Ousted STRS member makes dramatic return to board, armed with court ruling

Watch a previous report on the legal battle between STRS board member Wade Steen and Gov. Mike DeWine in the video player above.

COLUMBUS, Ohio (WCMH) – The governor overstepped his authority when he removed a member of the state teacher pension board, a court has ruled.

Ohio’s 10th District Court of Appeals sided with ousted State Teachers Retirement System investment expert Wade Steen on Thursday, ruling that Gov. Mike DeWine did not have the constitutional authority to remove Steen from his opinion on the pension board. The decision cements a magistrate’s recommendation that Steen be reinstated to the board to complete his term.

“I am going to go find the executive session,” Steen said at the board’s chambers Thursday. “Someone is in there who legally should not be, and that person who should legally be there and is not, is me.”

NBC4’s camera was rolling as Steen arrived at the STRS board meeting during an executive session, armed with a certified copy of the court opinion and his attorney present. After objections from board chairman Dale Price and haggling with the group’s lawyer, they voted six to five to allow Steen to be ceremoniously sworn back in, with a retired teacher holding the Bible.

“Mr. Price, I have a court order,” Steen said. “I am now reclaiming my seat and Mr. Parera is to leave. Thank you.”

Steen’s presence on the board gave a faction of reformers a majority, allowing them to make desired changes to the state’s teacher retirement fund. But the board chairman called a sudden adjournment of the meeting and left, effectively ending it.

Steen sued DeWine and other STRS board members last June after DeWine, who reappointed Steen to the board in 2020, replaced him with a little more than a year left to his term. DeWine’s office cited reports of Steen’s poor attendance record for board meetings, reports Steen has disputed. Retirees at the time told NBC4 that they believed DeWine replaced Steen, who advocated for sweeping reforms at STRS, because the recent election of another progressive board member tipped the balance of power.

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Investment experts appointed by the governor serve for fixed terms, not “at the pleasure of the governor,” the court ruled, mirroring the magistrate’s decision. But the panel of judges went farther than the magistrate did, finding not only that the governor has no constitutional or statutory authority to remove a previously-appointed board member, Ohio law actually precludes the governor from “unilaterally removing the appointee before the conclusion of the term of office.”

“The General Assembly could have made the governor’s appointed investment expert STRS board member’s term subject to the governor’s pleasure, but it did not. Instead, it expressly defined the term of an investment expert board member as four years,” Judge Kristin Boggs wrote for the court. “We may not by judicial fiat add language to the statute to accomplish a result at odds with the statutory language employed.”

Within hours of the court’s ruling, Steen was sworn in — ceremonially — by a retired teacher at the STRS meeting. Minutes later, the meeting was abruptly adjourned, to the dismay of Steen and other members.

“They are trying to stop change, but change is coming,” Steen told NBC4.

Steen was vocal in calling for changes to STRS after the system paid out $10 million in investment staff bonuses in a fiscal year ending in June 2022 while the pension fund for teachers lost more than $5 billion. Last April, STRS proposed setting aside another $11.1 million for performance-based bonuses for the staff in 2024 — a 30.6% increase from the prior year’s incentives.

Steen had argued that once appointed, he was entitled to due process if DeWine wanted to remove him. His complaint accused DeWine of usurpation of office. In February, a magistrate agreed with Steen. DeWine’s office said it would wait on the court’s final opinion.

At oral arguments in late March, the attorney for Brian Perera, who now holds Steen’s board seat, argued that due process statutes weren’t written to protect the governor’s original appointees – only the replacements the governor picks. A judge on the panel called the argument “absurd.” Boggs echoed her colleague’s assertion.

“We cannot condone a reading of the statute that is not only unsupported by the plain and unambiguous statutory language, but that also gives rise to an absurd result,” Boggs wrote.

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