Dan MacDonald reacts to the October 2020 STRS Board meeting: ENOUGH!

ENOUGH. ENOUGH. ENOUGH.. I attended the virtual STRS Board meeting of October 15, 2020 which lasted from a couple minutes past nine to close to four thirty. Fireworks started immediately with the move to accept the minutes of the September Board meeting. Appointed Board member Wade Steen wanted language added to memorialize statements made during the September meeting which would hold STRS staff “feet to the fire”, my interpretation, not his. Elected active Robert McFee challenged the adds on the premise he didn’t recall the information and /or he didn’t recall it the way Steen stated. Steen said he had a tape of the meeting. McFee said the meetings aren’t taped. Steen explained that we, the membership to which the Board represents, taped the meeting. The minutes had to be tabled so that Steen could send to each Board member a copy of the tape and his additions. No other Board member spoke up. Silence from the other nine members of the Board except the “Yea”s to table. ENOUGH. ENOUGH. ENOUGH. STRS Ohio should be making a tape of each of its meetings, period. The Board members should move and vote for this to happen, period. I am sure that its Webinar platform allows the taping. This, former Boards, and STRS administration do not want to be held accountable for statements shared by consultants, staff, and Board members. They desire vanilla minutes created by STRS staff that eliminate the nitty-gritty.

Another issue, the Power Point presentations and Agenda for a Board meeting are not posted to the website until well into the meeting, if at all. At this Board meeting it was after ten before the agenda was posted. Why? It is hard to believe that the Agenda was not prepared well before the Thursday meeting. As to the Power Point presentations, it is also hard to believe that these slides are being prepared the morning of the meeting. These materials should be posted to the website during business hours at least by the day before the meeting so that can be downloaded and printed.

Finally, do you know that at the public participation portion of normal Board meetings opened to the public in Columbus, STRS Ohio policy does not allow a speaker to publicly identify a person to what is said at a meeting? Although I often speak at Board meetings, occasionally I quote and or paraphrase Board members and staff and identify them. Board member Stein under New Business, brought up that there should be consequences for people who speak during public participation that do not follow the Board’s rules. He asked it be added to a future agenda. To date, this has not happened. This fury happened within the last two years.

An election for three STRS Ohio Board seats will be held in the spring. One active seat and both retiree’s seats. It is time for a change. ENOUGH. ENOUGH. ENOUGH.

Dan MacDonald, STRS Retiree