Overheard.....

June 17, 2021

"The Board wasted hours of everybody's time today, when they voted down every proposed policy change, including the substantial legal-team time that had gone into the preparation for the meeting. I feel sorry for Wade Steen, who had proposed a number of desirable changes, including better "Transparency." Funny, that's exactly what Ted Siedle said STRS needed, but the Board voted that proposal down also."

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June 17, 2021

"The STRS Board Meeting was an embarrassment. In summary, our current Board might be the most tone death Board ever. They voted against Wade Steen's motion of putting the word "TRANSPARENCY" in Board Policy. In my opinion, they reacted defensively to the suggestion. They voted down a motion (Wade Steen's motion) that would allow those of us who travel hundreds of miles, round trip, to speak to the Board a merely 2 additional minutes of public speaking time. The time would have increased the time from 3 minutes to 5 minutes. There's more, outgoing Board Chair, Rita Walters, made this comment about COLA, "I think since we pay a benefit month after month, that is preserving member's purchasing power." I think 150,000 retires feel differently. At another point, the fact was brought up that currently a retired teacher who goes back to work for a school system, isn't allowed to run for either a Retiree Board seat or an Active Board seat. Believe it or not, outgoing Rita Walters stated then, 'give up your job if you want to be on the Board.'"

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June 18, 2021

"Remember when Dennis Leone had to put up with a Board like this one? I'm beginning to think prospective Board members should be required to take an IQ test (Steen and Fichtenbaum can set the benchmark) before being allowed to run for election. That would have weeded out some of the ones who are sitting up there today."