Is Gary Allen in denial or covering up? You be the judge

OEA president out of step with pension woes

Some interesting comments from the general manager of the Canton Repository in this flashback, 2-1/2 years ago. Has anything changed since then? KBB

Monday, June 16, 2003

By MICHAEL E. HANKE General manager of The Repository Here is the height of bureaucratic arrogance: Herbert Dyer, executive director of the State Teachers Retirement System, said last week that the nearly $15 million spent on bonuses and artwork was money that “belongs to the board,” not the teachers who contributed to the system. It is a statement so preposterous that it does not need further commentary. On the other hand, a statement by Ohio Education Association President Gary L. Allen criticizing the Chillicothe City Schools superintendent who brought the STRS spending spree to light does deserve commentary. Mr. Allen must have forgotten for a moment that he represents the people to whom the money does belong — teachers currently contributing to the fund and teachers who are retired. He should be applauding Chillicothe Superintendent Dennis Leone, and his members should be asking him why the union he heads didn’t lead the charge against this spending. In fact, a current STRS board member is a former OEA president, so it should have been easy for the OEA to spot this profligate spending three years ago and raise the collective voice of its members. The OEA leader is out of step with his members, who are angry about this spending while their pension system has lost $12.3 billion in the same time period. Meanwhile, another group worth criticism is the Ohio Retirement Study Council, which oversees Ohio’s five retirement systems. If the council, whose general purpose, according to its Web site, “is to advise and inform the state legislature on all matters relating to the benefits, funding, investment, and administration of the five statewide retirement systems in Ohio” does not include review of pension boards’ spending, it should. While some members of the council who also are legislators are raising their voices in outrage, those voices, too, should have been raised three years ago. Notably silent are the members of the STRS board, who, as my son the teacher says, “seem to have all the accountability of a Cleveland television weatherman.” A board such as this sits as trustees of the teachers’ money, not as pigs at the pension trough. Hanke is general manager of The Repository. He can be reached by telephone at 580-8301, e-mail – mike.hanke@cantonrep.com or fax, 454-5745, or by writing 500 Market Ave. S, Canton, 44702