Dean Dennis: "... we will not stand by and watch one man’s arrogance or hidden agenda stand in the way of bringing transparency and accountability back to our pension system."

From February 2024 ORTA Newsletter

February 19, 2024

Message to ORTA members from President 

Dean Dennis

Greetings Members, it has been a surreal month; here is why.

As you are aware, ORTA established the Pension Defense Fund to ensure we have the legal and professional resources necessary to defend our Mission Statement which is to monitor, advocate for, and protect the pensions and benefits of its members. 

Protecting our pension and advocating for secure benefits for members also necessitates electing Board members who are willing to work towards an accountable, transparent and efficient pension system. 

On May 6, 2023, STRS announced that members elected Pat Davidson. ORTA had endorsed Davidson. With the election of Pat Davidson, ORTA thought we had secured the Board need that would tip the Board in the direction of advocating for transparent investments. The types of investments ORTA wanted to eliminate were risky, opaque, private equity investments. These investments are fraught with hidden fees and non-disclosure agreements. ORTA advocates for investments in index funds. These are safer, have lower fees and are very transparent. As previously stated, the election of Pat Davidson seemed to guarantee that 6 out of the 11 Board members would be inclined to “reform” how the STRS management had been investing our monies. But this was not to be the case. 

Incredibly, the day before the Pat Davidson election victory was to be announced, Governor DeWine’s office abruptly removed his previously appointed Board member Wade Steen. Steen was “reform” minded and often raised questions about investments. He also raised questions about the millions of dollars in STRS performance bonuses being doled out when STRS investment staff “beat’ what he considered questionable financial benchmarks. 

When Governor DeWine booted Wade Steen off the Board, he was replaced with Brent Bishop, who had previously donated $100,000 to the Governor’s election. Of note, STRS election results were known to the STRS staff before they were released to the public. The reason the Governor gave for pulling Steen off the Board was weak. The Governor erroneously claimed Wade Steen missed too many meetings. This was quickly debunked, but ignored, by the Governor’s office. Also interesting was the response given by STRS senior management on May 18, 2023, when a Board member publicly asked senior management when they were aware Wade Steen was going to be replaced. The STRS executive director’s response was that they learned of the news when the rest of the Board did; and that was through the public media. In any event, the Governor’s interference rebalanced the Board back to maintaining the status-quo. This would allow for high risk and non- transparent investments with hidden fees. 

These investments are impossible for trustees to audit and pave the way for the investment staff to obtain millions in performance bonuses. In the backdrop, retirees go without annual cost-of-living-adjustments and teachers now contribute 14% of their monies into a pension that has increased the number of years they have to work to reach full pension benefits, not to mention they no longer are guaranteed inflation protection. 

What was troubling about the Governor’s actions was that he was either ignorant of Ohio Codes, or that he willfully ignored them. In Ohio, a governor appointee either is appointed to serve “at will,” or the appointee serves for a “term.” In Ohio law, the governor’s appointee to the STRS Board specifically states that the appointee serves for a term. 

This breach of Ohio law didn’t go unrecognized. ORTA anticipated the need to protect our pension when we started the ORTA Defense Fund. Our executive committee made the decision to finance Wade Steen legal fees as he battled the Governor’s Office actions which would hinder needed reform at STRS. 

So, after nine months of legal wrangling and several tens of thousands of dollars raised and spent, ORTA thought we had achieved a huge victory. The victory wasn’t only for ORTA, but for all grassroots members such as the Facebook groups like the Ohio STRS Members Only Forum, and the STRS Ohio Watchdogs who helped raise the monies. 

On February 6th, 2024, the Appellate Court of the Tenth District in Ohio court made a preliminary finding and ruled that pro-teacher Board member Wade Steen should be reinstated to the STRS board. The magistrate determined Mr. Steen was wrongfully removed by the Governor last year. 

However, this victory was short lived because it appears the governor has a hidden motive. If anyone thought perhaps the Governor just made a mistake and was going to ride the mistake out, the governor’s next actions might end up being his defining moment. Despite the Tenth District Court of Appeal's findings, the governor's office decided to brazenly ignore the findings of the court. Read on…he does it again! 

After the Tenth District’s Court's findings, Brent Bishop decided to resign from the seat from which the Tenth District Court of Appeals magistrate determined he was wrongfully appointed; the governor subsequently decided to ignore the court’s findings, and arrogantly appointed yet another person. At this time the governor has appointed Brian Perera to the seat. For some strange reason the governor’s office is showing the voters of Ohio and the courts of Ohio that he is above the law. ORTA members, please know that we will not stand by and watch one man’s arrogance or hidden agenda stand in the way of bringing transparency and accountability back to our pension system.