Did you know that the Florida State Retirement System has $110,000,000,000.00 under management (that’s $110 billion)? Did you know that there are only three people who are responsible for the oversight of the money? Did you know that all three have full-time jobs that prevents their regular and frequent attention to the $110 billion? Did you know that one of the trustees recently said, when asked about the mere couple of hours each year spent supervising $110 billion dollar pension fund that: ``… the three of us have so many other duties and responsibilities, we do have limited time to spend.'' Would you trust your investments to a money manager (think of Bernie Madoff) who spends a couple of hours a year looking over a whopping $110 billion investment? Have we got your attention yet? Don’t stop reading until you get to the end; it only gets better. 

This is exactly what is going on in Florida as the trustees of the Florida State Retirement System Pension Fund are none other than Governor Christ [R] (part-time Governor and full-time U.S. Senate Candidate), Chief Financial Officer Alex Sink [D] (part-time CFO and full-time candidate for Governor) and Attorney General Bill McCollum [R] (part-time Attorney General and full-time candidate for Governor), I kid you not. 

Some states have a single full-time paid professional trustee while others have a full board of directors (as many as 16 members) with extensive money management and economic experience. Regardless of the number, three highly political politicians serving as trustees over that much money on a part-time basis is at best outrageous.  

The Florida Whig Party encourages Legislature to implement the following: In addition the current three trustees, the Florida House, Florida Senate, the Florida Society of News Editors, and the State University System Board of Governors should each be given the authority to appoint a single member, thereby expanding the trustees of the $110 billion Florida State Pension Fund from three to seven. By including the Florida Society of News Editors, maybe, just maybe, the print and electronic media will pay closer attention to this massive fund.  

And by the way, the three current trustees are fully responsible for the lack of oversight of a quarter of a billion dollars lost on a Manhattan (New York, New York) real estate deal, a deal that that went bust on a monumental scale. This story alone is one of those “very interesting” tales with a well connected group of political contributors, real estate developers, and shadow brokers peddling influence in what should be called another “pay-to-play” scheme. Where there’s smoke there’s fire. Here is a small bit of the story that should disqualify some from holding office.   

Tishman Speyer Properties and BlackRock paid a $5.4 billion (a $400 million premium above the asking price) for a piece of prime property and then sought money from friends to make the deal as they needed outside investors due to a lack of sufficient independent capital. The seller of the property was Met Life (another company that does substantial business with the State of Florida). Both Tishman Speyer and BlackRock also do business and have powerful political friends in Florida. Tishman Speyer had vast real estate holdings in South Florida in the 80s and '90s. The company has been a major contributor to the Florida Republican Party and two of its executives donated heavily to the 2006 political campaign of Governor Charlie Crist. Additional and associated individuals and entities to Tishman Speyer also contributed to Crist and the Republican Party and are too numerous to list here. 

Now we move on to BlackRock, which is 49 percent owned by Bank of America / Merrill Lynch (who received billions of bailout money, manages a sizeable amount of the State Pension Fund, and has given billions in bonuses to key executives).  This group gave the maximum contribution to Chief Financial Officer Alex Sink during her 2006 campaign and Sink just happens to be a former President of Florida Operations for Bank of America. (Gosh darn Gomer, I smell a skunk). Sink is also the recipient of many other contributions from those related and associated with Bank of America, Merrill Lynch, BlackRock, and others; again the list is too numerous to list here.  

The $5.4 billion real estate deal centered on the forced move of thousands of middle class rent-controlled tenants and then redeveloping the land with new and higher rent apartments and condos. Once the steam built up in opposition, New York City squashed the redevelopment plans and Florida’s quarter-of-a-billion ($250,000,000.00) roll-of-the-dice became worthless. The due diligence was so pathetic as to be criminal. And while some have inquired, the three trustees (Governor, CFO, & Attorney General) have refused comment or to take any responsibility in any way, shape, or form. The three are however raising millions not for the pensioners of the fund but for their runs for ever higher office.  

This is just one of many examples of questionable investments, political hacks being appointed to positions of substantial authority, and pure pay-to-play big banking buddy-buddy connections at the highest levels of government. 

One million current and future retirees have a financial stake in the State Retirement System (a ratio of 1:18 residents). It’s time the employee and the rank-and-file taxpayer stand up and demand an investigation and change into the way the Florida State Retirement System Board of Trustees operates before the gang of three costs us another couple billion dollars in losses due to their lack of proper due diligence.

How does all of this relate to Congressman Joe Wilson and his "you lie" outburst? We the People have bigger issues to deal with than bad behavior where the two participants have already settled the matter. What happened to settling misunderstandings over a beer on the White House lawn?

Think about it.