>General mismanagement (I can assure you the best and brightest investors and fiduciaries don't work at public pensions)

You don't really need "the best of the best" to run a public pension; you're not trying to outsmart the markets with some super-clever arbitrage. You just need to invest in the right balance of index funds.

If you need the very best people not to raid the pension because it had one good year when the markets were up, we're all screwed.