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Oct

19

STRS rubber stamps divestment under Husted pressure


According to this communication from Dr. Dennis Leone, former Chillicothe Schools superintendent and current retiree member of Ohio State Teachers Retirement System (STRS), the board of STRS voted 7-3 yesterday in favor of a voluntary divestment plan. But, Leone states, approval came at this time only because of what he believes was premature pressure.

The Board voted 7-3 today (Leone, Lazares, Hayden voting no) to give Damon what he wanted – a voluntary divestment plan. We have no clue whether STRS will drop 1% or 100% of the firms on the naughty list. It really didn’t matter what John L and I said today. The Board majority was determined to give Damon what he wanted. I read an email I received yesterday from State Senator John Carey, the chair of the Senate Committee that would get HB 151 if (note that I said IF) it ever passed the House. He said in his email that the matter was not scheduled for discussion whatsoever in the Senate. In other words, the STRS Board today voted because they THINK they know what WOULD happen in the House and Senate. John L and I tried and tried to get the Board to wait. It simply was not in the cards.
Dennis Leone

That vote reflects action on an agreement Ohio House Speaker Jon Husted (R, Kettering) reached with some of Ohio’s pension plans in lieu of the Ohio House pursuing a vote on HB 151. State Rep. Josh Mandel (R, Lyndhurst) and Shannon Jones (R, Springboro) had been pushing the bill last spring. If passed, it would have required five Ohio pension plan systems to divest their investments of holdings in companies with connections to Iran or Sudan. House Rep. Larry Flowers (R, Canal-Winchester) tabled the bill in June.

In addition to the three votes against implementation of the voluntary plan, Concerned Ohio Retired Educators (“CORE”) submitted a unanimously passed resolution against the approval of any mandatory divestment plan. You can read the text of that resolution here.

Speculation exists that the earliest HB 151 may have been entertained in either chamber of the Ohio statehouse would be next summer. John Curry, a retired educator who worked many years in the Wapakoneta City Schools and is an STRS benefits recipient, wrote in an email that

…reading this [communication from Leone] made me feel sick to my stomach. Our retirement funds have a threat held over them by the House Majority Leader, Jon Husted. Many on our STRS Board and in the STRS administration fear him and will cowtow [sic] to his wishes. Thank goodness for retirees that Husted is term limited out in 2008 and will not return to his position of power in the Ohio House!

Not all the pension plans that were parties to the agreement with Husted have had similar votes on how to implement the agreement yet.

Cross-posted from Wide Open.

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By Jill Miller Zimon at 2:39 pm October 19th, 2007 in Education, Foreign Affairs, Statehouse 

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