“On whose legal advice are you following when the board’s actuary determines that you have the monies to grant a one-time 2% COLA, but you don’t follow the language in ORC 3307.67 and grant the COLA?”

Dean Dennis, ORTA Executive Board Chair, addressed the STRS Ohio Board on June 25, 2026.

The National Retired Teachers Association was founded in 1947. The Ohio Retirement for Teachers Association, ORTA, was founded in 1949. Our organization is 77 years old.

Both organizations were founded to advocate for retired teachers and ensure they had a voice at the state legislative and state board levels.  

At the state level, ORTA is well aware that Ohio’s legislators are either blind, deaf, or callous to the STRS cash-flow problem they helped create. ORTA will continue to bring this to everyone’s attention. 

Now to the business at hand. Last month, I publicly asked you this question;

“On whose legal advice are you following when the board’s actuary determines that you have the monies to grant a one-time 2% COLA, but you don’t follow the language in ORC 3307.67 and grant the COLA?” I requested that you please state your rationale in writing so ORTA can share it with its members. 

To date, ORTA has not had a response from the Board or STRS management.

I’ll remind you again that ORTA is a 77-year-old organization whose members have suffered significant financial hardships and deserve an explanation as to why the Ohio Revised Code is not being followed. 

Other years have been missed too, but I’m quite certain that since a 1.6% COLA was granted, you can go into executive session and find .4 of one percent and correct this error since most checks with the deficient COLA increase have yet to go out. ORTA will be looking forward to how you respond. Thank you.