Flashback 3 years ago: Kostyu getting 'dirty looks' from people at STRS

All STRS, all the time

By Paul E. Kostyu

Copley Columbus Bureau chief

Canton Repository, July 11, 2003

COLUMBUS -- Problems crop up when a reporter spends time on one story like the State Teachers Retirement System, putting in more hours than he cares to count, day after day and, now, week after week.

First, because he’s not home much, he may tend to forget what his kids look like, nevermind their names.

Second, trying to help the team out in the church softball league is difficult when he can’t make the games. Of course, maybe he is helping the team.

Third, it’s really hard to write a column about something else.

Last week, I didn’t write a single story about STRS after two weeks of nonstop material. Some of you probably thought I was holed up in a garage somewhere talking to the STRS version of Watergate’s Deep Throat, collecting information for a blockbuster story.

Dare I say it? I was in Michigan. OK, for some of you diehard Buckeye fans, Michigan may compare easily to a smelly, decrepit garage.

I was on vacation, which is sure to get me in trouble with Gov. Bob Taft because I wasn’t spending money in Ohio. But Republicans should be happy to know that I had a chance to read a novel by Christopher Buckley, the son of conservative columnist William F. Buckley. The satire takes a humorous slap at Washington politics, lawyers, the Clintons, the press and various other subjects. I actually may read one of his other books.

After a break, a reporter hopes either that the story he has spent so much time on has gone away or that he hasn’t missed anything. By the looks of things this week, there’s plenty more going on with STRS.

Here’s some of the stuff you haven’t heard.

There was a resignation in one of state retirement systems. No, it’s not Herbert Dyer, executive director of STRS. Instead, Thomas R. Anderson, executive director of the School Employees Retirement System, is retiring after 32 years in Ohio public service and as the SERS leader since 1979. His resignation is effective Jan. 1, 2004.

STRS has put Sen. Kirk Schuring, R-Jackson Township, in situations he doesn’t often find himself. First, he called a press conference to show off all the lawmakers, at last count 105, who backed his call for Dyer’s resignation. He rarely calls press conferences, and he even showed up late after getting stuck listening to a Senate debate.

Second, he’s helping organize a march on STRS headquarters on Aug. 15, the next regularly scheduled meeting of the board. He’s checking out a permit from Columbus City Hall; he has to decide a route (this should not be difficult because STRS is just three blocks from the Statehouse); he might have to arrange for security; and he’s trying to figure out which other lawmakers may be going along and how many people are actually going to show up.

If nothing else, the STRS debacle has provided Schuring with all sorts of exposure and name recognition. That could be particularly helpful if he gets a chance to run for Ralph Regula’s congressional seat whenever the powerful longtime congressman from Bethlehem Township retires.

I get dirty looks from the people at STRS. Board Chairwoman and first-grade teacher Deborah Scott refused to answer questions Wednesday and looked as if she wanted to smack my knuckles with a ruler. She probably wanted to send me to detention like Professor Delores Jane Umbridge did to Harry Potter in the latest J.K. Rowling book.

When Scott left the hearing room of the Ohio Retirement Study Council, several reporters followed her all the way to the women’s restroom. I suggested the only female reporter with us follow Scott into the restroom for a pool interview, but she declined.

STRS spokeswoman Laura Ecklar is getting a bit testier every time I ask for more public documents. I suggested that she get a bonus for having to deal with me all the time. She laughed, but it hasn’t helped speed the time it takes to fill my requests.

Here’s what I don’t understand: Ecklar was quick to point out when I misspelled her name in a story, which has since been corrected. But getting the figure right for the amount of bonuses awarded to STRS staff in 2000, 2001 and 2002, never resulted in a call. “It’s always been wrong,” she said Wednesday of the $14 million figure we reported for two weeks.

The correct figure is $16.76 million. When the $2.1 million awarded this year is tacked on, maybe it’s easy to understand why she wasn’t in a hurry to correct it.

You can reach Copley Columbus Bureau Chief Paul E. Kostyu at (614) 222-8901 or e-mail:

paul.kostyu@cantonrep.com