“Some are very specific,” said CEO Allyson Tucker in an interview at WSIB’s Olympia-based offices. One, for example, is a real estate expert. Others are trained in macroeconomics.
“Those folks are there to hold staff accountable, so when we bring information for deliberation for a decision, they’re there to poke holes in it and to assist the voting board members in making sure the decision is fairly presented.”
Perhaps most key to the success of the board is a diversified appointment of authority, Ms. Tucker said.
“They’re not elected by the public into their positions, the governor doesn’t select them all, no other single individual selects them all,” Ms. Tucker said.
The 10 voting board members consist of five participants in the public employee retirement systems — three of which are appointed by the governor and two of which are appointed by the state’s superintendent of public instruction. The remaining five are three ex-officio members – Tracy Guerin, director of the Department of Retirement Systems; state Treasurer Mike Pellocciotti; and Joel Sacks, director of Labor & Industries, which regulates and enforces labor standards – and two legislators, currently Sen. Mark Mullet (D-Issaquah) and Rep. Timm Ormsby (D-Spokane).
The latter two were appointed by the president of the Senate and speaker of the house, respectively.
The investment beliefs adopted by the board in 2007 make up the foundation for everything it does, Ms. Tucker said.
“I can’t really stress enough how important it is that you have a board-adopted set of things that governs what we do,” she said. “We have the investment beliefs, and then we send them out to conferences as often as they’re willing to go. I think we encourage one a year at least where there are professionals showing them what they need to be thinking about as trustees.”
“We bring in fiduciary counsel and all those things to give presentations when they have questions,” Ms. Tucker said. “I think one of the things my predecessor (Theresa Whitmarsh) set up here culturally is that when the board has a question, you just move as fast as you can to get that answered and widen it out for the whole board to benefit from the question because, obviously, one of them has it and multiple probably have it.”
“So if we get a question, we will seek out experts outside of staff to come in and provide on a topic,” she said.
