RH Jones' speech to STRS board May 23, 2013

OhSTRS speech on common sense issues that OhSTRS should act on:

(1) Shorten STRS Ohio to become OhSTRS. For example, STRS California has already changed to CalSTRS.

(2) Seek Ohio income tax relief for retired teachers, especially those who have been retired at least 20 years.

(3) Encourage retired members to reside herein our home state.

(4) Rather than inaccurate phone surveys, seek more precise member input only by US mail.

(5) Retired teacher income, additional to the pension, is the business only of the retiree and the tax collectors. It is without reason or justification to publicize any percentage; to do so works against our OhSTRS.

(6) Being that sometimes ex-[STRS]employees, once they are retired and receiving an OPERS pension, work against long term OhSTRS interests; therefore, rather than employees to be paying into the OPERS, it is in the employees' and our best interests for them to pay into OhSTRS. We teachers will welcome them.

(7) Being that the number of contributing members (five) on the board is out of proportion with the two retired members, and the two superintendent representatives is out of proportion to their numbers of contributors, bring to the board a representation that is fair, proportionately, and has a better ratio.

(8) To insure that the public and politicians support our OhSTRS, a fair and proper representation of the retired teacher board voting system is an ethical necessity.

Lastly, the recent SERS board public relations Hawaii disaster brought on the Joint Committee on Agency Rule Review (JCARR Committee). Beware, in all my retirement years, I have never heard of this controlling committee before. Vital to our OhSTRS long term survival, I do wish to advise and recommend to all of you to be very careful in crafting all your official reports, always rationalizing how best to promote a correct OhSTRS image.

Three minutes does not give me time enough to expound convincingly on my logic for all the above common sense issues.

Respectfully submitted by
Robert Hudson Jones,
An OhSTRS retired teacher