Dennis Leone re: June 15, 2006 Board meeting

Dennis Leone to John Curry

June 16, 2006 9:01 AM

..........a very, very well written editorial by the Toledo Blade.

Here I am at STRS, getting ready to begin day two of the this month's STRS Board meeting. Did you hear what happened yesterday? A sub-committee or Flannagan, Fisher, and myself met at 7:30 a.m. to reconsider my May motion to limit the spending authority of the STRS executive director. As I thought would occur, I was out-gunned 2-1 on the matter. Flannagan and Fisher decided to propose a $500,000 spending limitation on Damon instead of the previously approved $1 million threshold. (My defeated motion last month was a $50,000 cap.)

When Fisher made her half-million dollar recommendation in public, Ramser (who spoke with Lazares and me ahead of time) offered a substitute motion for there to be a $100,000 cap. Much to the unhappiness of Fisher, Flannagan, Brown, Puckett, and of course, the staff, this motion passed 5-4, with the yes votes coming from Lazares, me, Ramser, Chapman, and Billirakis. (Buser and Meyers were absent.) Not quite what John and I wanted, but a big improvement nonetheless. Ramser and Chapman (who seconded the motion) deserve to complimented on this. Nancy Hamant, Herman Fisher, and Ryan Holderman all expressed their appreciation to Ramser after the meeting, which was the right thing to do.

One more thing occurred of interest. The staff proposed changing existing policy that would drop the reimbursements that the spouses of deceased retirees receive if they are on Medicare B plan. I offered a substitute motion, that passed 9-0, to grandfather in all spouses of current retirees who are eligible to receive Medicare B reimbursements. In other words, if a retiree on Medicare B dies after age 65, his/her spouse will continue to receive the Medicare B reimbursements that were previously received when his/her retiree spouse was alive. A good decision for STRS retirees.

Gotta run............the meeting is about to start. Feel free to share.

Dennis Leone

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Friday, June 16, 2006 12:46 PM

.........and so you know, John, the grandfathering in for the spouses of deceased retirees who are on the Medicare B plan requires that said spouse must be at least 65 years of age. The trigger date is Jan. 1, 2008, which means that if a current retiree spouse is 64, he/she also would be grandfathered in because she would turn 65 before the implementation.

Dennis Leone