Cathy Steinhauser reminds Board members how to be a good fiduciary at the October 19 STRS Board meeting

From Cathy Steinhauser

October 19, 2023

Cathy Steinhauser – 35 yrs., satellite teacher w/Pickaway-Ross CTC in the Circleville City School District – Family & Consumer Sciences.

As customary of teachers, we are constantly learning and believe that all people should be life-long learners. I believe this board should learn what this pension needs to keep thriving as it once did over 40 years ago. As fiduciaries, that is part of the process. And yes, I’m going to repeat the definition:FIDUCIARY - “A person who acts on behalf of another person or persons, putting their client’s interests ahead of their own, with a duty to preserve good faith and trust. Being a fiduciary requires being bound both LEGALLY AND ETHICALLY to act in others best interests.” You still aren’t doing what is right for the teachers in this pension. Most of you are still catering to the STRS staff and investment staff and have totally forgotten your fiduciary duty to THE TEACHERS!

So, getting back to the issue of learning…I have a handout of articles for each of you. I have a helper (Suzanne Laird) who will give you these before I’m finished. I’d like to think of this information as your homework to read before the next STRS Board meeting. You may notice that these were penned by Edward (Ted) Siedle who all of you should know by now. He IS America’s leading forensic expert investigating pension and retirement plan abuses. There’s a lot you all can learn, so I chose some recent articles he published that directly relate to our STRS pension issues.

The first article “16 Reasons Pensions, 401ks Should Stay the Hell Away From Private Equity” concerns gambling retirement savings in private equity is a risk you can’t afford to take.

The second article “SEC Chairman Alerted To Horrific Private Equity Side Letters” discusses the SEC Chairman Gary Gensler was recently alerted to flagrantly illegal secret “side letter” agreements which pay certain investors aware of fraud to not tell unsuspecting others.

The third article “Holding Gina Raimondo Responsible For Robbing America’s State and Local Government Workers of Promised Retirement Benefits”. This deals with Rhode Island and then nationally, Raimondo championed using government worker’s retirement savings to enrich her Wall Street backers and further her own political ambitions. She has done more to undermine the retirement security of U.S. workers than any politician.

The last article, which is not included because you can look that up yourself, is “Ohio Teacher Pension’s Private Equity Secrets May Soon Be Exposed” deals with the issue of the over two years STRS has been stonewalling a public records request on behalf of teachers to disclose private equity investment risks by maintaining a secrecy about its private equity holdings. The SEC’s website warns private equity investors to be vigilant about fees and expenses and be alert to conflicts of interest.

I recommend you read these, read them more than once, because the investment team is doing everything wrong w/our pension, as well as other pensions in the U.S. When STRS Board members vote against teachers interests like COLAs, not being transparent, not cutting frivolous perks, bonuses and salaries – this is when you are not being the fiduciary you were chosen to be.