Flashback: Changes at STRS Since Dennis Leone's Report of May 16, 2003

[From Dennis Leone's 2005 campaign material, when he ran for his current seat on the STRS Board]

1. The 52 credit cards and 39 gas cards held by staff and board members have been turned in.

2. All but a couple of the 16 cars, vans, and SUV's purchased by STRS have been sold.

3. The policy that permitted staff to use STRS cars for personal use has been dropped.

4. The STRS staff has been reduced by 100 employees and the administrative budget has been cut.

5. New policies prohibit the use of pension money for things like alcohol, parties, movie rentals, Kings Island, concerts, and baseball games, or for airfare, lodging, and gifts for out-of-town STRS visitors.

6. New policies require plane tickets to be purchased at least 30 days in advance in order to receive the cheapest rates.

7. New policies restrict how many professional meetings Board members can attend yearly, the number of Board members who can attend said professional meetings, and how much can be spent at said meetings.

8. The cost to run the STRS child care services center has been reduced from $500,000 per year to $100,000 per year. It is still promised to be cost neutral.

9. Cafeteria services in the STRS headquarters are now cost neutral.

10. Fees to use the STRS fitness center have been increased.

11. Bonus checks for non-investment staff have been eliminated -- affecting over 300 employees -- and bonus checks for investment staff will occur only if said employees earn money for STRS.

12. NEA paid back STRS the $39,251 that the Perry Local School District received from STRS for sub teacher costs for Michael Billirakis when he was attending STRS meetings.

13. STRS Executive Director Herb Dyer resigned to avoid being terminated, after 105 legislators called for his resignation.

14. Senate Bill 133, signed by the governor on June 16, 2004, put in place a number of oversight regulations. It also requires ethics training and travel policies for all Board members.

15. Senate Bill 133 added another retiree to the Board, removed State Auditor Betty Montgomery and State Attorney General Jim Petro, and added three investment specialists -- thereby stripping OEA of its majority control of the STRS Board.

16. Senate Bill 133 stipulates that the "big spender" Board members from 2000, 2001 and 2002 -- those who spent in excess of $10,000 per year of pension money on trips around the country -- may never again run for the Board or serve as an appointee to the Board. This affects Jack Chapman, Eugene Norris, Hazel Sidaway, Gloria Gaylord, and Debbie Scott. It deserves noting that Eugene Norris, a former OEA officer and Board president in 2004, was defeated in his re-election attempt immediately before Senate Bill 133 went into effect, by John Lazares -- Warren County ESC Superintendent.

17. Senate Bill 133 contains a disciplinary procedure that will authorize the State Attorney General -- in the event that Board members improperly spend pension money in the future -- to seek restitution, pursue civil charges against Board members, and cause their removal from the Board.