Michelle Flanigan's win solidifies pro-reform majority on STRS Ohio board

Ohio State Teachers board election solidifies majority for reform trustees

From Pensions & Investments
May 13, 2024

By Rob Kozlowski

Ohio State Teachers’ Retirement System, Columbus, announced on May 11 that a so-called reform candidate has won its latest board election, solidifying a majority of trustees who have publicly called for the gutting of investment staff and moving to all index funds.

The winner was Michelle Flanigan, who will unseat Dale Price, the board’s current chairman, effective Sept. 1, according to a notice on the $94 billion pension fund’s website.

The board has 11 members and reformers currently hold a 6-5 majority, which was achieved on April 18 when the state’s 10th District Court of Appeals ruled that Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine did not have the authority in May 2023 to remove Wade Steen as his appointed investment expert on the board before the completion of his four-year term.

Steen and the other reformers have long been an advocate on behalf of retirees who have been angry over reduced and sometimes eliminated cost-of-living adjustments following the passage of a 2012 state law eliminating a 3% COLA and giving the board the authority to set them.

Reformers have blamed investment management costs among other administrative costs and have promoted the idea of gutting investment staff and moving to all index funds.

On Nov. 15, board candidate Flanigan posted a YouTube video (which is no longer available) touting the structure of the $58 million Nevada Public Employees’ Retirement System, Carson City, which invests nearly 90% of its assets in passive equities and fixed income. She displayed a chart proclaiming Nevada PERS as the "winner" based on having a staff of three investment professionals and higher one-year return; however the effective date of that return was not provided in the video and STRS had a higher 10-year annualized return in the chart she provided.

Flanigan’s victory will ensure a 7-4 majority for reformers, effective Sept. 1, although Steen’s time on the board will expire on Sept. 27. Still, her victory ensures a majority for the reformers for the time being.

Flanigan is a government, economics and financial literacy teacher at Brunswick City School District. The 11-member Ohio STRS board consists of seven trustees elected by STRS participants and four trustees appointed by state officials.

Read the article online here.