"Oh how I wish Ohio state government received the same level of scrutiny as Ohio State football. Then the media would be ablaze with condemnation for the Ohio Retirement Study Council.

"The ORSC simply shrugged off a multi-million dollar question, unaware it exists, as two of the three elected officials who bothered to show up, Senators Jay Hottinger and Hearcel Craig, failed to read the long-awaited Aon Hewitt fiduciary audit of the Ohio Public Retirement System and the chairman, Senator Kirk Schuring, uncritically accepted the report presentation as a glowing endorsement for OPERS.

. . .

"Ho-Hum, a pension system seeking legislation to freeze cost-of-living benefits is hemorrhaging expense money, just another day at the Statehouse.

"Perhaps Aon Hewitt's four-person presentation team would have gotten into the fee issue, but for the admonition from Chairman Schuring to keep the oral report within 30 minutes allotted, after all, $100 billion and 1.1 million people are only worth so much time.

. . .

The good news is a fund that has seen investment management fees rise 5,660% since 2001 is interested in saving a little money. The bad news is that it requires giving more power to the very people responsible for the explosion of fees, people who somehow managed to pay $223 million more than even a highly conflicted fiduciary auditor can overlook, and to do it without getting even one question from the state retirement watchdog body.

"Aon Hewitt says the Ohio Public Employee Retirement System is well managed and that's good enough to meet the show up and nod standard of the Ohio Retirement Study Council. As long as no one cares, this is the last word."