Tom Curtis to Steve Buser: Grandfathering and other matters

From Tom Curtis, January 26, 2006

Hello Steve,

Thank you for your thoughtful response and your candor concerning the position the board most likely would take, concerning the issue of grandfathering. I understand what you have presented to me, and I do not like it, but I asked for your honest impression and that is what you gave me. I do appreciate what you are able to share with others and me. I do not like the fact that this is all you can offer, but then, I know you do not like it either and it is really out of your hands, isn’t it?

After three long years of fighting for our right to the health care benefit others and I were promised during our careers, it really does come down to exactly how Damon presented it to me, "Who promised you health care?" Obviously, it was not promised by anyone in the eyes of our fiduciaries, but they all want and have those same benefits, both while they are employed and when they retire. Yet, we are unreasonable to want such!

Dr. Leone attempted to offer an addendum motion on December 8^th that the board attempts to recover misspent funds by past board members and the past executive director. He heard loud objections from the vice-chair. This came from a person who represents the very OEA union that permitted the climate for our funds to fall into the hands of the greedy people we employ. She obviously does not have a clue about what has happened. She just does not get it! She is so engrossed in her desire to be a powerful union representative that she is blinded of her ignorance of the situation as it truly exists.

In my opinion, the entire retirement system and those in charge of operating it for the past few decades has genuinely let their Stakeholders down. I doubt that they started out thinking they were so entitled to live as well as possible off of our funds, but year by year, they each obviously convinced one another that they were. The salaries grew, the benefits grew, the staff grew, the building grew, everything grew for the staff, but nothing got appreciably better for the stakeholder and remained. Anything the Stakeholder gained, has been moderate compared to the employee and/or management of the STRS. What most certainly has remained, is an entitlement culture that is so prevalent that it will take years to be eradicated.

Thank you Herb Dyer, the OEA leadership, Damon Asbury and staff for permitting us to be so generous to you and your families. What would we have done without you? Well, for one, we would still have our health care benefit.

Those greedy uncaring people do not care what ORC 3307.15 states, because no one will cause them to operate by such. Both Betty Montgomery and Jim Petro were to be our watchdogs on our board and not permit this kind of rape of our funds. They failed us miserably and should be held accountable for such. Is that likely to happen, NO?!

This is all about how much the people in charge can make off of our income. The leadership of our Ohio government, the STRS and the OEA are nothing more then leeches and parasites. Their success is not governed by how well they do their job for their Stakeholders. No, it is about how rich and powerful they can become. How many zeros they contain in their annual pay. How many people they can corrupt to protect their own illegal activity. That is paramount today. Who cares about the poor Stakeholder? These people are taking our state and country down the drain and we are all standing by watching it happen!

Damon Asbury and his executive staff have feed us so many excuses, or failed to answer our concerns with action taken in the past three years that you would think someone would go postal. I have heard people dying of cancer speak to the executive staff and board and yet they are unwilling to give up anything for the Stakeholders.

Our STRS managers not only accomplished suing our fund for nearly 4 million dollars for the non-investment staff, but has just paid for a complete benefit study by Aon that recommended as high as 20% increases for non-investment staff. Just how ludicrous is that? We have to pay for our health care and they want more raises.

During the same period that the STRS lost $12.3 billion dollars, the STRS gave the investment people millions of dollars in bonuses. Oh, I forgot we were also paying the non-investment employees bonuses at the same time. JUST WHAT IS WRONG WITH THIS PICTURE PEOPLE?

The stakeholders were simply told this is justified, because our employees did not lose more. What a load of garbage! Explain it anyway you like, but the bottom line is that our fund lost both ways in 2001-2003 and now we the Stakeholders are paying for such by having to again pay for our health care benefit, which by the way, is predicted to go broke in 2018. What will be do then for health care and what will it cost?

Just what did our employees lose during that same period that our fund took the single biggest bath in the history of the STRS and of the five public retirement systems in Ohio? A loss we were told would never be regained and has proven to be true. The answer as I understand it is that the employee lost absolutely nothing! I cannot stomach hearing Damon Asbury say to me one more time that if changes were made the employees would not like it.

Our retirement funds have been taken hostage (87% placed in stocks), by a bunch of greedy employees. We have this much in stocks, we are told, because we have to make at least an 8% return on our money to keep the STRS afloat. Who is responsible for this situation, but our employees? We are told we have to be gentle with these employees, because our future of our retirement system is in their hands. THAT IS THE PROBLEM PEOPLE! Our retirement fund was permitted to fall totally in the hands of our employees, by the boards of the past two decades or more. What is disturbing, is that this board is still promoting this same scenario. Are there no other alternatives? If not, then this is a no win situation for the Stakeholder. Our health care benefit has a very limited life left. What will we do then? Further, if the stock market really went south, we would all lose our pension as well. Does that not scare the living crap out of anyone?

Yes, I know many will tell me that is not likely to happen. Well, it was not likely that the STRS would lose $12.3 billion dollars in 2001, was it? The investors actually lost $17.1 billion at one point in 2001. Now, let us have a moment of silence and prayer for these employees. They have it so bad, because we point fingers and blame them and get upset. As John Lazares told Steve Mitchel, our chief investment officer, if he has been there for 37 years, it must not be to bad. Obviously it is not!

Further, the membership is told by Damon and the board that if we are not kind and gentle to our employees and allow them all of those wonderful benefits, ones NONE of us ever received during our careers, they will leave us. That whole thought process has permitted such a feeling of entitlement by our employees that Herb Dyer could honestly sit before the ORSC and tell them that the money made on our investments was theirs and the boards to spend anyway they saw fit. That is the BIG picture here! Please help me out here Steve, why does no one other then Dennis Leone and John Lazares understand this and attempt to steer things in another direction?

Please correct me if I am wrong, but during 2001-2003, or for that matter, at anytime did the employees at the STRS not receive:

. their complete salary for the year and increases each and every year

. one of the best health care benefit packages in the industry at no cost to them, prior to 2004

. subsidized child care for their children, if that applied and still exists

. free parking in an area where the cost of such is high

. a 37-1/2 hour work week

. any one of the five different pay increases they might have qualified for

. the highest level of reimbursement of all five public retirement systems in Ohio for schooling they decided to take

. a $5000 reimbursement for each adopted child, if they exercised that option

. the list goes on

This is shameful and these people are shameless for sponsoring such

Where did the employee lose anything? What have the Stakeholders lost? Plenty and they will continue to spiral down this slippery slope until these greedy people run our funds dry, then they will take their parasitic body and latch it onto another victim. This is more then pathetic! This is unbelievable to say the very least!

Steve, I really do not expect much of a response to this, as what I have said speaks for its self. This is what I have found after 3 long years of attempting to help Dennis Leone, John Lazares and others to stop the bleeding and turn this around. I am nearly at my end of this pathetic rhetoric that goes on with the STRS management. It is time to move on and address this through another avenue.

In July of 2003, Dennis Leone, Sondra Stratton, Nancy Hamant, Cathy Burner and myself drove to Cincinnati to meet with Stan Chesley to discuss filing a class action suit against the STRS. Stan Chesley had just one day prior to our meeting agreed to take the Medco case offered to his firm by Jim Petro. Geez, what a coincidence?

Stan Chesley was very amused with us. He told us how he respected teachers and the work they did. He told us we were under paid and not appreciated. He provided us with a handful of accolades, but in the end, after asking us several questions, Stan Chesley laid it out plain and simple. He told us that in his opinion, we had no power and no money. Without one or both of those, we might as well go home and stay at home, forget about all of the poor business practices the STRS management and board has been guilty of and go about our lives. Well, sadly I guess he was right, wasn’t he!

Take care,

Tom Curtis