Dean Dennis to STRS Board: Were we wrong to believe STRS would keep its word?

Dean Dennis' speech to STRS Board

February 21, 2019

My name is Dean Dennis, I retired after a 35 year career with the Cincinnati Public Schools. I am the STRS Chair for the CFT-Retirees Chapter, and also the spokesperson for the Ohio STRS Members Only Forum on Facebook.

Good morning:

A doctor says to his patient, "I've got some bad news and some worse news, what do you want to hear first?" The patient says, "doc, give me the bad news first." The doctor says, "well, your tests show that you only have about 24 hours to live." The patient says, "What do you mean doc, 24 hours to live! Doc, what news could possibly be worse?" The doctor says, "well, I've been trying to contact you since yesterday."

Life is filled with bad news and worse news scenarios. Here's one that's not a joke.

Ohio teachers fulfilled their contractual obligations for their pension, retired, yet experienced STRS renege on a pension promise; again, after they retired.

STRS approached the legislature to reduce our COLA from 3% to 2% and freeze our COLA for a year. The promise of a COLA was clearly stated in STRS literature for decades. Teachers don't get rich teaching. Retirees plan on their COLA. Reducing the COLA and freezing it for a year was bad news and a low blow.

However, the worse news came on July 1, 2017. You voted to eliminate our COLA completely with only a promise to review the decision no later than June 30, 2022. This financial loss isn't just bad, it's devastating. It's also disturbing. As retirees approach the end of their life expectancy, you put their financial health on a 5 year hold. You had other options.

The question has to be asked, what did retirees do wrong? Were they wrong to go into public education thereby trapping themselves in a forced Defined Benefit Retirement Plan? Were they wrong in believing the rhetoric STRS told them, that the employer was assuming all the financial risks? Were they wrong in believing all the STRS literature and annual brochures which stated, "a cost- of-living increase of 3% is granted each year once a member retires," which was also backed up by Ohio statute which stated "a 3% COLA shall be paid"? Or were they wrong in believing STRS would keep its word?

Retirees want to believe that decades of working in our schools while paying an employee contribution rate significantly higher than that of their neighbors would pay off upon retirement. Perhaps they were naive.

There are many things that past and present STRS Trustees could have done differently. Being allotted only 3 minutes, I don't have the time to cover that ground.

However, there is one thing that you never should have done and that was to take from those whose careers have ended, the most vulnerable of whom you represent, those who have met all their obligations. Retirees should not have to make up for your past mistakes and future ambitions. You changed the rules of the game after the game was over. That is wrong. You need to keep your promises. There's a saying, "A promise means everything, but once it's broken, sorry means nothing."

We cannot snap our fingers and go back in time and be 21 years old and start our work careers all over again; but you can honor your promises.