Paul Boyer and Tom Curtis: Selecting Board Members

Hello Paul Boyer,

Thank you for your comments. We need to work hard at getting a consensus on this issue and many others concerning our board. Who was on our board in the past was of so little concern, until the recent findings of Dennis Leone in 2003. Then the floodgates opened.

As with everything else at the STRS, no rules have been put in place because there was little reason for doing such. That need has drastically changed due to the climate of the past board and staff and remnants of those past members and staff who still remain.

In my opinion, now that I can look back at what has transpired over the past 3 years, Bob Brown and Conni Ramser were given their positions on the board by the OEA contingency that ran the board at that time, with Joe Endry fully in tow with their thinking. How they recruited Joe and switched his thinking I really do not know, but they did. Obviously, strong peer pressure effects us all or Joe simply became senile.

Apparently Bob Brown was easily persuaded in their direction and was willing to go their way, thus he was appointed to fill Sideway's seat. If you remember, Conni ran for Sideway's seat as well. She may have won that seat if Brown had not been so willing to bend to their way of controlling things. Conni Ramser was simply next in line for Chapman's seat and for the OEA to continue their desire for control. Plus, she was an OEA executive committee member. This all fits so nicely, doesn't it? Maybe, I am just creating a story line here, but I would put nothing past the current OEA leadership. They are a bunch of greedy, self-serving parasites and this is my nicest description of them.

The OEA has been around for a longtime and the leadership well knows most of the in's and out's of politics. They engineered this whole transition as best they could, after Dennis Leone brought their self-serving ways to light in 2003.

The OEA leadership denied any responsibility for what their people did while dominating and controlling the STRS board for nearly to decades. The OEA leadership lied and slandered Dennis Leone's position paper of 5/16/03 and have never been held accountable for that situation as well.

They fought as much as possible to keep SB133 from going into effect in 2004. They still think they are in charge and that has to end.

Most importantly, the OEA leadership failed to fund the HCSF that we were supposed to have in place to cover us once we retired. That is totally inexcusable and irresponsible on their part. All through the 90's, the OEA leadership was so busy speeding educator's money; they did not take the time to guarantee our future health care needs. The mere thought of this injustice, just makes me lived!

Paul, I totally agree that neither Bob Brown or Conni Ramser or any other appointee should be permitted to obtain the position of chair and co-chair. It is my opinion that no one that is not elected by the general membership should be considered for those two positions. This needs to be addressed and placed into the board handbook.

I know you have not been able to attend most board meetings of late, due to your health problems. If you had, I am relatively sure you would know from their actions that these two individuals do not belong in the position of chair and co-chair. Neither of them is worthy of such and both show little true knowledge of the board manual. They have both violated such and it is my intention to take them both to task for such. I will write my 3-minute speech addressing such this coming month. I will also send a request to David Freel at the OEC asking for a ruling on such.

Unfortunately, Mike Billirakis and John Lazares were the only two who could and should have had those positions. They were both elected to the board and had been on the board. All others were either new members or appointees.

It is my opinion that Billirakis did not want the chair position because he is so heavily involved with the NEA and travels all of the time for them. If you did not notice one of John Curry's emails, Mike Billirakis is currently being paid $149,550 per year for his position with the NEA. He should have been forced to take that position, as he was the senior ranking member of the board and the only qualified to chair a meeting. If he could not fulfill it, then he should have been dismissed as a board member and rightfully so. He was and still is the senior ranking member of our board. I do not mean to indicate that I either like or trust Mike Billirakis, because I do not, but he does possess the necessary experience to chair the board and would do a far better job then Dr. Brown. Dr. Brown has little idea of what he is doing and is only wishing to survive until he can be replaced. Who knows, this could have been the plan all along?

I will forward this email to David Freel at the OEC and ask for a formal request to investigate the ethics of such. Hopefully, this will be within the guidelines of the OEC. Time will tell.

Take care and may you and Alice look forward to a healthier year in 2006.

Tom Curtis

From: Paul Boyer
To: Ronald Catron ; Thomas Curtis
Sent: Monday, December 26, 2005
Subject: Re: 122405 Curtis To All, Selecting Board Members

Ron and Tom, I have just read both of your letters and I agree with what you both have said. I have been told that some of the board members serving today do not have much of an idea of what is and has been going on.

Another idea that I have mentioned to some recently is that I believe that no appointed member of the board, whether appointed by a state official according to SB 133 or appointed by the board to fill an unexpired term should ever be allowed to hold office on the board. Look what we have now, both the chairman and vice-chairman were appointed members by the board and look how they are acting. They are both working as hard as they can to stymie those we elected to the board.

Paul