JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. – The Missouri State Employees Retirement System will be seeing some new faces after this week.
The Board of Directors this week voted to name Ronda Stegmann, who had been serving as the interim director since the board had fired John Watson back in January with a 7-4 vote.
The board approved Stegmann, who had been serving as MOSERS’ legislative and policy coordinator prior to that, with a 10-0 vote.
“The national search yielded an impressive list of candidates and, ultimately, the board unanimously agreed Ronda’s leadership, passion, and ability to engage all stakeholders are the best fit for MOSERS, and what’s best for our members,” Crystal Wessing, who chairs the MOSERS board, said in a news release.
The 11-member board manages more than $8 billion in assets while administering retirement, long-term disability insurance, life insurance, and deferred compensation benefits for roughly 113,000 current and former state employees and beneficiaries.
The board is comprised of three members elected by employees, four lawmakers appointed by the House and Senate leaders, two Governor-appointees, the state treasurer and the commissioner of the Office of Administration. (The board is currently down one member after Shannon Owens left state employment.)
It would have been down two, as Rep. Justin Alferman resigned his seat in the House to accept a role in Gov. Mike Parson’s administration, but House Speaker Todd Richardson replaced Alferman this week with Rep. Scott Fitzpatrick, who chairs the House Budget Committee.
“I genuinely appreciate Representative Alferman’s service on the MOSERS Board and would like to thank Speaker Richardson for the opportunity to serve Missouri in a new way,” said Fitzpatrick, R–Shell Knob. “I look forward to providing legislative oversight and guidance to a retirement system that is indispensably important to the future security of vested state employees. As Budget Chairman, I’m also mindful that MOSERS be a tremendous value for taxpayers who support the system with hundreds of millions of dollars each year. ”
Benjamin Peters was a reporter for The Missouri Times and Missouri Times Magazine and also produced the #MoLeg Podcast. He joined The Missouri Times in 2016 after working as a sports editor and TV news producer in mid-Missouri. Benjamin is a graduate of Missouri State University in Springfield.
