Dan MacDonald's summary of the April 18, 2024 STRS Board meeting (or was it a circus?)

WADE STEEN SEATED. CHAIR ADJOURNS MEETING WITHOUT VOTE

From Dan MacDonald

April 20, 2024

Rob Walters and Dan MacDonald attended the April 18, 20224 STRS Board Meeting.  

Four committees met before the actual Board meeting.  Governance, Audit, Investment, and Legislative. All the committees voted on a chair and reviewed a committee charter document which was to be motioned and voted in the Routine Matters portion of the agenda.  The report out by committees nor the vote on the documents happened. [More to follow.]  

The actual April Board meeting started at 10:35 am with approval of March minutes followed by a presentation by outside consultant Mary Remson, PRP, CPP-T, regarding what is a Retirement Board Committee and what are common procedures. [The Funston Audit pushed the Board to have more active committee work.]  Following, outside consultant AON presented on STRS’s Board move to an Enterprise Performance Risk Management framework which is a holistic approach noted in the Funston Audit to improve the current risk assessment process.   

Public Participation was next.  Ten people spoke.  One active and 9 retirees.  The active spoke on STRS “staying the course” the other nine addressed concerns, including concerns/outcomes of the move from Express Scripts to CVS prescription plan.   

A ninety-minute Executive Session/Lunch break was then declared. Toward the end of the ninety minutes Wade Steen appeared and told the gallery he was back. [Wade Steen went to court after his removal from the Board by Governor DeWine. The court ruled on Thursday morning, 4/18/2024, that he had the right to the seat and Mr. Steen immediately came with the court order to STRS.]  

When the Board returned, the most recent DeWine appointee, Brian Perera, was gone and Wade Steen was in his seat complete with name plaque. Chair Price called the meeting back and Mr. Steen requested he be sworn in once again.  The Chair objected.  The Parliamentarian said no person could take over the meeting when Steen moved to be sworn in. Motions were made.  Comments were made.  Votes went 6-4; Herrington was not present. 

Ultimately, Steen was ceremonially sworn in. When decorum returned, Chair Price altered the agenda to Routine Matters.  No committees reported out, finances and approvals were made. At the end of Routine Matters Chair Price hammered the gavel and declared adjournment without the Board voting to adjourn. [If the video is posted on STRS, watch the end of the meeting.]   

Ultimately the meeting went into a recess, and after a short time a representative of the Attorney General’s Office went to the podium and declared the meeting adjourned and refused to take questions.   

[The Board, STRS, the AG office should be ashamed. We do not know who directed Chair Price to manipulate the meeting to Routine Matters and Adjournment, or whether he did this on his own, but contributing members and retirees deserve non-political, functioning Board meetings.   

The 2024 Budget was not presented [think salary increases]; the 2025 Performance-Based Incentives were not discussed [think major divide]; the Investment Department did not share its monthly review [March a positive 2.02%, investment assets $94.6 billion]; there was no Executive Director’s Report; there was no Disability Review Panel Follow-up [think removing Board members from panel], nor Old/New Business.  In other words, the afternoon agenda was abandoned by the Chair. Chair’s after meeting remarks are below in STRS’s E Update.] 

The next meeting dates are May 15-17, The Board meeting should be May 16th.