Columbus Dispatch: New ethics charges tied to vendors’ gifts
Four more current or former officials of Ohio’s second-largest pension fund were charged yesterday with breaking ethics laws by accepting Broadway and baseball tickets from vendors.
The misdemeanor counts against three former and one current State Teachers Retirement System board members are the latest in a lengthy investigation into vendors plying the unpaid board members with gifts.
Current board member Michael Billirakis was charged with two conflict-of-interest counts for accepting $275 tickets to the 2003 Broadway musical Hairspray from Frank Russell Corporation/Russell Real Estate Advisors and tickets to a 2001 Cleveland Indians game from Salomon Smith Barney. Both companies did business with the retirement fund.
Former board members Joseph Endry, Eugene Norris and Deborah Scott each were charged with one conflict-of-interest count for accepting the tickets to Hairspray in New York City.
All four board members were charged with failing to report to the Ohio Ethics Commission that they had received gifts worth $75 or more.
The violations are first degree misdemeanors punishable by fines as high as $1,000 or a six-month jail term.
Ethics Commission attorney Paul Nick, who is prosecuting the case with the Columbus city attorney’s office, said there was no evidence that any of the board members directed pension business to the vendors that offered them gifts. If that were the case, the board members would face more serious bribery charges, Nick said.
"It essentially is a classic conflict of interest," he said.
Three other former State Teachers Retirement System officials have been convicted of conflicts of interest for accepting gifts from vendors. Former board member Jack Chapman pleaded no contest to three counts, while former board member Hazel Sidaway unsuccessfully fought two charges. Former Executive Director Herb Dyer was charged with four counts and pleaded no contest to one under a plea bargain.
Nick said yesterday’s charges conclude the investigation of board members’ conduct, but prosecutors are continuing to investigate top-level staff members of the pension system.
Billirakis, Norris and Scott could not be reached or did not return calls yesterday. Endry said the criminal charges resulted from a "misunderstanding" because the pension system’s top staff did not advise him of the rules governing perquisites for board members.
As for the required disclosure form, "Well, I didn’t file it," Endry said. "That’s all I can say."
jnash@dispatch.com
Labels: Deb Scott, Ethics, Eugene Norris, Hazel Sidaway, Herb Dyer, Jack Chapman, Joe Endry, Michael Billirakis, STRS, STRS Board
posted by Kathie Bracy at 3:54 PM
<< Home