Dean Dennis to STRS Board, 3/16/2023: Some critical findings from State Auditor Faber and financial expert Richard Ennis

March 16, 2023 - Dean Dennis, retiree from Cincinnati Public Schools, ORTA President Elect 

• You need to keep the promises to the people who were made reliant, based upon those promises.  

• Based upon those promises, people structured their lives accordingly and they should be entitled to the benefits of that bargain. 

That was the message from State Auditor Keith Faber a week ago at a meeting of the Ohio Retirement Study Council.

His other takeaways: a lack of transparency, whether actual or perceived, which has spawned the distrust, misunderstandings, and accusations that made the special audit necessary. 

He also shared that STRS should strive to be as transparent as possible regarding the funds held in their trust. He suggested reconsidering trade secret provisions that shield investment decisions from scrutiny, to eliminate the distrust harbored by many beneficiaries towards the STRS investment staff. He further stated it would be beneficial to reconsider performance bonuses, noting that the one thing his office really flagged was the use of awarding bonuses by using internal benchmarks.

ORTA and social media groups agree with our state auditor. We also take seriously the findings of widely recognized financial expert Richard Ennis, who points out that STRS is underperforming industry-accepted benchmarks. Like our state auditor, Ennis believes STRS's active management of funds has cost the pension fund members tens of billions of dollars. 

Trustees, our members cannot make the needed changes. Only you can. Members can only elect seven trustees who they believe are listening to them, and vote the others out. To our appointed trustees, we hope you hear our concerns and grasp the extent of our financial injuries. When we have concerns as to whether you are listening to us, we can only lobby those who appointed you.

Last month there was a vote of confidence taken, regarding our executive director. It didn't pass. We thank our Board for taking that vote, making it quite clear which trustees were open to reform as opposed to those who are content with business as usual. "Business as usual" has gotten us to a point where our teachers are forced to pay 14% of their salaries for a projected 12% return in value upon retirement. 

Lastly, regarding inflation relief. On behalf of members we want to give a thank you to the trustees who voted for the one-time COLA last year. Not on the Board last year were trustees Falls, Foreman, Jones and Sellers. Trustee Steen was not in attendance. So a thank you to trustees Correthers, Fichtenbaum, Herrington, Hunt and Price for your "yes" votes.