on Thursdays out of consideration for the retirees who attend the meeting that day. There was some discussion. Ms. Cervantes suggested that an effort be made to TRY to schedule these reports on Thursdays without a formal motion. Dr. Leone asked how other Board members felt. Mark Meuser said they must consider the retirees when scheduling reports. Dr. Puckett agreed that they should try out the effort. It was left this way.

Russ Harris, OEA, spoke to CORE concerning the constitutional amendment (Glenna will be reporting on this as well). Everyone attending the CORE meeting today received petition guidelines for the Initiative Petition which we were asked to circulate to any registered voter to collect signatures. Everyone received an Initiative Petition as well. I have 16 petitions which folks can get from me. Mr. Harris arranged for more petitions to be delivered to STRS for us to take home with us and pass out.

Some general guidelines are:

1. A voter can sign only one petition.
2. A voter should NOT sign the petition he/she is circulating.
3. When signing, one must use the address on file with the Board of Elections.
4. The petition must be signed in ink.
5. One petition has space for 72. signatures.
6. The date must be correct on the petition.
7. The ward/precinct is not necessary.
8. All signatures must be registered voters residing in the county listed on the first page of the petition.
9. A petition Circulator may circulate petitions from more than one county at the same time, provided that each county is on a separate petition.
10. All completed petitions must be returned to the Labor Relations Consultant who will then forward to Bonnie Joseph at OEA headquarters.
11. The Circulator must complete the Statement of Circulator at the back of the petition but the name and address of employer is NOT necessary. All other info. is required of the Circulator.

Following Dr. Asbury's Executive Director's report, Dr. Leone asked about the pension forfeiture bills that have been introduced that would prohibit a member convicted of a felony related to his or her official duties from collecting the employer portion of a public pension. Only a refund of accumulated employee contributions and interest would be paid. The Senate bill would also prohibit a felon from running for office for any political subdivision of the state. System staff have met with the sponsor of the House bill to discuss implementation issues.

Dr. Leone also inquired whether Mr. Warner's (who spoke last month during Public Speaks) concerns and questions had been answered. His questions concerned the high expenditures for certain medical supplies. Dr. Asbury said that they had not been answered yet but that the Member Benefits staff was working on getting answers to his questions. Next Dr. Leone inquired as to whether the revised travel policy had been extended to the STRS staff and again Dr. Asbury said that they were working on this. Finally Dr. Leone asked about the Lifemasters program and whether retirees may refuse to give certain personal information when they sign up for this program. all retiree information obtained by Lifemasters was confidential. Dr. Asbury said that all retiree personal information obtained by Lifemasters must be kept private. It is confidential information.

Marc Dann arrived following Steve Mitchell's Investment Report. After Ms. Ramser welcomed him, he said that he is meeting with ALL pension boards. He introduced his Assistant Attorney General, Tom Winter. He said that he wanted to share his philosophy of the Attorney General's office which would be responsive and available to STRS to deal with both large and small issues and provide hands on, high level legal service to STRS. He then announced success in the settlement of the AOL/Time Warner case which he said turned out to be much more successful for STRS and the other pension systems than if the case had been handled as a class action suit. He was able to achieve a $66 million dollar settlement for STRS, $175 million total for all of the pension systems. He promised to be client sensitive. . .more selective in choosing cases. He wants to change the way the Attorney General's office interacts with STRS by training certain members of the STRS staff.

He also will consider three options regarding cases:

1. Sit and wait attitude
2. Seek lead plaintive status
3. Opting out of class action and pleading alone.

Many STRS Board members asked questions and thanked Mr. Dann and his staff for the money from the AOL/Time Warner settlement. Dr. Leone reminded Mr. Dann that at one time, the Attorney General had a representative on the STRS Board which was wrong. Mr. Dann agreed saying that it had been a conflict of interest situation & should never had occurred. Dr. Leone also reminded Mr.Dann that his office must act as a watchdog over STRS and the other pension systems. Dann agreed saying that all five systems would be provided oversight. He said that he would strongly offer independent judgment which would not be beholden to government or any pension system. He also offered that he had come from a law firm of 4 lawyers in which mistakes had been made. He is now the head of a 350 lawyer firm, and he is certain that mistakes will be made so he said to let him know.