Appeals court orders reinstatement of ousted teachers pension board member
COLUMBUS — A state appeals
court on Thursday unanimously
found that Gov. Mike DeWine
did not have the authority to
remove teachers pension board
member and investment expert
Wade Steen in mid-term and
ordered his reinstatement.
The board of the State Teachers Retirement System of Ohio was meeting just a few blocks away, so Mr. Steen immediately walked over and entered a behind-closed-doors executive session that was under way with the second man appointed to replace him, Brian Perera.
When that meeting ended, Mr. Perera was gone, and Mr. Steen took his seat at the regular meeting.
But it was unclear whether the state will appeal the ruling. The four-year term to which Mr. Steen was appointed expires on Sept. 27.
“The statute unambiguously requires that the two investment expert members of the STRS board ‘be appointed for four-year terms,’” Judge Kristin Boggs wrote for the 10th District Court of Appeals in Columbus. “Based on that plain statutory language, we agree with the magistrate’s conclusion that, unless appointing a midterm replacement to fill a vacancy in the office, ‘the governor had no power to make an appointment of an investment expert member to the board for a term of either less than or more than four years.’”
In fact, the panel went further than the magistrate in determining that state law denies the governor such authority.
Mr. Perera, an Upper Arlington consultant and former state legislative budget expert, never returned to the regular meeting. A paper nameplate fashioned by a retired teacher replaced the official nameplate of Mr.Perera at the members’ desk.
The court overruled Mr. Perera’s objections to the magistrate’s conclusions and granted summary judgment in Mr. Steen’s favor. It issued a writ “ousting Perera from the office of the governor’s appointed investment expert member of the STRS board and reinstating Steen to that office, to which he has established a clear legal right.”
STRS is the second-largest public employee pension fund in Ohio and among the largest in the nation, with $91 billion in assets and nearly 540,000 active, inactive, and retired members as of June 30.
Mr. Steen insisted on again taking his oath of office to erase any suggestion his votes would be invalid.
“I’ve waited a year,” he said. “You can wait five minutes...It’s just to be doubly sure that I’m legitimately a member of this board. I was illegally removed. I have been returned today, This is just a precautionary measure.”
Soon after that oath, the board’s chairman, Dale Price, abruptly adjourned the meeting, putting an end to the rest of the meeting agenda. That agenda would have included discussion about future performance bonuses for in-house investment staff. A group of retired teachers has objected to such bonuses in the past.
It also blocked a likely attempt to remove Mr. Price as chairman. Judging by the preliminary votes surrounding Mr. Steen’s oath that were decided 6-4, it appeared that the power dynamic on the board has shifted in the reformers’ favor with Mr. Steen’s reinstatement.
Mr. Price and board members on the other side of the power dynamic left the room without talking to reporters.
Mr. Steen, a certified public accountant, was first appointed to the board in 2016 by then Gov. John Kasich and was reappointed by Mr. DeWine in 2020. But the governor recalled him last year with more than a year left in his second term amid a power struggle on the board in which Mr. Steen had allied himself with some retired teachers demanding reforms.
At the time, the governor had objected to Mr. Steen’s meeting attendance record.
These retirees have objected to how the board has invested its portfolio, challenged the performance bonuses, and demanded restoration of once annual cost-of-living adjustments in retiree benefits.
At first, Mr. DeWine replaced Mr. Steen with G. Brent Bishop, a Columbus business consultant and, at the time, a University of Toledo trustee. But a 10th District magistrate opined that the governor didn’t have the authority to remove Mr. Steen. Mr. Bishop later resigned, and Mr. DeWine replaced him with Mr. Perera.
However, the all-Democrat, three-judge panel has now agreed with the court magistrate’s opinion that there never was a vacancy in the first place to which anyone could have been appointed.
Mr. Steen’s Toledo attorney, Norman Abood, said board members initially balked at Mr. Steen’s return during the executive session, noting they had yet to read the just-issued decision.
“I said it’s effective immediately,” he said. “It’s an effective, enforceable order until it’s reversed by some other court, and the failure to follow it will be considered contempt of court.”
Chris DeMarco, of Stow, an executive board member of the Ohio Retirement for Teachers Association, said during a break in the meeting that the broken promise of annual cost-of-living raises has hurt retirees, particularly when inflation has spiked in recent years. He said the current board seems to have tried drive a wedge between retired teachers collecting benefits and the active members still putting part of their paychecks into the system.
“We have a mutual interest,” he said. “We’re just at a later stage in the continuum. Sometimes when you’re an active teacher, you’re young, you’re healthy, and you’re raising a family, you’re not thinking about 30, 35 years down the road. But it comes up, and it comes up quickly, and it becomes a real issue. “
By Jim ProvanceApril 18, 2024
Donna C. Weaver, ACRTA's Beloved "Chaplain," Passes Away
It is with deep sadness that we note the passing of Donna Weaver who served on the leadership team of ACRTA for many years. Donna directed, researched, and led the educators' memorial services each year and gave the invocations at all our meetings. She also served on the Executive Committee and helped in innumerable ways to foster the mission and growth of ACRTA and ORTA. Donna's was a life of service in all aspects of her life. Her kindness and deep faith affected everyone who met her. She will be deeply missed.
Donna C. Weaver Obituary
Donna C. Weaver, 82 of Ashland passed away on Tuesday, March 26, 2024 in Ohio Health MedCentral Hospital in Mansfield.
She was born on April 7, 1941 in Ashland and was the daughter of the late Donald E. and Evelyn E. (nee Cooper) Workman.
Donna graduated from Loudonville High School, Class of 1959. She went on to further her education and earned a bachelor’s degree in education from the Ohio State University in 1979. Donna later earned a master’s degree from Ashland College in 1988.
She married the love of her life, Leroy Weaver on July 15, 1961. Together they would make Ashland their home for the next 62 years.
Donna was a devoted member of the First United Methodist Church in Ashland where she and Bud Reader were instrumental in the rebuilding of the church after the fire. For many years she served on the café connection, helped with funeral dinners, and was a church camp counselor. Along with her activities at the church, she was a member of the Athena Book Club, Peddle Pushers Garden Club, Delta Kappa Gamma and a board member of the Ashland County Retired Teacher. Donna was an avid supporter of the Ashland Symphony Orchestra, the Ashland County Community Foundation and the Ashland High School Musical.
She is survived by her loving husband, Leroy Weaver of Ashland, one daughter, Kim L. Liston of Ashland; one grandson, Benjamin David (Amber) Liston of Columbus; three great grandchildren, Piper, Lucien, and Irving Liston of Columbus; one brother, Frederick Steven (Cammie) Workman of Perrysville; and a sister-in-law, Maggie Workman of Ashland, and many nieces and nephews.
In addition to her parents, Donna is preceded in death by two sons, Bruce A. Weaver who passed away on April 23, 1964, and Gregg Michael Weaver who passed away on February 12, 1989; and two brothers, Robert (Donna) Workman and Thomas Workman.
Funeral services will be held on Saturday, April 6, 2024 at 11:00 a.m. at the First United Methodist Church with Vicar Derek Kubilus and the Reverend Tom Snyder presiding. Friends may call one hour prior to the service from 10:00 a.m. to 11:00 a.m. at the church. Interment will be in the Ashland Cemetery at the later date.
In lieu of flowers memorial contributions may be made to: Ashland First United Methodist Church, Ashland Symphony Orchestra, or to the Ashland High School Theater (Musical).
For those who may not be able to attend, online condolences may be shared on the funeral home’s website at denbowfh.com.
From ORTA's New President
President Dean Dennis
Greetings ORTA Members,
As your new President, I am grateful to the leadership of the Presidents before me, namely Bee Lehner, Kara Mendenhall and Chris DeMarco. I also want to acknowledge Robin Rayfield, ORTA's Executive Director, and Mia Landrum ORTA's Office Manager, who work tireless for our organization. My involved with this group of individuals has led me to my commitment to help ORTA with its mission to make our pension system more effective for Ohio's educators. I believe that ORTA's advocacy and monitoring of our pension plan will make a difference.
ORTA members, thank you for supporting our 76 year old organization and for your dedication to the teaching profession. Please know the ORTA office depends on the leadership, compassion and camaraderie found in ORTA's five regions and their local chapters.
Some background about myself. Both of my parents were the first in their family to go to college, both went into education and both drew their pensions from STRS. My dad grew up in rural New Holland, Ohio, and retired as a principal from the St. Bernard School District in Ohio. My mom grew up in Cincinnati and retired as a math teacher from the Finneytown School District. She also served as the local Finneytown Education Association (FEA) President. As a child, the first acronym I knew was "STRS" as my parents often talked shop at the dinner table. Growing up, my brother and I knew teachers didn't get rich. But we knew it was an honorable profession. In addition to teaching, I remember my mom taught sewing on the side and my dad painted houses. Our parents taught us that life was what you made of it.
I graduated from the University of Cincinnati with a Psychology degree and shortly thereafter obtained a Masters degree in Education. Armed with a degree I could actually use, I launched a 35 year career with The Cincinnati Public Schools. I began by career by teaching severe behavioral handicapped children.
Eventually, I became one of the first out of classroom Lead Teachers for the Cincinnati School district and oversaw the district's School Social Work Department. In between serving in this position, I served 10 years in the Cincinnati Federation of Teachers (CFT) office as a Field Representative. These duties included enforcing the Collective Bargaining Agreement and working with the district's CFT Building Representatives. When I retired in 2008, I was overseeing the School Social Worker Department again and serving as the district's court liaison. I also was serving as a CFT Vice President.
In 2010, I became aware of the planned Draconian cuts that STRS was going to present before the Ohio Legislature. Like many of you, I felt the changes were unfair for both active teachers and retirees.
However, what I really wanted to know is, how and why did this happen? I started attending the STRS Board meetings with Bob Buerkle, former CFT Retirement Chair, to listen for an explanation that made sense. There really weren't any good answers. Often I would sign up to speak to offer ideas or express my displeasure. I felt no one was listening and STRS management and the majority of our Board were modeling the definition of the word "inertia."
It was while attending these meetings, I got to observe Dr. Robin Rayfield representing ORTA. He would also address the STRS Board. Meeting after meeting Robin would ask the STRS, "what is your plan to restore benefits?" Robin was always polite but persistent. When he'd sit back down, on occasion, I'd walk behind him and say, "they aren't going to answer you, they don't have a plan."
But STRS did have a "plan." It was what they did. They simply cut and withheld benefits to compensate for their subpar investment practices that weren't able to keep pace with the payouts members were promised or expecting. My thoughts were, not paying what were once promised obligations isn't a plan, it's a failure.
The current problems at STRS are three-fold: 1) The Employer Contribution rate has been locked at 14% for 40 years and they haven't made any lobbying efforts to increase the contribution rate. 2) STRS is actively managing their investments and continues to move more and more into risky Alternative Investments. These investments have too many non-disclosure agreements and hidden fees. Briefly, Alternative Investments are investments in which STRS is a Limited Partner but the monies are controlled by the General Partners. STRS cannot audit the value of these investments. It is questionable under Ohio Code 3307.15 whether these investments are even legal. STRS has approximately $20 billion in these investments. 3) STRS is dogmatic that their active investments outperform passive Index Investing practices. STRS states their case in the face of overwhelming evidence that demonstrates it doesn't. You may have read some articles written by Board Member Dr. Fichtenbaum and national investment expert Richard Ennis who challenge STRS over this issue. To form your own opinion, type into a Google Search, "How often do investment firms beat the market?" Keep in mind after your research that STRS earns their bonuses for beating their Benchmarks (which are tied to the market) 100% of the time.
So, here are my goals.
1) Increase Awareness, Increase Membership. We need to focus on making sure our pension system works for all members. Other teacher state pension plans don't require working 34
years; most also have an inflation formula for making sure once retired, your pension isn't stagnant.
We need to move towards a goal of reduction in years required for full pension benefits which includes a COLA that protects a member's purchasing power. We will offer membership to active and retired teachers and let them know that our focus is to make sure STRS is maximizing contribution dollars and not wasting their dollars on hidden fees, non disclosure agreements and investments that cannot be independently audited.
2) Elect Board Members who share our goals of transparent investment practices and will question STRS spending practices that don't benefit members. We need Board Members who demand transparent investments and who are open to exploring to new investment approaches. We need Board Members who direct STRS Lobbyist to work for members.
3) Lobby the Legislature to increase the Employer Contribution. The STRS Employer Contribution has been at 14% for 40 years. Meanwhile, other non social security states like Ohio average around 23% for their Employer Contribution. The $3 billion gap between the STRS monies collected annually in contributions and the payout obligations to members is unacceptable. ORTA needs to take a leadership role in lobbying the legislature to increase the Employer Contribution. This is critical in order to restore what has been taken away from us.
Let's continue our momentum. See if each of you can recruit one person to become an ORTA member and start visiting our new website for updated information. My Best, Dean Dennis
Finding Your COLA
Many of our ORTA/ACRTA members have asked how to find their COLA amount and effective date. Here are the steps to follow:
1. Log onto STRSOH.org
2. Login (username/password)
If you have never logged onto your retirement account, you will create your account first.
3. Complete "Multifactor Authentication" process.
4. Click on “My Home Page”.
5. Click on "Recipient Account".
6. Scroll down to access “Cost of living adjustment (COLA)”.
7. Your “Anniversary date” and “effective date” of your COLA will be posted.
8. Your retirement base (Benefit Base for COLA) on which the 3% will be determined is shown. All COLA increases are calculated on the original benefit amount (base) and are not compounded.
9. Your monthly increase (before taxes and deductions) is shown.
We’ve Only Just Begun!
With the election of two ORTA-supported STRS Board members, we have won only one battle in a much larger war. We must get one more active teachers Board member elected next May. NEA and OEA will spend millions of dollars against us – even more than they did in the last election - to retain control of the Board, to keep the status quo, and to protect their Wall Street alliances and current unjustifiable staff benefits.
This is not an effort to just re-establish an already-state-lay mandated COLA. The STRS Board must begin to value the welfare of retirees.
The current majority on the Board employs the STRS staff which should be there to the benefit of us retirees and future retirees. Unfortunately, the Board has totally surrendered to the dictates of the staff, which with the support of the current majority on the Board, will fight to protect their own outrageous benefits and self-interests. We must continue to demand an open, honest, and transparent board that has the will to represent the interests of those who paid/pay into the system.
In addition to making contact with legislators, writing editorial letters, and sharing information with other retirees, we need to make contact with active teachers and help them understand what is happening to their future retirements.
Many of our ORTA/ACRTA members are also supporting two other independent groups who are fighting to change the culture of the STRS Board and turn what should one of our greatest advocates back to showing as much honest concern for our welfare as they do for their own. There is NO COST to join either one.
1. STRS Ohio Watchdog. These fighters for retirees have researched and accumulated a wealth of resources documenting and trailing the misfeasance (or maybe malfeasance) of the Board and actively fight for our benefit:
STRS Ohio Watchdogs https://www.strsohiowatchdogs.com/
and also on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/groups/STRSOhioWatchdogs/members/
2. The Ohio STRS Member Only Forum provides an information exchange for members who are doing extensive research into the activities of the STRS and its Board members, past and present. They have identified many incriminating documents and data.
Ohio STRS Member Only Forum (moderated by John Curry) at
https://www.facebook.com/groups/OhioSTRSMemberOnlyForum
Click HERE to read a sample of articles shared from these two websites.
ORTA Creates Pension Defense Fund
An Ohio court is the latest battleground in our fight to bring common-sense reform and accountability to our failing pension system. Check out the below editorial to learn more.
ORTA has established a PENSION DEFENSE FUND to ensure it has the legal and professional resources necessary to continue its fight for pro-teacher policies and the reinstatement of pro-reform STRS board member Wade Steen.
Please consider a contribution of $10, $25, $50, $100 or even more – every dollar will be critical in this fight to take back our pension system.
In his more than seven years on the STRS board, Wade Steen has been an advocate for Ohio educators by fighting for transparency, accountability and change. He’s uncovered millions in hidden fees paid to Wall Street hedge funds and fought against unearned “performance” bonuses for STRS staff.
STRS is broken. Help us fight back by supporting board members like Wade Steen who are trying to fix it.
Save our Cola