Columbus Dispatch on resignations of Lynn Hoover and Matt Worley

Ohio teachers' pension fund to lose 2 key executives amid turmoil

State Teachers Retirement System of Ohio will lose its interim director and investments chief in the latest round of exits

Laura A. Bischoff

Columbus Dispatch
September 26, 2024

Less than a week after negotiating an exit deal with its executive director, the State Teachers Retirement System of Ohio got news that its interim director and chief investment officer plan to leave the pension fund in the coming months.

Interim Executive Director Lynn Hoover told board members that she plans to retire in December when her contract ends and that Matt Worley, the CIO, will leave at the end of March.

The system currently has and will have significant holes to fill in its executive team: executive director, chief financial officer, head of audit and investments chief. It recently hired new people to lead its human resources and actuary departments.

Hoover's decision to retire came less than a week after the board deadlocked 5-5 on a no-confidence vote in the STRS senior leadership team.

STRS Ohio is governed by an 11-member board board that includes appointees and elected members. The board oversees more than $90 billion invested for 500,000 teachers and retirees.

Activists have been mounting a board takeover, electing board members who are more sympathetic to their complaints about transparency, senior leadership, staff bonuses, and the suspension of the cost-of-living allowances for retirees. Some of the reformers had called for executive director Bill Neville to be ousted.

The board agreed this month to a buyout package for Neville that will cost the system $1.65 million.

The pension fund board has been roiling with controversies for a few years. Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost filed suit against STRS Chairman Rudy Fichtenbaum and board member Wade Steen, alleging that they violated their fiduciary duties to the system. Both board members deny the allegations.

Gov. Mike DeWine reappointed Steen to the STRS board but later, in May 2023, replaced him with another man. Steen waged a successful legal battle and returned to the board in April 2024. His term on the board expires Sept. 27.

The Ohio Retirement for Teachers Association, a non-profit that advocates for policies and benefits at STRS, paid the legal bills for Steen and Fichtenbaum.

Fichtenbaum received $27,451 in 2024 and Steen received $53,204 in legal support this year and another $34,164 in 2023. The payments could conflict with state ethics laws.

The Ohio Ethics Commission has said that public officials can't accept contributions to pay for their legal defense from any "prohibited" sources - those that have interests before the public agency. Ethics Commission Director Paul Nick said whether ORTA is a prohibited source would have to be determined via an investigation.

Read the article online here.