AUSTIN -- Two state pension funds have not met Gov. Rick Perry’s deadline for plans to divest from companies doing business in Iran, but the governor’s office said progress is being made.

In late September, Perry asked the $112.1 billion Teacher Retirement System and the $24.7 billion Employees Retirement System to submit divestment plans within 30 days.

The employees system’s board is scheduled to take up the issue Nov. 27, while the teacher system’s board plans to consider a new investment policy at a mid-December meeting.

Perry called for the Iran divestment after meeting this summer with Israeli officials. He called Iran “a country that has a clear terrorist focus” and is bent on destroying Israel.

Bill Ceverha of Dallas, chairman of the Employees Retirement System, said the board wants to work with Perry, but he has reservations about making changes.

“Obviously, Rick Perry is not going to be governor forever. You could have a governor who is a vegetarian ... and decides that we shouldn’t be investing in companies that deal with meat,” Ceverha said Monday.

Perry spokeswoman Krista Moody said Perry has every right to ask the boards to divest in companies doing business “with a very hostile government.”

“Governor Perry still has three years left in this term, so playing hypothetical with who in the future -- 100 years from now— may be governor is probably a difficult example to put forward,” Moody said.

Ceverha said Perry doesn’t necessarily have the legal status to order the divestment.

“I can tell you there is not a lot of enthusiasm for this effort,” Ceverha said. “Those funds don’t belong to the state.  They belong to the employees and the retirees, and they want to see the best results.”

A bill involving divestment from Iran died in the Legislature this spring, though Perry signed a bill directing the pension funds to get rid of holdings in companies doing business in Sudan because of atrocities in Darfur.

Most U.S. companies are not allowed to do business in Iran, but investments in companies based in other countries could be affected.

It was unclear Monday how much the Employees Retirement System has invested in companies doing business with Iran.

Its executive director, Ann Fuelberg, said in a letter to Perry last month that staff members would present the board with a proposed definition of “doing business” with Iran, a potential list of affected companies and possible steps to take.

Ronnie Jung, executive director of the Teacher Retirement System, said in a letter to the governor that the system had identified $778.8 million worth of holdings in 19 companies that other entities have identified as doing business with Iran. But work was still needed to determine which companies should be on a divestment list.

“Personally, I agree with the governor’s effort, and I think it’s the right thing to do,” said Dory A. Wiley, who was appointed to the teachers system board by Perry. “But we do have a fiduciary duty to the beneficiaries, the teachers and the members themselves, to first provide them a good diversified return.”