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