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CalSTRS governance committee discusses board charter, stakeholder communications policy and routine governance updates
Summary
Committee heard a staff report on drafting a board charter, a two-part stakeholder communications effort (board chair spokesperson policy plus staff procedures for external contacts), and routine ministerial updates to governance-related policies including economic-interest disclosure and insider-trading language. Staff will return proposed procedures and bring the board communications policy for first reading in September.
Brian (last name not specified), a CalSTRS staff member, told the Governance Committee the office is continuing work on a proposed board charter and governance consultant recommendations, noting that legal reviewers and staff are trying to balance useful specificity with the board's plenary authority.
He described a two-part stakeholder and external-party contact approach: (1) a board communications policy that would make the board chair the official spokesperson for the board, and (2) a separate procedure for staff to process public contacts and stakeholder inquiries so staff and trustees avoid duplicated responses. Brian said staff will bring the proposed procedure back to the board governance committee as an information item, and anticipated teeing up the chair-spokesperson policy for a first reading in September.
Brian also summarized routine governance housekeeping: ministerial editorial changes, updates to the third-party economic interest disclosure policy to ensure statutory compliance, and aligning insider-trading policy language with the investment policy where staff-facing rules apply. Trustees asked whether insider-trading rules appear in one or multiple manuals; staff confirmed there are two documents—board-facing guidance in the governance manual and a staff-facing version in the investment manual.
Trustees also asked about the statutory gift limit; discussion ranged around approximate figures and staff agreed to confirm the precise current dollar threshold. No substantive changes to policy intent were reported; the committee scheduled the board communications policy as a first-reading information item for a future meeting.
