Toledo Blade on the continuing saga of Wade Steen's seat on the STRS Board

Toledo Blade

Published: February 10, 2024

Musical chairs on state teachers pension board continues

BY JIM PROVANCE 

BLADE COLUMBUS BUREAU CHIEF

COLUMBUS — Gov. Mike DeWine named a new member to the State Teachers Retirement System board after his replacement for original seat holder Wade Steen suddenly resigned Friday. 

G. Brent Bishop submitted letters of resignation for both that seat and his seat on the University of Toledo Board of Trustees. 

His letters did not spell out the reasons for those resignations, but they came after a state appellate court magistrate recommended that Mr. Bishop be removed from the pension fund board and replaced with the man that he replaced, Mr. Steen.

The magistrate opined that the Republican governor did not have the authority to revoke Mr. Steen’s reappointment to the seat last year with more than a year left in his four-year term at the time. 

On Friday, the governor named consultant and former long-time legislative budget expert Brian M. Perera, of Upper Arlington, to what remains of the Steen/Bishop term, which ends on Sept. 27. 

All of this occurs amid a power struggle on the board. Mr. Steen had aligned himself with some retired teachers who have demanded reform of the board’s investment practices, challenging incentive bonuses paid to in-house investment staff, and objecting to long stretches without cost-of-living adjustments. 

Magistrate Thomas W. Scholl III of the 10th District Court of Appeals, who heard evidence in the suit brought by Mr. Steen, has recommended that the court order Mr. Steen restored to this old seat. He opined that Mr. DeWine could not remove him in mid-term and that there was no vacancy to which Mr. Bishop could have been appointed. There was a vacancy this time. 

DeWine spokesman Dan Tierney said the resignation did not appear to be a reaction to the magistrate’s recommendation.

“It has been an honor and privilege to serve on the STRS Board. Effective immediately, I am resigning from the STRS Board,” Mr. Bishop wrote in an email to the governor’s office on Friday. 

There was an almost identical email related to his UT trustee position.

The governor did not consider restoring Mr. Steen, a certified public accountant, to that seat.

“The governor’s concerns that led to his replacement still remain,” Mr. Tierney said. The governor had questioned Mr. Steen’s attendance record at board meetings.

Read the rest of the article here.