(Radio Iowa)- House Democratic Leader Brian Meyer says the House Oversight Committee should meet soon to find out why the C-E-O of the state-run pension system resigned and a top deputy was fired on May 1st. “We need to investigate it and if we can do it sooner rather than later and get to the bottom of it, that’d be ideal,” Meyer said.
The Iowa Public Employees Retirement System — called IPERS — manages pensions for over 400-thousand Iowans. In April, state officials announced the fund’s top two managers were placed being investigated for alleged misconduct and had been placed on administrative leave, but they have not disclosed why the chief benefits officer was fired and the C-E-O resigned this month.
Meyer says legislators need to ensure the fund is sound, even though it appears the problems were related to employee conduct in the workplace. “That’s a concern that we have when something like this and we didn’t know about it,” Meyer said, “or it may have been going on a long time.” Meyer made his comments during an appearance on this weekend’s “Iowa Press” program on Iowa Press.
The decision for House Oversight Committee meetings is up to Republicans who occupy 67 of 100 seats in the Iowa House and top Republican leaders have said they’ve been assured the fund is sound. IPERS managed more than 40 BILLION dollars in assets and paid out over two BILLION dollars in benefits last year.
