This article first appeared in the St. Louis Beacon, June 19, 2009 - State Treasurer Clint Zweifel is claiming credit for forcing public disclosure of the staff salaries paid by the Missouri State Employees' Retirement System.
Zweifel, a Democrat, says he introduced the open-records motion, which passed at Thursday's meeting of the MOSERS board. The staff pay soon will be available on the Internet. Today's release by his office notes that "previously a Sunshine Law request was needed to obtain the information."
The action comes as MOSERS has come under fire for paying staff bonuses.
"Government functions best when its business is conducted in an open and accountable environment," Zweifel said. "Missourians deserve to know where their tax dollars are being spent, and this is a step in making that information easier to obtain."
Zweifel says he now is pressing the board to support his belief that "all benefits received by state elected officials and state judges should be made available on the MOSERS Web site. These officials operate with the public trust, and their full package of long-term benefits should be easily obtainable."
