KRS Puts Staff Salaries Online

The Kentucky Retirement System (KRS) has posted the salaries of some 250 employees online at the Bluegrass State’s “Open Door” web site (http://opendoor.ky.gov).  The salaries were a source of controversy this month, according to the Lexington Herald-Leader, after KRS refused to disclose them to a state retiree (Eva Smith-Carroll) who requested them under the Kentucky Open Records Act.  KRS had described the request as “unduly burdensome”, and cited a state law shielding certain information about individual pension accounts and said it prohibits disclosure of KRS salaries.   

However, subsequently, Attorney General Jack Conway ruled that KRS — which manages about $13 billion in assets for state and county retirees — had violated the law (see Kentucky AG Orders Release of Retirement System Salaries).

On April 7, responding to Conway’s ruling and several other recent controversies, the KRS board of trustees voted to replace its longtime chairman, Randy Overstreet, and fire its executive director, Robert Michael Burnside (see KY Retirement System Fires Executive Director). 

The state's Open Door Web site identifies 254 KRS employees, their job titles and their pay.  http://opendoor.ky.gov/search/Pages/SalarySearch.aspx

KRS has its own web site offering transparency into the systems activities, board policies, investment policies, and the like at http://kyret.ky.gov/index.php/about/open

Investment Meeting

At KRS' annual board meeting, Chief Investment Officer TJ Carlson reported a 12.9% return for the Total Pension Fund and a 13.3% return for the Total Insurance Fund for the year ending December 31, 2010, according to an update on the KRS web site.  The Pension Fund outpaced its blended benchmark return by 49 basis points or 0.49% while the Insurance Fund performed in-line with its benchmark, according to

“KRS has a well defined, mature investment program which is being further diversified to help produce the best possible returns within a risk-controlled program” Carlson said.