Cathy Steinhauser to STRS board: Intimidating board members through lies is despicable. Do the right thing and restore our COLA sooner than later.

Cathy Steinhauser's speech to STRS board

October 17, 2024

Cathy Steinhauser – 35 yrs., satellite teacher of Family & Consumer Sciences through Pickaway/Ross CTC for Circleville City Schools.

I am aware that we now have two new board members this month. Welcome, and STRS pensioners are counting on you to do what’s right in making decisions that impact our everyday lives.  I’m a person who has the reputation for reminding the board members of their fiduciary duty.  You see, I have been schooling the board members on this topic for over 20 board mtgs.  Yes, you heard that right…it’s 21 now. Why do I keep doing this, you might be thinking? As teachers, we will repeat a lesson until the class fully understands it…sometimes it takes 20 or more repeated reminders. It’s been apparent to us pensioners that a lot of decisions haven’t been made with our best interests in mind. We have been missing a permanent COLA for many years. I have been retired for almost 9-1/2 yrs. and have discovered that I am deficient in my COLA by $45,000!! Yes, that’s what I said…$45,000.  I didn’t cause this, I didn’t do anything wrong as I paid my 10%, then 14% over 35 years and then 6 more years after retirement working in our after school program twice a week, so more was paid beyond.  I trusted STRS to do what they were hired to do and now, as our acting Executive Director said in response to a reporter’s question, “It feels like a slap in the face”. We pensioners have had to tighten our belts for way too long.  We have members who are living in poverty due to no sufficient COLA.  We’ve had pensioners die before getting consistent COLAs. We have pensioners these past 4 yrs. experiencing real hardship with prices up on groceries, gas, utilities, clothing etc. but STRS staff and investment group have been given bonuses to make their lives even more enriched. Shameful, disgusting, disrespectful and STRS owns this.

I’ll leave you with the definition of FIDUCIARY again from The Merriam-Webster Dictionary: “A person who acts on behalf of another person or persons putting the client’s interests ahead of their own, with a duty to preserve good faith and trust. Being a fiduciary requires being bound both LEGALLY AND ETHICALLY to act in others' best interests”.  In other words, fiduciaries at STRS are required to take care of ONLY the pensioners.  With all the unethical decisions that have occurred the past 20 years, there should be many serving time and/or restitution or fired. Too many irresponsible mistakes have occurred in 20 yrs. If pensioners aren’t given a COLA, no one at STRS should be given a bonus. A mess has been made of STRS and needs to be cleaned up.  STRS needs to run this pension more frugally.

I also still haven’t found any information about a pension fiduciary obligated to being a fiduciary to the STRS employees, which was mentioned during a board meeting a few months ago…most likely because it is a lie…certain people in this room should not speak of things they know not of. Intimidating board members through lies is despicable. Do the right thing and restore our COLA sooner than later.