The beleaguered Pennsylvania Public School Employees Retirement System has made a habit of secrecy — to the point of trying to impose a gag order on board members and denying records requests from one of them.

But state senator and board member Katie Muth, D-44th, recently scored a victory in her lawsuit to force transparency in the PSERS’ records regarding its real estate purchases.

Muth sued for access to records regarding the pension fund’s $5 million appropriation in 2019 to buy real estate near its headquarters in Harrisburg. As a PSERS board member, she argued, she needs access to agency records to fulfill her duty on the board.

State Commonwealth Court struck a blow for transparency last month when a judicial panel unanimously rejected all seven of PSERS’ preliminary objections to Muth’s record request and ordered the agency to respond to the lawsuit within 30 days.

The PSERS, a $70 billion-plus pension plan for about 500,000 current and former public education employees, likely is the first public pension plan in the nation to force one of its board members to sue for access to pension plan records. Under state law, many school workers must pay more into the pension system when it fails to meet certain financial targets.

The agency also is facing a civil investigation by the Securities and Exchange Commission and a criminal investigation by the FBI. The agencies have subpoenaed records regarding PSERS’s adoption of a false figure for its financial performance, whether PSERS staff accepted outside compensation or gifts from vendors, and the acquisition of real estate in downtown Harrisburg.

Democratic former state Treasurer Joe Torsella and Republican state Treasurer Stacy Garrity, both PSERS board members, supported Muth’s records request in a friend of the court petition.

PSERS relies heavily on outside consultants and money managers — too heavily, critics say — as the fund’s results have lagged those of other pension funds. Until this year, the fund permitted outside firms to book extravagant travel arrangements for the fund’s 60-member investment unit. The money managers would front the cost and PSERS would later pay them back.

PSERS says it paid more than $700 million in 2021 in fees and profit-sharing to more than150 Wall Street firms and other private money managers. It also spent more than $14 million on consultants.

When the pension system in December adopted the bogus number for its performance, it did so despite the objections of three board members. The three, who abstained from approving the figure, were Torsella, a Democrat; state Rep. Frank Ryan, R-101st; and Richard Vague, the state banking secretary appointed by Gov. Tom Wolf, a Democrat.

The public has a huge stake in PSERS. Rather than spending more public money opposing transparency, the agency should enable board members who represent the public to do their jobs.

— JGG