FLASHBACK -- 3 YEARS AGO & ANOTHER STRS BOARD VOTE FOR A REPLACEMENT BOARD MEMBER!

STRS picks prof to fill vacant spot

By Paul E. Kostyu, Copley Columbus Bureau chief

Canton Repository, September 20, 2003

COLUMBUS -- In a vote that ended the way insiders predicted, an Ohio State University professor was elected to a vacant seat on the board of the State Teachers Retirement System.

Robert B. Brown, a mathematics professor, defeated three other candidates Friday, in-cluding Coni K. Ramser, a teacher in the Jackson Local School District.

Ramser was backed by the Ohio Education Association. A strong anti-union sentiment among retirement system members may have influenced the board not to vote for her.

Members were disillusioned by the teachers’ union’s support for former-STRS Executive Director Herbert Dyer, who was forced out of his job in the wake of revelations about excessive spending at the pension fund. The union also criticized the work of popular Chillicothe Superintendent Dennis Leone, who brought some of that spending to light.

The anti-union fervor also may have doomed MaryAnn R. Frederick, a teacher from Medina with backing from the Ohio Federation of Teachers, the state’s second largest teachers’ union.

Shortly after the vacancy was created by Hazel Sidaway, a Canton teacher who resigned from the board June 30 when she retired from teaching, some insiders thought the federation had struck a deal with the OEA. Seating a federation teacher would have kept five union members in the board’s nine seats.

Ramser got one vote in the first round and by board rules was eliminated. Brown had three votes, while Frederick and John Lazares, a superintendent from southwest Ohio, each got two votes. A candidate needed five votes to win.

In the second round, Brown went to four votes, still one shy. Frederick and Lazares again got two each. In the final round, a Lazares vote switched, giving Brown the seat.

Mary Beth Foley, who represents Auditor Betty Montgomery on the board, said she backed Brown through all three votes.

“He’s the most qualified,” she said. “He’s an active teacher and represents a group that isn’t on the board.”

Brown, who was backed by the Ohio Retired Teachers Association, has an actuarial background and ran second to current board member Mike Billirakis in an April member election.

Brown said he wants to help the retirement system’s administration move quickly and publicly to make changes to restore faith in the system by members “and all of the people of Ohio.”

Ramser said she was not disappointed in the outcome. “I made my best effort,” she said.

Ramser would not say whether she will apply for the next opening on the board, which will become available in June 2004, when Jack Chapman resigns because he is retiring from teaching. He announced his plans Friday.

You can reach Columbus Bureau Chief Paul E. Kostyu at (614) 222-8901 or e-mail: paul.kostyu@cantonrep.com