Carol Bertholf's speech to STRS board, September 16, 2010

My name is Carol Bertholf. I retired after serving as a librarian for over thirty-five years in the Ontario Local Schools in Mansfield. I have been attending STRS Board meetings for the past four years as the legislative chair for the Richland County Retired Teachers.

The reason I am speaking today is that our RCRTA members directed me to do so. Our most recent meeting was this past Monday. I had prepared petitions asking the Governor and our two state representatives to support Ohio's public pension plans. These letters contained many of the talking points supplied by ORTA. I stressed to them that we retired teachers need to emphasize that our retirement benefits are actually deferred compensation. Our membership was receptive and understood the need to back the pension plan sent to the ORSC.

At the end of my report I asked if there were any questions. One member stood up and asked if I had seen the editorial in Saturday's Columbus Dispatch entitled "State pension funds have no excuse for lavish travel budgets." I was trying to walk the fine line of supporting the STRS Board for the greater good of retirees. Our members were made aware of the recent newspaper attacks on the public pension systems.

I quoted from the editorial: "The State Teachers Retirement System, which wants taxpayers' contributions jacked up by 2020 to 16.5 percent from the current 14 percent, saw fit to send its managers all over the world for conferences: Japan, China, South Africa, England, Mexico, India and Malaysia, all in the year that ended July 1. That's a year that followed one in which the pension funds lost between 23 percent and 31 percent of their value in the stock market slide of 2008-2009."

The mood of the meeting changed abruptly. How could I respond?

Here we go again. Was anyone here in Columbus paying attention? Was the STRS staff directed to find more efficient methods of professional training? Have current STRS Board members not learned lessons from previous STRS Board mistakes? Why give the attackers live ammunition? Has this ruined any chance of getting legislation passed?

The STRS Board must direct our executive director to respond immediately. It is our right as retirees and it is the right of the public to know that these funds are allocated prudently.