The Arizona Republic

It’s time to clean house at PSPRS and to appoint a woman

- Nancy Lewis, Mesa Danny Armstrong, Glendale Richard Hunt, Scottsdale Kurt Huntley, Mesa Pat Schmidt, Scottsdale

As a retired person getting a pension from the Public Safety Personnel Retirement System, I am appalled to learn how long it took the retirement board to figure out what kind of an administra­tor Jared Smout was during his tenure at the agency.

With a pension fund so underfunde­d it doesn’t take a genius to figure out that instead of making well-reasoned decisions on investment­s Jared Smout chose to spend his time sexually harassing employees at the agency.

Having an administra­tor, a married man, who spent hours watching videos of a woman he had a sexual interest in while the pension fund struggled to remain solvent has done a disservice to all public safety personnel, correction­s officers and elected officials who are receiving or will be entitled to receive a pension from the fund.

It’s time to clean house with an entire new board, new chairman, and a new qualified administra­tor. Perhaps it’s time to find a qualified woman to run the agency.

At least we won’t hear the excuse Smout made for watching a woman on video:

“Because I’m a man.”

Pension chief dearly deserved to go on the unemployme­nt line

The latest news on the pension chief fully explains why the Public Safety Personnel Retirement System (PSPRS) pension fund is underfunde­d and one of the worst performing systems in the country.

Mr. Jared Smout had been spending all his time (highly compensate­d I might add) spying on employees instead of investing.

I’m a non-profession­al investor who has earned a higher rate of return on my investment­s then what Mr. Smout had earned for PSPRS and I did it without using a financial advisor.

This alone should be enough to send

Join the conversati­on

We want to hear from you. Comment on letters, columns and editorials online or via e-mail.

him to the unemployme­nt line without all the other misconduct.

Not so long ago Donald Trump was the one berating our country

Who is really more anti-American? President Trump calls AOC, “The Squad,” and knee-takers in the NFL anti-American. Their biggest complaint is the way minorities are treated in the United States. They are expressing their 1st Amendment rights.

On the other hand, during the 2016 election Trump called America a mess, a disaster, a laughing stock and joke around the world. He also said we were losers and proclaimed hundreds of times that America was not great and only he could return us to greatness.

I never thought that there was a time when we were not great.

After voting for Trump, I have a keen sense of regret

I’m a Republican and voted for Donald Trump. Each day he seems to do something to make me regret that vote.

If the GOP cannot speak out against his outrageous demands to make elected congresswo­men go back to where they came from and cannot come up with a legitimate contender for 2020, this Republican will not be seen at a voting booth in 2020.

My question for Trump is this: Why don’t you send Melania back to her country of origin so she can fix it.

Your silence on Trump’s tweets will be remembered forever

Our Arizona lawmakers who have remained silent in response to Mr. Trump’s racist comments on Twitter should be aware that history is watching and history will remember.

 ??  ??

Newspapers in English

Newspapers from United States