Tom Curtis, Dave Speicher: SCRTA incident

Tom Curtis to Dave Speicher
March 13, 2006

Hello David,

Thank you so very much for your support and call for action concerning this situation. Wes Hisey took a strong dislike of me from the very beginning of my contact with him. I did not know Wes prior to joining SCRTA in January of 2005. I am a life member of both SCRTA & ORTA.

In February 2005, both Barb Garwood (now ORTA Trustee from Lake Co.) and I contacted Wes Hisey, (then SCRTA President) by phone and requested that David Speas and Dennis Leone have 3-minutes at the March meeting to introduce themselves. I could not believe how utterly controlling he was. He told both of us there was no time in the meeting schedule and no room in their newsletter for Dave Speas and Dennis Leone, end of discussion. This was an administrative fiat decision.

Being a member of SCRTA, I questioned his decision, as these were two retiree candidates desirous of greeting those that would be voting in the spring. Well, he did not take that well and this has escalated ever since that time.

His placing his hands on me last Friday is the forth in a series of incidents, two of which would seem insignificant in nature, but placed in the scheme of what transpired Friday, show a continual pattern of his intended abusive[ness] toward me. This kind of leadership should not be tolerated in any organization of people supposedly existing to be of help to its membership.

From my experience in trying to work with some of the ORTA leadership, it is my opinion that it will take a vigilant approach of the ORTA membership to force any disciplinary action against Wes Hisey. Your support is I hope, just one of many. Thank you again.

Sincerely,
Tom Curtis
CORE Advisory Committee Member

Dave Speicher to Ann Hanning re: SCRTA incident
March 13, 2006

Ann,

I have an email from Tom Curtis, CORE Advisory Committee member and ORTA member, who describes his encounter March 10 with Wes Hisey, an ORTA Trustee. Tom tells how Wes Hisey physically pushed him, and verbally abused him for a number of minutes following the March 10 meeting of the Stark County RTA, because he (Tom) was distributing material after the meeting was adjourned supporting Tom Hall and Mark Fredrick, CORE-endorsed candidates for the STRS Board.

I think the ORTA cannot just let this pass. I realize the ORTA is not supportive of CORE, as it was CORE that exposed the corruption and excess spending of the STRS Board. Even after the "expose" ORTA maintained its "go along to get along" coziness with the STRS Board, although Dave Travis did finally make a somewhat indignant statement in the ORTA Quarterly saying it was time STRS stopped its spending abuses. It seems to me that ORTA could greatly benefit from cooperating with CORE.

I think the Tom Curtis/Wes Hisey incident needs to be investigated by ORTA and if Tom's report of it is found true, as I think it is, (there were apparently plenty of witnesses) then ORTA needs to publicly take a strong and clear stance against this behavior and remove Wes Hisey from his trustee status. Thanks for your consideration.

David Speicher
Chm. Legislative Committee
Union County RTA