Thursday, June 29, 6000
Tuesday, February 15, 4000
STRS Ohio Watchdogs: a public Facebook group you can join
Sunday, August 27, 3950
Have you joined the Ohio STRS Member Only Forum on Facebook?
Click image to enlarge
Monday, June 25, 3900
Monday, June 24, 3850
Wednesday, May 28, 3800
Friday, February 27, 3750
Sunday, April 11, 3700
Thursday, March 10, 3650
Friday, February 24, 3550
Monday, April 29, 3450
I know, it's weird.........
Monday, February 24, 3400
This is an abbreviated version of the original 'Handy links' post. Click here to view a more complete list. (Some of it is old.)
State legislators.......State of Ohio website
Tuesday, February 24, 3350
Dennis Leone's STRS Report to ORTA, March 2007
Tuesday, February 23, 3300
Tuesday, March 28, 2023
VOTE FOR PAT DAVIDSON FOR STRS BOARD
Sunday, March 26, 2023
What happens if your local teachers association leaves the OEA and the NEA? Several NE Ohio groups have done just that, and they are flourishing. Take a look. (OEA, maybe you should, too.)
“We love our local union, but don’t like what the OEA has done with our pension.”
Tuesday, March 21, 2023
Bill Neville's testimony before the Ohio House Pensions Committee 3/21/2023
House Pensions Committee Meeting
March 21, 2023
Monday, March 20, 2023
Dan MacDonald to STRS Board 3/16/2023: Demand to know the full story on passive investments
From Dan MacDonald
Dan MacDonald reports on that long, long March 2023 STRS Board meeting
From Dan MacDonald
Friday, March 17, 2023
Dean Dennis to STRS Board, 3/16/2023: Some critical findings from State Auditor Faber and financial expert Richard Ennis
March 16, 2023 - Dean Dennis, retiree from Cincinnati Public Schools, ORTA President Elect
• You need to keep the promises to the people who were made reliant, based upon those promises.
• Based upon those promises, people structured their lives accordingly and they should be entitled to the benefits of that bargain.
That was the message from State Auditor Keith Faber a week ago at a meeting of the Ohio Retirement Study Council.
His other takeaways: a lack of transparency, whether actual or perceived, which has spawned the distrust, misunderstandings, and accusations that made the special audit necessary.
He also shared that STRS should strive to be as transparent as possible regarding the funds held in their trust. He suggested reconsidering trade secret provisions that shield investment decisions from scrutiny, to eliminate the distrust harbored by many beneficiaries towards the STRS investment staff. He further stated it would be beneficial to reconsider performance bonuses, noting that the one thing his office really flagged was the use of awarding bonuses by using internal benchmarks.
ORTA and social media groups agree with our state auditor. We also take seriously the findings of widely recognized financial expert Richard Ennis, who points out that STRS is underperforming industry-accepted benchmarks. Like our state auditor, Ennis believes STRS's active management of funds has cost the pension fund members tens of billions of dollars.
Trustees, our members cannot make the needed changes. Only you can. Members can only elect seven trustees who they believe are listening to them, and vote the others out. To our appointed trustees, we hope you hear our concerns and grasp the extent of our financial injuries. When we have concerns as to whether you are listening to us, we can only lobby those who appointed you.
Last month there was a vote of confidence taken, regarding our executive director. It didn't pass. We thank our Board for taking that vote, making it quite clear which trustees were open to reform as opposed to those who are content with business as usual. "Business as usual" has gotten us to a point where our teachers are forced to pay 14% of their salaries for a projected 12% return in value upon retirement.
Lastly, regarding inflation relief. On behalf of members we want to give a thank you to the trustees who voted for the one-time COLA last year. Not on the Board last year were trustees Falls, Foreman, Jones and Sellers. Trustee Steen was not in attendance. So a thank you to trustees Correthers, Fichtenbaum, Herrington, Hunt and Price for your "yes" votes.
Suzanne Laird to STRS Board, March 16, 2023: Cut the blarney; cut the bonuses
Suzanne Laird's speech to the STRS Board, March 16, 2023
Wednesday, March 15, 2023
Robin Rayfield on STRS's huge loss in the Silicon Valley Bank failure
Message from ORTA to Members
Robin Rayfield's March 2023 report to ORTA members
ORTA Executive Director Robin Rayfield's report to members
[See “Lies, Damn Lies and Benchmarks,” Journal of Investing, forthcoming.] VIEW HERE
Wednesday, March 08, 2023
Sunday, March 05, 2023
The Mess at STRS: Why we need Pat Davidson on the STRS Board
The following information was compiled from two Facebook Groups, Ohio STRS Member Only Forum and STRS Ohio Watchdogs, to educate ACTIVE TEACHERS regarding:
THE MESS AT STRS
ARE YOU AWARE?
• STRS claims to be “one of the nation’s premier pension systems,” yet all retirees have gone at least five years without a COLA (Cost of Living Adjustment). For those who retired prior to 2013, the majority have gone without their contractually agreed 3% COLA for nearly 10 years.
• Active teachers receive the least for their employee contribution upon retirement when compared to other educators in the US. Actives must pay 14% and work additional years, only to receive a reduced retirement benefit based upon five years Final Average Salary.
• STRS Investment staff are paid millions of dollars annually in bonuses, while our benefits are cut. STRS’s Chief Investment Officer, Matt Worley, earned a $446,481 performance- based incentive (PBI) last year in addition to his $373,000 salary = $819,481 annual income.
• Ohio law requires a fiduciary audit of STRS every ten years; however, it took 16 years before the last state audit was completed. Ohio State Auditor Keith Faber found that STRS missed out on $90 billion in gains from 2009-2021 due to poor investment strategies by STRS’s investment staff.
• STRS failed to implement key findings from this 2006 fiduciary audit (requiring more auditors, etc.).
• STRS retired members were so upset with the lack of transparency by STRS and the loss of COLA that they crowd-funded $75,000 of their own money for a forensic audit. OFT contributed $10,000. Hamilton County Retirees contributed $15,000. OEA was asked to donate, but they DECLINED.
• The 2021 forensic audit found that STRS overstates performance and understates expenses.
• It also found that STRS in-house investment strategies costs members $400 million annually.
• It revealed that STRS doesn’t know, or won’t tell, the value of its “alternate investments,” which have hidden fee structures. Warren Buffet repeatedly warns against these alternate investments, preferring simple index fund investing (which would have earned STRS $90 billion from 2009-2021).
• This forensic audit also determined that STRS is not transparent in its overall investments.
• In one alternate investment alone, Panda Power, STRS lost $525 million in 2018.
• The Panda Power loss was not publicly reported to the Board until three years after Panda Power’s bankruptcy, and only came to light due to the retirees’ crowd-funded forensic audit.
CONCERNS EXPRESSED TO GOVERNOR DEWINE BY RETIREE M. KAY TAYLOR AND OTHERS:
• STRS investment practices: Exorbitant expenses including consulting fees and hidden fund fees, high risk investment practices, losses (e.g., Panda Power, Infinity Q, etc.), and lack of transparency.
• STRS staff salary increases and bonuses: This includes the 6% raise to STRS employees and more than $10 million in performance-based incentives (PBIs) to investment staffers in 2022.
• STRS 2006 fiduciary audit findings: STRS ignored directives from the Ohio Retirement Study Council whose job is to provide oversight to the five state pension systems.
• STRS Board and staff member travel: This includes “international and alternative investment due diligence trips to England, Turkey, China and Japan” (September 2019 STRS Expense Notes) and trips to Japan and India (November 2019 STRS Expense Notes).
• Denying access to records: Wade Steen, STRS Board member/appointee of the Governor’s office, has been denied access to records by STRS that would allow him to meet his fiduciary obligation. He requested a special meeting of the Board in past years to discuss restoration of the COLA and reduction in active teacher contributions. The requested meeting still has not taken place.
• Benchmark Financial Services forensic auditor Ed Siedle and attorney Marc Dann have been denied access to STRS public files. STRS refuses to allow them to review our fund management for us.
• STRS has regional real estate offices in San Francisco, Atlanta, Chicago, and New York, staffed with numerous STRS employees. How well are these investors doing for us? Here is an example: STRS paid the highest amount per square footage ever recorded in Dallas history ($700 per sq. ft.) in 2019 for a downtown high-rise, at $180 million; in 2018, that same building had been sold for $46 million.
PLEASE NOTE:
• STRS active members contribute 14% of their salary to the pension fund, among the highest contribution rate for teachers in the nation. The combined 14% from active teachers and matching 14% from schools is the third highest rate in the nation. (FYI: Missouri and Nevada are slightly higher).
• Active teachers are faced with increased years of service to become eligible for unreduced retirement benefits (35 years of service at any age or 5 years of service at 65 years of age).
• Newly retired Ohio teachers must wait five years to receive a COLA. Former retirees’ lifetime 3% COLA was frozen in 2013, reduced to 2% in 2014-2016 and eliminated in 2017. In 2022, they were provided a one-year only 3% COLA with no promise to them or to actives for any future COLA. Actives have no guarantee that they will ever receive a COLA in their retirement years.
• STRS has a fiduciary responsibility to over 500,000 members who provide years of service to Ohio schools and who may be entirely financially dependent on their STRS pension and COLA.
• THE STATE OF OHIO AUDITOR, in a December, 2022 special audit, recognized that STRS did not keep up with the S&P 500 from 2009-2021, which could have generated $90 billion for the fund.
A SIMPLE COLA CHART PRIMER FOR BEGINNERS: Losses due to the loss of a 2% COLA; Ohio state law lowered the COLA from 3% to 2% for 2014-2016, then eliminated it.)
BRING ABOUT CHANGE BY VOTING FOR BETTER REPRESENTATION ON THE STRS BOARD!
The next STRS Board election is this coming spring, 2023, and incumbent Board member Arthur Lard (active teacher member) needs to be shown the door. He has voted for huge, annual, multi-million dollar bonuses for STRS staff, continued pay increases for employees (6% in 2022) and NO COLA for retired teachers. He has not imposed even ONE SACRIFICE for STRS. If you do not vote, we will all continue to suffer. The spring 2023 election is for active teachers only.
VOTE FOR PATRICK DAVIDSON, REFORM CANDIDATE, FOR THE STRS BOARD!
Join the Ohio STRS Member Only Forum and STRS Ohio Watchdogs on Facebook (website: https://www.strsohiowatchdogs.com/). Join ORTA (Ohio Retirement for Teachers Association; active teachers can join for a mere $10). These groups will provide information and help you keep apprised of this situation.