Refreshing our memories: A Dispatch article on Hazel Sidaway last July (2005)
GIFTS AND ETHICS
Ex-official of pension fund slapped with 7 charges
Friday, July 01, 2005
Bill Bush
THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH
Racing to beat a two-year deadline to file charges, the Columbus city attorney’s office has issued what it says will be the first in a series of ethics complaints against officials who oversaw the pension fund for Ohio teachers.
Former State Teachers Retirement System board member Hazel Sidaway, 61, of Canton, is charged with seven ethics-law violations accusing her of receiving free meals, gifts, travel and outings from businesses and people doing business with her agency.
Dozens of other board and staff members of the State Teachers Retirement System could be charged in coming months on similar allegations, officials said.
The culture of accepting expensive gifts "involves all levels of staff in the investment sections, some more than others," said Paul Nick, chief investigative attorney for the Ohio Ethics Commission.
The commission sent its investigation to the city prosecutor’s office.
"Based on what I’ve reviewed . . . I anticipate that there will be more charges," said Lara Baker, the assistant city prosecutor handling the case.
Nick and Baker would not name other officials under investigation, but Nick said the prosecution likely would "focus on people who were the decision-makers."
Generally, Ohio law prohibits public employees from accepting anything of value from those they regulate or do business with. Both the person giving the gift and the official receiving it could be in violation of Ohio’s ethics laws.
The first-degree misdemeanor is punishable by up to six months in jail and a $1,000 fine.
It’s too early to speculate on how the ethics probe could affect the pension fund’s investment department, which employs more than 100 people, said retirement system spokeswoman Laura Ecklar.
"There’s nothing to indicate that our members’ pension funds were adversely impacted or that any favoritism was shown to any vendors," Ecklar said.
Sidaway did not return calls for comment yesterday.
But she defended herself in an interview with The (Canton) Repository, saying she always worked to benefit teachers when she was on the board. "I’m sure in the final analysis, people will see the truth," Sidaway told the newspaper.
She is accused of taking gifts worth $910 without reporting them on her state ethics statements.
Six of the charges say Sidaway took and did not report free tickets to the Cleveland Indians in 2001, free dinners at Columbus restaurants in 2002 and tickets to the Broadway play Hairspray in New York in 2003, Baker said.
The last charge involves an aggregate of gifts from the investment firms Frank Russell Co. and Salomon Smith Barney for things such as meals, lodging and entertainment, Baker said.
Both firms said they are cooperating with the investigation.
Sidaway is scheduled to be arraigned Aug. 2 in Columbus. She retired on June 30, 2003, which meant that the two-year statute of limitations on her activity in office expired yesterday, Baker said.
The agency came under fire in 2003, when retired teachers complained that agency staff members had been awarded $14 million in bonuses at a time when retiree benefits were being cut because of investment losses and health-care costs.
The agency had lost $12 billion in the stock market but had just moved into a plush $94.2 million Downtown headquarters annex and was providing liberal perks for its board — whose members included Attorney General Jim Petro and state Auditor Betty D. Montgomery.
Dennis Leone, a former school superintendent from Chillicothe who became one of the retirement system’s harshest critics, charged yesterday that Petro and Montgomery are partly responsible for the board’s ethical lapses.
"I feel that had they done their jobs, these things would have been known two years ago," said Leone, who will be seated to an elected position on the board later this summer. "There was such a conflict of interest with them being on the board."
Under a state law signed in 2004, the attorney general and auditor no longer get a seat on the board because of the potential conflicts.
Montgomery and Petro are confident their representatives handled their responsibilities to the pension fund appropriately, their spokeswomen said yesterday.
The pension fund currently holds assets of about $58 billion to provide benefits for 430,000 educators, of which about 28 percent are retired, Ecklar said.
Since the backlash two years ago, the agency has adopted a no-gifts policy and has limited travel for board members.
Current board President Joseph Endry, of Westerville, said that while board members might have accepted gifts in the past, "they certainly don’t now."
He said that some expenditures, such as a $4,100 retirement party for Sidaway in 2003, "are trivial in light of a $60 billion" fund.
Many people "think that the spending of people like Sidaway had an effect on the life of retirees, and that’s not really true," Endry said.
bbush@dispatch.com
http://www.dispatch.com/print_template.php?story=dispatch/2005/07/01/20050701-A1-05.html&chck=0606122255
Ex-official of pension fund slapped with 7 charges
Friday, July 01, 2005
Bill Bush
THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH
Racing to beat a two-year deadline to file charges, the Columbus city attorney’s office has issued what it says will be the first in a series of ethics complaints against officials who oversaw the pension fund for Ohio teachers.
Former State Teachers Retirement System board member Hazel Sidaway, 61, of Canton, is charged with seven ethics-law violations accusing her of receiving free meals, gifts, travel and outings from businesses and people doing business with her agency.
Dozens of other board and staff members of the State Teachers Retirement System could be charged in coming months on similar allegations, officials said.
The culture of accepting expensive gifts "involves all levels of staff in the investment sections, some more than others," said Paul Nick, chief investigative attorney for the Ohio Ethics Commission.
The commission sent its investigation to the city prosecutor’s office.
"Based on what I’ve reviewed . . . I anticipate that there will be more charges," said Lara Baker, the assistant city prosecutor handling the case.
Nick and Baker would not name other officials under investigation, but Nick said the prosecution likely would "focus on people who were the decision-makers."
Generally, Ohio law prohibits public employees from accepting anything of value from those they regulate or do business with. Both the person giving the gift and the official receiving it could be in violation of Ohio’s ethics laws.
The first-degree misdemeanor is punishable by up to six months in jail and a $1,000 fine.
It’s too early to speculate on how the ethics probe could affect the pension fund’s investment department, which employs more than 100 people, said retirement system spokeswoman Laura Ecklar.
"There’s nothing to indicate that our members’ pension funds were adversely impacted or that any favoritism was shown to any vendors," Ecklar said.
Sidaway did not return calls for comment yesterday.
But she defended herself in an interview with The (Canton) Repository, saying she always worked to benefit teachers when she was on the board. "I’m sure in the final analysis, people will see the truth," Sidaway told the newspaper.
She is accused of taking gifts worth $910 without reporting them on her state ethics statements.
Six of the charges say Sidaway took and did not report free tickets to the Cleveland Indians in 2001, free dinners at Columbus restaurants in 2002 and tickets to the Broadway play Hairspray in New York in 2003, Baker said.
The last charge involves an aggregate of gifts from the investment firms Frank Russell Co. and Salomon Smith Barney for things such as meals, lodging and entertainment, Baker said.
Both firms said they are cooperating with the investigation.
Sidaway is scheduled to be arraigned Aug. 2 in Columbus. She retired on June 30, 2003, which meant that the two-year statute of limitations on her activity in office expired yesterday, Baker said.
The agency came under fire in 2003, when retired teachers complained that agency staff members had been awarded $14 million in bonuses at a time when retiree benefits were being cut because of investment losses and health-care costs.
The agency had lost $12 billion in the stock market but had just moved into a plush $94.2 million Downtown headquarters annex and was providing liberal perks for its board — whose members included Attorney General Jim Petro and state Auditor Betty D. Montgomery.
Dennis Leone, a former school superintendent from Chillicothe who became one of the retirement system’s harshest critics, charged yesterday that Petro and Montgomery are partly responsible for the board’s ethical lapses.
"I feel that had they done their jobs, these things would have been known two years ago," said Leone, who will be seated to an elected position on the board later this summer. "There was such a conflict of interest with them being on the board."
Under a state law signed in 2004, the attorney general and auditor no longer get a seat on the board because of the potential conflicts.
Montgomery and Petro are confident their representatives handled their responsibilities to the pension fund appropriately, their spokeswomen said yesterday.
The pension fund currently holds assets of about $58 billion to provide benefits for 430,000 educators, of which about 28 percent are retired, Ecklar said.
Since the backlash two years ago, the agency has adopted a no-gifts policy and has limited travel for board members.
Current board President Joseph Endry, of Westerville, said that while board members might have accepted gifts in the past, "they certainly don’t now."
He said that some expenditures, such as a $4,100 retirement party for Sidaway in 2003, "are trivial in light of a $60 billion" fund.
Many people "think that the spending of people like Sidaway had an effect on the life of retirees, and that’s not really true," Endry said.
bbush@dispatch.com
http://www.dispatch.com/print_template.php?story=dispatch/2005/07/01/20050701-A1-05.html&chck=0606122255
posted by Kathie Bracy at 11:46 PM
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