Youngstown Vindicator: Dyer is out at STRS

OHIO State Teachers Retirement System ousts director

http://www.vindy.com/news/2003/aug/08/ohio-state-teachers-retirement-system-ousts/ 

By Jeff Ortega | August 8, 2003

Buying out Herb Dyer would have been more costly, retirement board officials said.

By JEFF ORTEGA
VINDICATOR CORRESPONDENT

COLUMBUS -- Herb Dyer is out as director of the State Teachers Retirement System.

"This needed to be done in order to restore confidence [in the pension system]," said Deborah Scott, retirement system board chairwoman, moments after the board approved a settlement agreement Tuesday with Dyer to get him to leave the pension fund.

All told, the proposed agreement would pay Dyer $550,000.

The board named Damon F. Asbury, STRS deputy executive director, interim executive director until a permanent replacement is found.

Agreement details

Under the proposed separation agreement, which is awaiting Dyer's signature, Dyer will step down as the $266,810-a-year executive director, but will receive his current salary and retirement contributions through Feb. 29, 2004, a figure that amounts to $153,392.

The proposed agreement also calls for paying Dyer's accrued vacation of $70,009 and accrued sick leave of $164,327.

On Feb. 29, Dyer will receive a final lump-sum payment of $162,272.

Dyer's three-year contract runs through June 30, 2005, and if the board had to buy it out, it would have cost the retirement system between $875,000 and $921,000, Scott said.

The reasons

The board's action is the culmination of criticism leveled at Dyer, 64, and the retirement system after Dyer made recent derogatory remarks against retirees and others who questioned reductions in health-care coverage for retirees. Dyer has since apologized for the remarks.

Criticism of Dyer and the retirement system also mounted after it was learned that the pension fund gave out at least $14 million in bonuses to employees since August 2000 and spent $869,000 on eight pieces of artwork for its renovated office building in downtown Columbus.

Over the same time period the value of the fund's assets had declined by at least $11 billion.
Since the revelations, the bonuses have been suspended.

The board voted 5-3 to approve the terms of the agreement with representatives of State Auditor Betty D. Montgomery and State Attorney General Jim Petro, both Republicans, and Susan Tave Zelman, state Superintendent of Public Instruction, all voting no.

The representatives of both Montgomery and Petro both said the officeholders support the concept of the agreement, but not its terms. Zelman's representative declined to comment.

New direction

The 60-year-old Asbury, who has been the deputy executive director for administration since July 2000, said he will concentrate on bringing new direction to the pension system.

Asbury has been a superintendent of the Worthington City Schools of suburban Columbus and has been an interim superintendent in the Columbus Public Schools.

Asbury, who earns about $148,000 annually, pledged to control expenses and supervise overhauls of staff and board policies and practices.

The STRS serves more than 400,000 active and inactive teachers statewide. The fund has assets of about $47.2 billion after peaking at $58.8 billion nearly three years ago.