Oregon Treasurer Elizabeth Steiner seems to think that cheerleading will somehow help revive the dismal investment performance of the Oregon Public Employees Retirement Fund.

In a press release issued after the Dec. 3 meeting of the Oregon Investment Council, the body that oversees investments for the state Public Employees Retirement System, known as PERS, Steiner once again highlighted a few shreds of good news while mentioning nothing about the fund’s unprecedented four-year-long investment meltdown. She issued a similar press release after last month’s Investment Council meeting, as I pointed out in an October Lookout Eugene-Springfield guest column highlighting the skyrocketing pension costs across all public agencies. Poor investment returns are a significant factor in these cost increases.

By downplaying the seriousness of the retirement fund’s debacle, Steiner may be parroting what she hears from existing staff and advisers, the same people who have driven the investments into the ditch. The treasurer needs to do better, as does the Oregon Investment Council itself. Unquestioning acceptance of recommendations by staff and advisers has without a doubt contributed to today’s mess. That needs to change, as I detailed in my testimony to the Investment Council at its Dec. 3 meeting.

Failure to acknowledge the extent of the investment crisis and slow-walking its solutions only serve to delay attacking the problem with the urgency it requires.

Douglas Berg
Eugene