Tom Curtis, Canton Repository: STRS retirees are paying price for indulgences by Sidaway, other board members

Canton Repository
Thursday, May 4, 2006

Hazel Sidaway was found guilty of only two of the seven ethics violations she was originally charged with by the Columbus city attorney’s office concerning her inappropriate spending during about three of her 17 years of tenure on the State Teachers Retirement Board. (“Former teachers pension fund member convicted on 2 of 6 counts,” April 15). During her tenure, she journeyed about the country, lavishing herself and often her husband with the many first-class accouterments of travel. Yet when she left the courtroom, her attorney indicated that she felt she was not guilty of any wrongdoing. What a warped sense of perspective and entitlement this woman must have! This clearly shows the same arrogant attitude she commonly displayed to those of us who initially questioned her actions in 2003. Ms. Sidaway obviously felt entitled to squander the money she was entrusted to care for by educators, but why? Was it simply because she spent so much time on the board that we “owed” it to her? What other justification could she truly have? In my opinion, she got off lightly, considering the thousands of STRS retirees who are today suffering financially because of the failure of the board she sat on to fulfill its fiduciary responsibility to the STRS membership. Many retirees now must spend more than one-third of their pension check to pay for their health care benefits. Instead of tending to business, board members were too busy traveling about the country or planning for the grand new palace the STRS built, so they could all feel like corporate elitists. Somehow it slipped their minds to maintain the health care stabilization fund we were promised would help pay for our health care for the rest of our lives. THOMAS CURTIS, PLAIN TOWNSHIP