John Curry: Thank you Wapakoneta City Schools Educator from one of your retirees
From: John Curry, February 13, 2006
Dear Wapakoneta City Schools Educator, (this is a blind copy to you - your email address is confidential and will not be shared by me)
I wish to give you a heartfelt message of thanks for your signing of Thomas Hall's petition for an active teacher seat on the State Teachers Retirement System during the past week. My organization(CORE) and I have worked hard over the last three years to bring reform to the State Teachers Retirement System of Ohio. As I sit here I am awaiting word whether or not one of the STRS's former Board members will really appear (on Valentine's day) to answer to Ohio ethics violations (7) in a trial in the Columbus Municipal Court for ethics violations she has alleged to have committed during her tenure as an STRS Board member. Her trial has already been postponed six times before. She was preceeded with a plea bargain of guilty that was copped by former STRS Executive Director Herbert Dyer who was charged with multiple ethics violations while in charge of "our" retirement system. One of our CORE (Concerned Ohio Retired Educators) was the person (Sondra Stratton) who initiated the investigation of Ohio STRS with her official complaint to David Freel, the Director of the Ohio Ethics Commission. According to Mr. Freel, there will be many more current and past STRS employees and Board members who will be charged with ethics violations after Hazel Sidaway's trial.
I retired for a few short years but due to the prohibitive cost of healthcare insurance through STRS (over $600 per month for an 80/20 program) I have necessarily left the retired scene and have gone back to work full time to afford health care insurance. Had I retired with my 30 years in OPERS (Ohio Public Employees Retirement System - for state,county, and municipal employees) my current healthcare premium would be merely $80 per month for my spouse and myself for the very same coverage! We, at CORE, have donated thousands of hours for the reform of your and our retirement system. We have succeeded in getting reform Board members Dennis Leone and John Lazares elected to your Board with an expenditure of less than $500. The "old guard" didn't quite know how to handle Board members who weren't "rubber stamps" and who questioned issues that involved waste and entitlement. We now have a Board which is starting to work for the active and retired teachers rather than the associates (employees) of STRS. This is required by the Ohio Revised Code (Section 3307.15).
Some will say that all of America is in a health care crunch and that we all are in trouble. I agree that many companies and retirement systems are feeling the pinch of high healthcare costs. Soon, our legislature will be asked to approve additional deductions from both the employer and employee to "shore up" the monies that go into the STRS healthcare stabilization fund that some of your monies will go into (if approved and passed by the Ohio Legislature). How much, well- for every dollar that you earn, 10 cents is curently taken out of your check and sent to Ohio STRS. NONE of that 10 cents goes for healthcare, it all goes for STRS investments for your future pension check. Out of that same dollar you earn, the Wapakoneta City Schools pays Ohio STRS 14 cents. How much of that 14 cents goes into STRS for healthcare? The answer is ONE PERCENT of that 14 cents, the remainder goes to STRS for investments for your retirement. Ohio STRS "one percent" is the lowest (by far) of all five Ohio pension programs. This could have been legislatively raised when it was known by the former STRS Boards that it wouldn't be sufficient, but they (former Boards) failed to act upon this problem and now we are suffering the consequences - they didn't want to "ruffle feathers" of our legislators.
I conclude to request that you watch for the CORE endorsed candidate names of Thomas Hall (the fellow you signed the petition for) and Mark Fredrick when you receive your ballots this spring. CORE endorsed both candidates for the two active teacher seats that will soon be vacant on the STRS Board. You haven't probably heard much about Mark Fredrick. His bio is included at the bottom of this letter to you. Mark is also endorsed by the Ohio Federation of Teachers and was interviewed by CORE as well as others (including an OEA endorsed candidate). You may wonder why CORE and I are not endorsing an OEA candidate for the two active teacher seats on the STRS Board. Well, I could write a book, but let's just say that until mid 2005, the OEA maintained a majority on the STRS board for almost two decades up to the year 2005! During their tenure as a majority on the Board, massive misspending, mismanagement, and entitlements were rubber stamped by this same OEA majority- to this day, the President of the OEA (Gary Allen) has been hesitant to meet with (despite numerous requests from education leaders and an OEA Board member) Dr. Dennis Leone. Dr. Leone started reform at STRS by presenting (in 2003) a scathing report to the STRS Board listing over twenty examples of misspending, mismanagement, and entitlements at Ohio STRS. Dr. Leone is now on the Board. It's time for Gary Allen to put his grudge aside and put his full energies toward saving our retirement system. If you have any questions about the future, please ask the teacher who approached you for your signature, he is more than capable of filling you in on what has transpired at the Ohio STRS during the past, it "ain't pretty." Thank you so much.
P.S. Hazel Sidaway was a former OEA Executive Board member. The OEA spent over $100,000 in a failed attempt to "out campaign" Dr. Dennis Leone and John Lazares - money can't buy everything!
Sincerely
John Curry
A Proud CORE member
A member of the Allen County Retired Teachers Assn.
A Wapakoneta City Schools retiree
Dear Wapakoneta City Schools Educator, (this is a blind copy to you - your email address is confidential and will not be shared by me)
I wish to give you a heartfelt message of thanks for your signing of Thomas Hall's petition for an active teacher seat on the State Teachers Retirement System during the past week. My organization(CORE) and I have worked hard over the last three years to bring reform to the State Teachers Retirement System of Ohio. As I sit here I am awaiting word whether or not one of the STRS's former Board members will really appear (on Valentine's day) to answer to Ohio ethics violations (7) in a trial in the Columbus Municipal Court for ethics violations she has alleged to have committed during her tenure as an STRS Board member. Her trial has already been postponed six times before. She was preceeded with a plea bargain of guilty that was copped by former STRS Executive Director Herbert Dyer who was charged with multiple ethics violations while in charge of "our" retirement system. One of our CORE (Concerned Ohio Retired Educators) was the person (Sondra Stratton) who initiated the investigation of Ohio STRS with her official complaint to David Freel, the Director of the Ohio Ethics Commission. According to Mr. Freel, there will be many more current and past STRS employees and Board members who will be charged with ethics violations after Hazel Sidaway's trial.
I retired for a few short years but due to the prohibitive cost of healthcare insurance through STRS (over $600 per month for an 80/20 program) I have necessarily left the retired scene and have gone back to work full time to afford health care insurance. Had I retired with my 30 years in OPERS (Ohio Public Employees Retirement System - for state,county, and municipal employees) my current healthcare premium would be merely $80 per month for my spouse and myself for the very same coverage! We, at CORE, have donated thousands of hours for the reform of your and our retirement system. We have succeeded in getting reform Board members Dennis Leone and John Lazares elected to your Board with an expenditure of less than $500. The "old guard" didn't quite know how to handle Board members who weren't "rubber stamps" and who questioned issues that involved waste and entitlement. We now have a Board which is starting to work for the active and retired teachers rather than the associates (employees) of STRS. This is required by the Ohio Revised Code (Section 3307.15).
Some will say that all of America is in a health care crunch and that we all are in trouble. I agree that many companies and retirement systems are feeling the pinch of high healthcare costs. Soon, our legislature will be asked to approve additional deductions from both the employer and employee to "shore up" the monies that go into the STRS healthcare stabilization fund that some of your monies will go into (if approved and passed by the Ohio Legislature). How much, well- for every dollar that you earn, 10 cents is curently taken out of your check and sent to Ohio STRS. NONE of that 10 cents goes for healthcare, it all goes for STRS investments for your future pension check. Out of that same dollar you earn, the Wapakoneta City Schools pays Ohio STRS 14 cents. How much of that 14 cents goes into STRS for healthcare? The answer is ONE PERCENT of that 14 cents, the remainder goes to STRS for investments for your retirement. Ohio STRS "one percent" is the lowest (by far) of all five Ohio pension programs. This could have been legislatively raised when it was known by the former STRS Boards that it wouldn't be sufficient, but they (former Boards) failed to act upon this problem and now we are suffering the consequences - they didn't want to "ruffle feathers" of our legislators.
I conclude to request that you watch for the CORE endorsed candidate names of Thomas Hall (the fellow you signed the petition for) and Mark Fredrick when you receive your ballots this spring. CORE endorsed both candidates for the two active teacher seats that will soon be vacant on the STRS Board. You haven't probably heard much about Mark Fredrick. His bio is included at the bottom of this letter to you. Mark is also endorsed by the Ohio Federation of Teachers and was interviewed by CORE as well as others (including an OEA endorsed candidate). You may wonder why CORE and I are not endorsing an OEA candidate for the two active teacher seats on the STRS Board. Well, I could write a book, but let's just say that until mid 2005, the OEA maintained a majority on the STRS board for almost two decades up to the year 2005! During their tenure as a majority on the Board, massive misspending, mismanagement, and entitlements were rubber stamped by this same OEA majority- to this day, the President of the OEA (Gary Allen) has been hesitant to meet with (despite numerous requests from education leaders and an OEA Board member) Dr. Dennis Leone. Dr. Leone started reform at STRS by presenting (in 2003) a scathing report to the STRS Board listing over twenty examples of misspending, mismanagement, and entitlements at Ohio STRS. Dr. Leone is now on the Board. It's time for Gary Allen to put his grudge aside and put his full energies toward saving our retirement system. If you have any questions about the future, please ask the teacher who approached you for your signature, he is more than capable of filling you in on what has transpired at the Ohio STRS during the past, it "ain't pretty." Thank you so much.
P.S. Hazel Sidaway was a former OEA Executive Board member. The OEA spent over $100,000 in a failed attempt to "out campaign" Dr. Dennis Leone and John Lazares - money can't buy everything!
Sincerely
John Curry
A Proud CORE member
A member of the Allen County Retired Teachers Assn.
A Wapakoneta City Schools retiree
posted by Kathie Bracy at 9:33 PM
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