Legal & Legislative Committee Meeting Minutes

Meeting: September 11, 2025 | Posted: December 9, 2025 | SURS Board of Trustees Meeting Minutes

The meeting of the of the Legal & Legislative Committee of the Board of Trustees of the State Universities Retirement System (SURS) convened on Thursday, September 11, 2025, at 3:30 p.m.

This meeting was held in person at State Universities Retirement System in Champaign, IL.

The following trustees were present: Dr. Andry Bodnaruk; Mr. Richard Figueroa (Zoom); Dr. Fred Giertz; Mr. Scott Hendrie; Ms. Jeanine Jiganti; Mr. Panav Kothari; Mr. John Lyons; Mr. Herbert Pitman (Zoom); Dr. Steven Rock; Mr. Collin Van Meter; and Mr. Antonio Vasquez.

Others present: Ms. Suzanne Mayer, Executive Director; Ms. Bianca Green, General Counsel; Mr. Albert Lee, Senior Associate General Counsel; Ms. Heather Kimmons, Associate Legal Counsel; Ms. Anna Dempsey, Investment Counsel; Mr. Michael Schlachter, Chief Investment Officer; Ms. Nichole Hemming, Chief Human Resources Officer; Mr. Jefferey Saiger, Chief Strategy & Technology Officer; Ms. Tara Myers, Chief Financial Officer; Ms. Jackie Hohn, Chief Internal Auditor; Ms. Kristen Houch, Director of Legislative and Stakeholder Relations; Ms. Lisa Fink, Communications Manager; Ms. Amanda Baker, Organizational Strategy Analyst; Ms. Kelly Carson, Ms. Chelsea McCarty and Ms. Annette Ackerman, Executive Assistants; Mr. Michael Calabrese of Foley & Lardner LLP; and Mr. Ron Holmes, Legislative Consultant.

Legal & Legislative Committee roll call attendance was taken. Trustee Jiganti, present; Trustee Giertz, present; Trustee Lyons, present; Trustee Pitman, present; and Trustee Rock (chair), present.

Motion to Allow Trustees to Participate Via Electrionic Means

Trustee Jiganti made the following motion:

• That Trustee Pitman be allowed to participate via video or audio conference call for the Investment Committee Meeting on September 11, 2025, pursuant to Section 7(a) of the Open Meetings Act.

Trustee Giertz seconded the motion which passed via the following roll call vote:

Trustee Jiganti -aye
Trustee Giertz – aye
Trustee Lyons – aye
Trustee Pitman – not called
Trustee Rock – aye

Roll call attendance for trustees participating via electronic means was taken: Trustee Pitman, present.

Approval of Minutes

Trustee Rock presented the minutes from the Legal & Legislative Committee meeting of June 6, 2025.

Trustee Jiganti made the following motion:

• That the minutes from the June 6, 2025, Legal & Legislative Committee meeting be approved as presented.

Trustee Giertz seconded the motion which passed via all committee members present voting in favor of the motion.

Chairperson’s Report

Trustee Rock did not have a chairperson’s report.

Legislative Update

Ms. Kristen Houch and Mr. Ron Holmes provided a report titled “Board and Website Summaries September 2025” that contains information relating to the legislative update. This included a review of recent information relating to the HB1075 signed into law and the FY26 Budget, which appropriated the full certified state contribution of $2,319,446,000. The budget also certified the state contribution to the College Insurance Program for FY 2026 at $10,966,632.00. As a part of the budget this year, the General Assembly created a new Tier II Social Security wage base reserve fund and appropriated a total of $75 million with the SURS portion being estimated at $8.7 million. This reserve fund was created to be used if there is an enforceable determination that Tier II fails the safe harbor tests or if the General Assembly changes the Tier II pensionable salary cap to match the Social Security Taxable Wage Base. Ms. Houch provided two documents titled “2025 Senate Veto Calendar” and “2025 House Veto Session” which noted that Veto Session is scheduled for October 14 – 16 and 28 – 30, 2025.

Rulemaking and Compliance Update

Status of Pending Rules

Mr. Albert Lee presented a report titled “Rulemaking Update” that contains information relating to current and proposed changes to various SURS administrative rules. This included adding unexpected child obligations as permissible reason for remote attendance at a Board or Board Committee meeting, adding a catch-all phrase that automatically references any permissible reason for remote attendance as legislated under Section 7 of the Open Meetings Act, and relaxing the
deadline for a member of the public to provide advance written notice of their intent to address the Board or a Board Committee meeting in an open meeting from 48 hours to at least 24 hours prior to the scheduled meeting. These proposed rules were published for First Notice in the August 22, 2025, publication of the Illinois Register. Mr. Lee reminded the Board to report any ex parte communications concerning these rules to General Counsel Bianca Green.

Compliance Stop Light Report

Ms. Bianca Green reviewed the “August 2025 Stop Light Report” that reflects SURS’ compliance with its reporting requirements.

Public Comment

There were no public comments presented to the Legal & Legislative Committee.

Adjourn

There was no further business brought before the committee and Trustee Giertz moved to adjourn the meeting. The motion was seconded by Trustee Lyons, and it passed via the following roll call vote.

Trustee Jiganti – aye
Trustee Giertz – aye
Trustee Lyons – aye
Trustee Pitman – aye
Trustee Rock – aye

Ms. Suzanne Mayer

Executive Director and Secretary, SURS Board of Trustees