Trina Kay Prufer: A pension is about financial peace of mind and the promise of maintaining a decent standard of living… and that is PRECISELY what we lost. This is the REAL story that is hidden away, lied about and made to disappear.

From Trina Kay Prufer 

October 29, 2023

On Oct 3, I attended the Parma STRS town hall meeting. It was an open forum with about 35 attendees present. In front of this group, I specifically asked Neville the question:

What does: “Actual benefits will be paid in accordance with STRS law in effect AT THE TIME OF RETIREMENT” mean? His answer was that it only meant the base benefit. STRS never meant it included the 3% cola.

However, my STRS documents tell a completely different story.

My last print out of projected monthly annuity for 2008 says “3% annual cola thereafter”. The benefits booklet from 2008 says “a cost of living increase of 3% is granted each year”. There are no qualifiers whatsoever.

The new wording of the cola adjustment reads as follows:

“STRS will periodically evaluate whether a cost of living increase is payable in accordance with the law AT THAT TIME.”
These two sentences about the payout of the benefit cannot possibly mean the same thing. The first sentence appears in all my STRS documents beginning in 1996 and continues through 2008, when I became fully dependent on the STRS defined benefit for my livelihood. I rejected withdrawing my account OR taking the PLOP based on STRS written and oral assurances that the annual cola was a part of the benefit.

Neville is an attorney, who is the Executive Director of STRS. He should be held to a HIGHER STANDARD of telling the truth, as he understands the law and knows better. It is an ethical standard codified by the Ohio Bar Association. We expect attorneys to be officers of the court. In fact, 500K Ohio teachers and their dependents rely on his being truthful and trustworthy.

Yes, the truth is ugly…. STRS reduced the assured (or guaranteed) defined-benefit, after it made retirees RELIANT on information it provided. At least that would be the truth.

Why is the lie disadvantageous and harmful to membership? It pits membership against STRS employees. The benefit counselors and other employees have no understanding of what happened… or what it means to have relied on a pension system which removed financial security with the stroke of a pen. A pension is about financial peace of mind and the promise of maintaining a decent standard of living… and that is PRECISELY what we lost. This is the REAL story that is hidden away, lied about and made to disappear.