Dennis Leone responds to Kathie Bracy re: STRS money "set aside" to settle bonus lawsuit

"One of the reasons I am voting no on Dec. 8 (for the second time) on this matter is my conviction that the bonuses themselves and the additional STRS costs above the actual dollar amount for the bonuses are due to the misconduct of people who should bear the financial responsibility of the total cost (in my opinion) -- not the pension fund."

11/27/05

Kathie -- My answer to your question about whether money was "set aside" to settle the bonus lawsuit is this:

I believe the only amount that was "set aside" in the summer of 2003 was the dollar amount necessary to pay the bonuses in the event the employees won their lawsuit. I do not believe that all costs were "set aside" for other things that often become part of a settlement agreement -- like lawyer fees for the plaintiffs, interest payments, "not prompt" payments, etc. Frankly, in my opinion, it doesn't matter if the whole amount was "set aside" because is still comes out of the STRS pension fund.......which it should not.

One of the reasons I am voting no on Dec. 8 (for the second time) on this matter is my conviction that the bonuses themselves and the additional STRS costs above the actual dollar amount for the bonuses are due to the misconduct of people who should bear the financial responsibility of the total cost (in my opinion) -- not the pension fund. I am speaking of Herb Dyer -- who created the monster; the prior STRS Board members (including Betty Montgomery and Jim Petro) -- who annually approved the bonuses without even knowing what they were voting for (something Joe Endry admitted in Lima); and the OEA Executive Committee members in 2003 (principally Gary Allen and Bill Leibensperger) who not only looked the other way for years but tried hard to convince the world that the wasteful spending was nothing more than "exaggerations," "misrepresentations," and "destructive allegations."

I also intend to inform my fellow STRS Board members that, in my opinion, STRS should not pay the State Attorney General's Office one penny for the legal counsel that was provided in the bonus lawsuit. I am sure STRS will get a legal bill from Jim Petro's office in excess of six figures. I believe the prior actions of Petro and his staff actually caused STRS problems in the lawsuit. I further contend the advice that was given to the Board on November 2 to vote on a settlement agreement without a document in hand was improper -- as was the decision not to release the settlement provisions to the news media after the vote. John Lazares and I did our best to convince our peers of this, but to no avail.

Dennis Leone