Allegheny County Retirement Board features fireworks over how board invests pension money and who may benefit
PITTSBURGH (KDKA) — The normally calm Allegheny County Retirement Board featured fireworks over how the board invests the pension money and who may benefit.
There was an exchange between outgoing Allegheny County Executive Rich Fitzgerald and a person who would like to succeed him — Allegheny County Treasurer and Board Chairman John Weinstein.
It's a bill to ward against pay-to-play — giving a campaign contribution to get a government contract. In the case of the Allegheny County Retirement Board, restricting donations from the dozens of financial firms that invest the more than $1 billion in pension money.
During the meeting, sponsor Corey O'Connor said he wasn't pointing any fingers.
"Not that there's anything wrong with the board," said O'Connor, the Allegheny County controller. "I'm not saying that. But when you're looking at government's long term, more transparency and openness doesn't hurt. And our job for my office is to look at that stuff."
But it ran into opposition from Weinstein, who challenged its legality.
Weinstein: "It's not worded right, it's not in the bounds of the law correctly. Whoever wrote your motion is not right."
O'Connor: "How is it not in the bounds of the law?"
Fitzgerald also took exception.
Fitzgerald: "Apparently, the chairman indicates this motion is illegal. I'll ask the solicitor his opinion."
Weinstein: "Rich, don't put words in my mouth. I never said it was illegal. The solicitor hasn't had time to review this. No one has."
Under Weinstein as chairman, the fund has grown from a handful of fund managers to now several dozen. Criticized in the past for accepting campaign contributions from managers, KDKA-TV's review of Weinstein's finance reports found only a few have made contributions to his recent campaigns.
Still, Fitzgerald believes there are too many managers and the board is spending too much on their fees, saying he'll be calling for a performance audit.
"We need to look at best practices so the public does have confidence that their money, the pension money is being spent properly," Fitzgerald said.
KDKA-TV's Andy Sheehan: "Any implication that there's play-to-pay here?"
Weinstein: "Absolutely not."
Later, Weinstein said Security and Exchange Commission regulations cover the need for O'Connor's bill and defended the number of fund managers.
"What's important is the diversification of our fund to protect it," Weinstein said. "So all of our eggs are not in one basket."
So now a committee will examine how many fund managers are needed and whether they can still give political contributions. But temperatures are rising, and by the looks of it, they'll be no easy consensus.