STRSers...here it is....STRS' latest plan on how to pay the bonuses! A bonus delayed is still a bonus!

From John Curry, September 16, 2009

Teachers pension system
Bonus pay, now or later, still upsets STRS critics

Columbus Dispatch, September 16, 2009
By Steve Wartenberg

THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH A bonus delayed is still a bonus, say critics of a new proposal by the State Teachers Retirement System of Ohio to put off paying 90 investment officers $3.4 million in performance-based incentives.

The system lost about $18 billion during the fiscal year that ended June 30, dropping its asset total to $52.7 billion. As a result, many members want the bonuses eliminated entirely.

"This new plan is designed to quiet people and cause people to think there's not a bonus, when really there is," said Dennis Leone, a former member of the pension system's board whose term expired in August.

He is against awarding any bonuses, now or in the future, and calls the new plan "totally unacceptable."

The proposal was sent to the pension fund's board of directors last week. It will be introduced by Executive Director Michael Nehf during the board meeting that begins today, and it will be voted on Friday, said Laura Ecklar, spokeswoman for the pension fund.

Specifically, the proposal calls for half of the $3.4 million in bonuses to be paid out after the system's assets total at least $60 billion. The payment would not be made until the end of the fiscal year in which that benchmark is reached, and not before July 1, 2010.

The second half would be paid at the end of the fiscal year in which assets grow to at least $65 billion, and not before July 1, 2011.

The fund's assets were at $56.8 billion on Aug. 31, Ecklar said.

The bonuses would not expire, and employees would be paid even if they have left the system when the benchmarks are met, according to the proposal.

Eight of the bonuses are for more than $100,000, with the highest at $162,488.

"I suspect the reaction from a lot of members has influenced the staff in trying to be sensitive to the wishes of membership," board Chairman Mark Meuser said of the proposal.

"If (the proposal) doesn't pass, there could be a motion to pay (the $3.4 million) as originally intended or perhaps not pay it at all," Meuser said.

The pension fund can do that under its rules. Bonuses may be "amended, rescinded and/or terminated at any time by the board."

Meuser would not say how he will vote, but Vice Chairman Tim Myers said he will vote for delayed payments.

"It's coming from staff, and if they're willing to do that, I'm not going to vote against it," he said.

Earlier, Myers said he would have voted to pay the entire $3.4 million immediately.

"It was for work already completed," he said. "It would be like back when I was coaching football and at the end of the season they would say, 'You didn't win any games, so we won't pay you the contracted amount for the season.' "

The board voted in May not to award a performance-based incentive in any year in which the fund loses money.

Jim Stoll, athletic director of Sycamore Community Schools and a member of the teachers pension board, said he has been copied on at least 500 anti-bonus e-mails from members to the fund's staff and board.

"It sort of sounds like they're admitting they made a mistake and are trying to do the right thing," he said. "But at the end of the day, they're still giving these people a bonus for losing ($18 billion), and that to me is absurd."

The board awarded $5.9 million in bonuses for fiscal year 2008, when the fund lost $6.4 billion, and had planned to award $5.6 million this year.

The board voted in January to suspend bonuses for the final five months of the year and award a new total of $3.4 million.

"I made a motion not to pay the bonuses at all, all the way back last September," Leone said. "But they didn't listen."

At a recent meeting with the Ohio Retirement Study Council, which advises the legislature on public pension matters, Nehf said the recession has hurt the fund's total value. "If no changes are made, we will eventually be unable to pay benefits."

Changes proposed to shore up the pension fund include increasing employee and employer contributions, reducing cost-of-living adjustments and delaying the age at which members can retire with full benefits.

The employer-contribution increase would be phased in, starting in 2016, and cost taxpayers $50 million the first year and rise to $250 million in 2020.

Any such changes must be approved by the legislature.

By Steve Wartenberg

http://www.dispatch.com/live/content/local_news/stories/2009/09/16/STRS_Bonuses.ART_ART_09-16-09_A1_16F3DTS.html?type=rss&cat=&sid=101

"If it looks like a bonus, swims like a bonus and quacks like a bonus, then........."

" A bonus by any other name is still a bonus."