ORTA and OEA Views About Protect Ohio Pensions Response from Dr. Cavanaugh, ORTA Executive Director: All five Ohio pension associations have met with Mr. Winegarner. In fact, the meeting was hosted in ORTA's conference room here in Columbus. You may have seen the "cease and desist" letter we jointly sent last year to POP 5 as his original Website had unauthorized links to PERI, SERO, Highway Patrol Retirees, and Police & Fire Retirees. Our concerns were that our collective membership might be confused that we had endorsed his new group and were encouraging them to join. His attorney responded by threatening frivolous legal action against all 5 associations. This is the 2nd mass mailing sent to public retirees. The 1st went to OPERS. Then the phones at PERI rang off the hook with many of their members feeling duped that they joined a scam. Dozens attempted to get their money back, but were denied. With this mailing to 158,000 retired educators, now we are receiving a large volume of similar complaints and confusion from ORTA members. ORTA already works closely and collaboratively with AARP-OHIO, PERI, SERO, Highway Patrol Association, Police and Fire Retirees, OEA, OEASA, OACC, BASA, Inter-University Council, OFT, AAUP, OSBA, OASBO, HPA for STRS, and many other legitimate retirement advocates. All these groups along with the public pension systems themselves have credible and capable lobbyists working non-stop to protect the interests of retired Ohioans. POP 5 seems to only attend OPERS public meetings and has not been seen at board sessions of the other Ohio retirement systems with the exception of perhaps SERS. My colleagues at PERI, SERO, Highway Patrol, and Police & Fire Retirees are united in our belief that POP 5 has no intention of acting in the best interests of retired teachers, school employees, or public safety officers.

Response from Becky Higgins, OEA President: You may have recently received a mailing from a new organization calling itself “POP5” or “Protect Our Pensions.” Led by the former executive director of Public Employee Retirees, Inc. (PERI), its stated purpose is to “preserve Ohio’s defined benefit pension plans,” including all five of the public retirement systems in Ohio. POP5 is not affiliated with OEA or OEA-Retired. While there does not appear to be any inherent conflict between the stated goals of POP5 and OEA, it is important to note that there is nothing that POP5 is seeking to accomplish that OEA and our allies are not already working on. OEA, which currently represents over 124,000 educators, including over 9,000 retired members, is deeply committed to protecting and preserving retirement security for all current and future retirees in the State Teachers Retirement System (STRS), School Employees Retirement System (SERS), and Public Employees Retirement System (PERS). We are actively engaged in current efforts to improve the funding status of all the pension systems and to preserve retiree healthcare benefits. Our advocacy on retirement system issues benefits not only our members, but our very system of public education and the students we serve. We take our role as a collective voice for active and retired educators very seriously, and we work in coalition with a variety of other organizations that share our goals, including established retiree

advocacy groups (ORTA, PERI, SERI) and other unions. Of particular note, OEA helps lead the Healthcare and Pension Advocates for STRS Coalition (HPA), which includes organizations representing active and retired employees from both K-12 and higher education, as well as representatives of employers. POP5 is not a member of that coalition and has not, as far as we know, expressed any interest in joining it. It is not uncommon for OEA-Retired members (or anyone else, for that matter) to belong to multiple organizations that share their values. We just believe it’s important that you are fully informed before making any decisions regarding joining this or any other start-up organization.