Jim N. Reed: A powerful message to actives who haven't voted yet -- A MUST READ for all

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Active Educators -- Don't Be April-Fooled

April 22, 2006

Those "active" educators who have not yet cast their ballots for the two STRS board member positions can still make choices that will make a crucial difference in our profession's retirement system. Those choices are named Dr. Thomas Hall and Mr. Mark Fredrick.

My name is Jim Reed and I have taught in the Liberty Union-Thurston Schools in Fairfield County for 41 years, the last eight as a part-timer. When I retired in 1998 I thought my retirement system would fulfill its promise to allow my family to have a secure and affordable retirement. I was wrong on several counts.

The 13th check disappeared, health care premiums skyrocketed and I then I learned of the unethical and illegal spending of millions of dollars of retirement contributions (yours and mine). There seems to be little doubt, according to a recent OEA survey, why "nearly 60 percent of those teachers eligible for retirement do not do so because of uncertainty about pressures about pensions and health care." There's a bit of irony here. Read on.

How did I learn of the abusive mishandling of our retirement funds? In 2003 Dr. Dennis Leone requested the STRS to open its public records. From those records he published a scathing exposé of the shameful fiscal mismanagement at STRS. The position paper proved worthy of several journalistic awards and was corroborated by several major newspaper investigations. The General Assembly concurred, new legislation resulted and the Executive Director was shown the door (behind this green door was a $600 thousand board-supported severance package) in August, 2003.

Recognizing the fiscal chaos at STRS the General Assembly attempted to clean house and provided legislation to permit the Inspector General to take a closer look. However, politics took priority. The state's Attorney General and Auditor held positions on the nine-member board at that time and the Governor used his line-item veto to halt any internal inspection of our bruised retirement system.

Unfortunately, Executive Director Dyer left many of his "entitlement-era" colleagues behind who continued to abuse our retirement fund. As Dr. Leone's "STRS Organizational Matters And Spending Practices" (May 2003) and "Restoring Faith, Trust, and Confidence in STRS" (August 2003) began to circulate board members and STRS officers and staffers became targets of some legal scrutiny.

The distance from unethical to illegal is sometimes not so far. Dyer was indicted and convicted of ethics charges. Long-time board member Hazel Sidaway was likewise convicted of ethics violations on April 14 [2006]. The "Canton Repository's Copley Columbus Bureau Chief Paul Kostyu suggested in an April 18 report that if five Dyer-regime board members "don't have an attorney, you haven't been paying attention." By some accounts there are as many as 95 indictments that could result from a closer inspection of former abuse inside STRS.

All of the above STRS officials have something in common. They came from OEA. During the era of the nine-member board (there are now eleven), five members came from the STRS's farm team, the OEA, who controlled the vote, It was during this time that the system failed 400,000 retirees.

How serious may these misbehaviors be? Perhaps the answer is in the attempt by two long-term STRS investment staffers who refused to testify in the Sidaway trial unless they were granted immunity from prosecution for any potential felony charges. Stay tuned.

Thanks to Dr. Leone and John Lazares the STRS board has discontinued being a unanimous rubber stamp for proposed policy. The watchdogs have arrived in the boardroom but they need assistance from qualified and enlightened members who are willing to legislate only from ORC 3307.15 that stipulates exactly what the duties of a board member are.

Dr. Thomas Hall is an economics professor at Miami University and Mr. Mark Fredrick teaches in the English department in the Cleveland Public Schools. Concerned Ohio Retired Educators (CORE) believes these two men have the credentials and principles to conduct business for the benefit of active and retired educators and their families.

Don't be fooled this April as a lock-step member of STRS. If you have not yet voted for the two board seats do yourself and the other 400,000 members justice and open up a couple of web sites and become STRS literate.

www.concernedohio.org and www.kathiebracy.blogspot.com will provide additional information that is critical to your active participation in your profession's retirement system.

Jim N. Reed