{"id":7107,"date":"2024-05-14T07:20:54","date_gmt":"2024-05-14T11:20:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dahlman.online\/?p=7107"},"modified":"2024-05-14T07:20:56","modified_gmt":"2024-05-14T11:20:56","slug":"crooked-men-and-crooked-staffs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dahlman.online\/index.php\/2024\/05\/14\/crooked-men-and-crooked-staffs\/","title":{"rendered":"Crooked Men and Crooked Staffs"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"\"><em>This is a long story &#8211; about teachers, power, pensions &#8211; and a lot (a lot!!!) of money.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Ohio Mud<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"\">In the past few months I\u2019ve written several essays on political corruption in Ohio.&nbsp;&nbsp; The leaders of the state have been \u201csteeped\u201d in corrupt activity, from Gerrymandering to paying-off  private industrial debt with public money.&nbsp;&nbsp;But somehow, Ohio comes across as politically  \u201cclean and pure\u201d.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"\">\u00a0In fact, Ohio\u2019s politics are as ugly as New Jersey, or Texas, or even Illinois.\u00a0\u00a0Our state just doesn\u2019t bother to send folks to jail. (But one &#8211;  ex-House Speaker Larry Householder, the notable exception to the rule.\u00a0\u00a0He \u201conly\u201d took a $60 Million bribe from power company Direct Energy).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"\">Now, there is a battle over corruption at the&nbsp;Ohio\u2019s State Teacher Retirement System (STRS). It&#8217;s been going on for the past several years (<em><a href=\"https:\/\/dahlman.online\/index.php\/2021\/08\/26\/whats-the-deal\/\">What&#8217;s the Deal<\/a>)<\/em>, but this week, it boiled out into the open.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">The System<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"\">The big picture:\u00a0\u00a0Ohio\u2019s public school teachers have a separate retirement system from the rest of the world.  Teachers don&#8217;t even pay into social security. They had no choices about how their retirement money was invested.\u00a0\u00a0It was \u201call in\u201d to STRS, originally for at least thirty years of teaching to get a \u201cfull\u201d retirement. (Teachers would get about two-thirds of their best three years).\u00a0\u00a0Teach an additional five years, and get almost equal to their best years as a pension.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"\">The money; a percentage of the teacher\u2019s salary matched by their school district, was \u201ccarefully\u201d invested by the investment staff \u201cwizards\u201d at STRS.&nbsp;&nbsp;And for decades that system worked, living up to the self-anointed claim to be a \u201cpremier\u201d retirement system.&nbsp;&nbsp;Retired teachers got annual Cost-of-Living-Allowances (COLA) of 3%. And for decades, they even received a \u201cthirteenth\u201d check at the end of the year.&nbsp;&nbsp;Insurance was cheap, and life was good for retirees.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">The Market<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"\">But the near back-to-back stock exchange disasters in 2001 (9-11) and 2008 (housing bubble bust) shook the retirement world.\u00a0\u00a0Add that to the number of \u201cBaby-Boomer\u201d teachers reaching retirement age, and the \u201cwizards\u201d were concerned.\u00a0\u00a0Could they keep up with the financial needs of ballooning retirees with fewer \u201cactive\u201d teachers paying into the system.\u00a0\u00a0In addition, actives were giving the option of splitting their contributions into a \u201cdefined contribution\u201d plan, more like a 401-k.\u00a0\u00a0That money wouldn\u2019t remain in the investment \u201cpot\u201d.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"\">Meanwhile Ohio\u2019s Republican Governor and state legislature gave the state retirement systems, including STRS, autonomous authority to change the structure of the pension plans, and to invest in private equity firms.\u00a0\u00a0It freed up the almost $90 billion in STRS investments for much more \u201ccreative\u201d investing.\u00a0\u00a0 It also let the legislators off the hook.  They didn&#8217;t have to vote to cut retirees.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">The Wizards<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"\">Retirement contributions increased from 10% to 14% of annual salary, now one of the most expensive in the Nation.\u00a0\u00a0School district contributions also increased to 14%.\u00a0\u00a0 Retirement benefits were cut.\u00a0\u00a0The \u201cthirteenth check\u201d disappeared,\u00a0\u00a0insurance costs went up, and the COLA was cut from 3% to 2%. Ultimately it was suspended indefinitely.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"\">STRS began hiring \u201cprivate wizards\u201d for the \u201cin-house wizards\u201d.\u00a0\u00a0Twenty percent of the over $90 Billion in investments went into private equity companies;  $20 billion privately controlled and invested rather than direct open control by STRS.\u00a0\u00a0And the \u201cin-house wizards\u201d also went into the real estate business. Almost 10% of the Fund was invested in Columbus, New York, Texas, Illinois and California (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.strsoh.org\/_pdfs\/investments\/assets-report.pdf\">STRS<\/a>).\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"\">The nature of the investment fund became murky, as those \u201cprivate\u201d funds were shrouded in layers of non-disclosure agreements.\u00a0\u00a0Even when the overall portfolio lost billions of dollars in value ($5.3 Billion in 2022 alone), the in-house\u00a0\u00a0\u201cwizards\u201d still paid private equity fees. And they continued to get millions of dollars in &#8220;performance bonuses&#8221; themselves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"\">Meanwhile active teachers were paying more into retirement, and retired teachers were losing more and more of their spendable income.\u00a0\u00a0From 2014 to 2023, the \u201cvalue\u201d of their original pension lost 32% in purchasing power without a cost of living increase.\u00a0\u00a0The cost of health insurance increased, and many retired teachers were forced back into the job market just to make ends meet.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">The Board<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"\">The Board that \u201cgoverns\u201d STRS is made up of eleven members.\u00a0\u00a0Four are appointed by the State Government (one each for the Treasurer, Legislature, Department of Education and the Governor).\u00a0\u00a0Two are elected by the retirees, and five are elected by active teachers.\u00a0\u00a0For decades the Board served as a \u201crubber stamp\u201d for the investment \u201cwizards\u201d, routinely approving bonuses and even allowing the Executive Director control over the Board&#8217;s own agenda.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"\">&nbsp;The Board didn\u2019t exercise oversight, and didn\u2019t seem to be concerned.&nbsp;&nbsp;And with the state government controlling four seats, and the major teacher union, the Ohio Education Association, controlling most of the other seven seats, STRS went on it\u2019s \u201cmerry\u201d way, despite the growing cries of retirees and the loss of confidence by many active teachers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"\">In 2021, retirees, dissatisfied with the \u201cpremier\u201d pension that left them with lower standards of living, organized to elect a reform slate to the Board.&nbsp;&nbsp;The Ohio Retired Teachers Association (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.orta.org\/\">ORTA<\/a>) teamed up with the Ohio STRS Members Only Forum (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/groups\/435230116841155\">MOF<\/a>, based on Facebook) and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.strsohiowatchdogs.com\">STRS Ohio  Watchdogs<\/a>  to change the elected Board members.&nbsp;&nbsp;The goal:&nbsp;&nbsp;to get Board members more concerned with the impact of STRS cuts on retirees, and on \u201cfuture retirees\u201d as well.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"\">The issue was clear:&nbsp;&nbsp;if the STRS fund had simply been invested in \u201cpassive\u201d funds, indexed to the stock market, over the past twenty years the fund would have doubled.&nbsp;&nbsp;It didn\u2019t take \u201cwizards\u201d to figure that out.&nbsp;&nbsp;Even with obvious buffers for market performance, the fund should have grown by billions, and never actually lost money.&nbsp;&nbsp;And STRS shouldn\u2019t be paying millions in private equity management fees, and millions more in professional staff&nbsp;bonuses, regardless of loss to the fund.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">The Money<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"\">It&#8217;s public money.&nbsp;&nbsp;It is the \u201cfruit of the labor\u201d of decades of teachers. (And for those who note that half of that money came directly from employing school districts \u2013 keep in mind that but for the teacher\u2019s labor, that money wouldn\u2019t be in the pension fund).&nbsp;&nbsp;It\u2019s \u201csurvival\u201d to the teachers and retirees who depend in good faith on the System.&nbsp;&nbsp;And clearly, it\u2019s been mismanaged, with no one held accountable.&nbsp;&nbsp;And who benefits from this mismanagement?&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"\">First of all, it\u2019s the \u201cwizards\u201d.&nbsp;&nbsp;The \u201cwizards\u201d work for STRS, get to set their own performance goals, hire the firms that determine whether those goals are achieved, and then pay themselves handsomely (last year, over $10 million in bonus money on top of six-figure salaries).&nbsp;&nbsp;Second, it\u2019s the private equity firms, who make millions in management fees, and have non-disclosure contracts preventing public scrutiny of their actions, even by the Board members.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"\">And, third, and perhaps most importantly, it\u2019s the politicians who receive campaign contributions from those private equity firms.&nbsp;&nbsp;They are \u201cvested\u201d in making sure the pension fund monies are available for \u201ctheir guys\u201d to make money on.&nbsp;&nbsp;The politicians get their \u201ccut\u201d, even if it\u2019s a <strong>legal<\/strong> contribution to a political fund.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"\">And where does the Ohio Education Association (<a href=\"https:\/\/ohea.org\/\">OEA<\/a>), the teacher\u2019s union, my union; stand? (In full disclosure \u2013 I am a former OEA local  President). They are all-in behind the \u201cwizards\u201d, and refuse to answer why.&nbsp;&nbsp;It\u2019s only speculation \u2013 but is there some tacit agreement between the union and the politicians they normally oppose?&nbsp;&nbsp;Is there some secret quid-pro-quo?&nbsp;&nbsp;It\u2019s hard to know.&nbsp;&nbsp;But what is for sure is that OEA is positive in their support of the \u201cold\u201d board, many of whose members moved onto state-level OEA governance positions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">The Governor<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"\">Over the past three years, both \u201cretiree\u201d seats on the board, and three of the \u201cactive\u201d teacher seats, were won by \u201creformers\u201d in legal, audited, fair elections.&nbsp;&nbsp;(Only retirees can vote for retired seats, only active teachers can vote for active seats).&nbsp;&nbsp;When the last active seat was won by Pat Davidson, an ORTA and MOF reformer, it looked like real change was at hand.&nbsp;&nbsp;The Governor\u2019s appointee, Wade Steen, had \u201cseen the light\u201d and come to the reformers\u2019 side.&nbsp;&nbsp;For the first time, there would be a \u201creform\u201d majority on the Board.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"\">Governor DeWine stepped in.&nbsp;&nbsp;He removed Steen from the board, replacing him with &#8211; wait for it &#8211; a real estate and securities manager and $100,000 DeWine campaign contributor.&nbsp;&nbsp;Steen sued to serve out the remainder of his term, and after several months the Common Pleas and Appellate Courts agreed with him.&nbsp;&nbsp;The tens of thousands of dollars of Steen&#8217;s legal expenses were paid by ORTA.&nbsp;&nbsp;Steen regained his seat in April and went to the Board meeting to take his place. &nbsp;Then the lame-duck active representative and Chairman of the Board, Dale Price, walked out of the meeting without a motion of adjournment.  That caused the Board to be unable to do business, and&nbsp;&nbsp;the meeting just ended.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">The Doubt<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"\">Last week, Michelle Flannigan, a reform candidate, was elected to fill Price\u2019s seat on the Board.&nbsp;&nbsp;Now with or without Steen, reformers will have control when her term begins in September.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"\">And DeWine received an \u201canonymous letter\u201d.  It claimed that the reform board members were in the \u201cthrall\u201d and \u201ccolluding\u201d with a business that does market indexing, called QED.&nbsp;&nbsp;In fourteen pages, the letter implies that QED has somehow \u201crigged\u201d the multiple elections held for Board seats in the past three years.&nbsp;&nbsp;DeWine, just \u201cdoing his duty\u201d, referred the letter to Ohio\u2019s Attorney General Dave Yost, another beneficiary of the private equity campaign money.&nbsp;&nbsp;Yost promises to \u201cprotect\u201d the retirement fund from \u201cundue private influence\u201d.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"\">So here we are in \u201cclean and pure\u201d Ohio.&nbsp;&nbsp;If you\u2019re a gambler (or investor), don\u2019t bet on the reform majority actually taking control in September.&nbsp;&nbsp;Odds are, Yost will do a \u201cspeedy\u201d investigation, and somehow disrupt things before there are seven votes to clean things up at STRS.&nbsp;&nbsp;The winners will be the governing party and, sadly, the Ohio Education Association, I guess.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"\">\u00a0But there\u2019s no guessing about who the losers will be:\u00a0\u00a0the retired teachers of Ohio, and just as importantly, the students of Ohio. Why the Students? Because the &#8220;premier&#8221; retirement system was a big draw for new teachers, even making up for the reduced salaries. Now those rookie teachers can look forward to joining current retirees in one thing:\u00a0\u00a0a retirement filled with financial doubt.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>This is a long story &#8211; about teachers, power, pensions &#8211; and a lot (a lot!!!) of money. Ohio Mud In the past few months I\u2019ve written several essays on political corruption in Ohio.&nbsp;&nbsp; The leaders of the state have been \u201csteeped\u201d in corrupt activity, from Gerrymandering to paying-off private industrial debt with public money.&nbsp;&nbsp;But &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/dahlman.online\/index.php\/2024\/05\/14\/crooked-men-and-crooked-staffs\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;Crooked Men and Crooked Staffs&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7107","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Crooked Men and Crooked Staffs : Our America - Essays on Politics and American Life<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/dahlman.online\/index.php\/2024\/05\/14\/crooked-men-and-crooked-staffs\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Crooked Men and Crooked Staffs : Our America - Essays on Politics and American Life\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"This is a long story &#8211; about teachers, power, pensions &#8211; and a lot (a lot!!!) of money. Ohio Mud In the past few months I\u2019ve written several essays on political corruption in Ohio.&nbsp;&nbsp; The leaders of the state have been \u201csteeped\u201d in corrupt activity, from Gerrymandering to paying-off private industrial debt with public money.&nbsp;&nbsp;But &hellip; Continue reading &quot;Crooked Men and Crooked Staffs&quot;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/dahlman.online\/index.php\/2024\/05\/14\/crooked-men-and-crooked-staffs\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Our America - Essays on Politics and American Life\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/m.facebook.com\/Dahlmanonline-610417212502642\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:author\" content=\"https:\/\/m.facebook.com\/Dahlmanonline-610417212502642\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2024-05-14T11:20:54+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2024-05-14T11:20:56+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/dahlman.online\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/IMG_3564-e1488996194684.jpg?fit=480%2C640&ssl=1\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"480\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"640\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Marty Dahlman\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@martydahlman\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@martydahlman\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Marty Dahlman\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"8 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/dahlman.online\\\/index.php\\\/2024\\\/05\\\/14\\\/crooked-men-and-crooked-staffs\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/dahlman.online\\\/index.php\\\/2024\\\/05\\\/14\\\/crooked-men-and-crooked-staffs\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Marty Dahlman\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/dahlman.online\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/5fa8c1b0305cf5f1f3633225843e621c\"},\"headline\":\"Crooked Men and Crooked Staffs\",\"datePublished\":\"2024-05-14T11:20:54+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2024-05-14T11:20:56+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/dahlman.online\\\/index.php\\\/2024\\\/05\\\/14\\\/crooked-men-and-crooked-staffs\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":1844,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/dahlman.online\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/5fa8c1b0305cf5f1f3633225843e621c\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/dahlman.online\\\/index.php\\\/2024\\\/05\\\/14\\\/crooked-men-and-crooked-staffs\\\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/dahlman.online\\\/index.php\\\/2024\\\/05\\\/14\\\/crooked-men-and-crooked-staffs\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/dahlman.online\\\/index.php\\\/2024\\\/05\\\/14\\\/crooked-men-and-crooked-staffs\\\/\",\"name\":\"Crooked Men and Crooked Staffs : Our America - 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