Flashback: A sizzling speech delivered to the Board before the birth of this blog

Dennis Leone’s speech delivered extemporaneously before the STRS Board (the last of many speeches he delivered in nearly three years before becoming a member of the Board in September, 2005)

August 18, 2005

Oh, the good news is this is to be the last time I’ll stand up here in front of this Board as a citizen for at least the next four years. That’s the good news.

I’m speaking today because I have a hope and a wish. My hope was that, Joe, that either you today would either apologize or set the record straight for the comments that recently appeared in the Columbus Dispatch and the Canton Repository. You and I spoke after the work session last week, and you indicated that you felt that you were not quoted correctly. If that indeed is the case, I would hope that you would write a letter to the Editor; or if that’s not the case, then to apologize to the STRS members for the comments that had to deal with being in the line of duty, or attending a Broadway show; the $4000 spent on the Hazel Sidaway party being trivial; and that such expenditures do not affect the lives of retirees. If, indeed, those comments were not made by you, I think you owe it to the membership to either have a letter to the Editor published or to set the record straight.

Secondly, I’m here with a wish that – a wish pertaining to a comment that was in the recent ORTA newsletter where, Mr. Endry, you advised people to beware of the few “malcontents,” and I guess my wish is today that as you leave this Board, you would have a better understanding for what, indeed, the “malcontents” have done to cause constructive change in this pension system.

Had it not been for the “malcontents” that you refer to in the newsletter, there would be no Senate Bill 133. There would be no travel restrictions, no spending controls, no required ethics training; there would be no discipline procedure in place to deal with future Board member misconduct – that would not be there!

Had it not been for the “malcontents,” there would be no Stephen Buser or Mrs. Fisher or Mr. Meyers on this Board. I believe that twenty-one, twenty-two thousand malcontent and active teachers voted John Lazares on the Board. I believe twenty-one thousand retirees likely to put me on this Board. Had it not been for the “malcontents,” Herb Dyer would still be sitting here; Eugene Norris would still be sitting up there. That is the fact that I wish that you would come to grips with.

And I guess that if those of us who have worked to try to make things better at STRS are “malcontents,” then so, also, I suppose, David Freel, Ohio Ethics Commission investigators and prosecutor Lara Baker, perhaps they’re “malcontents.” Perhaps the 105 lawmakers that called for Herb Dyer’s resignation, maybe they’re “malcontents.” Maybe Senator Wachtmann and Senator Schuring, who’ve tried to stand tall for doing the right thing for retirees; maybe they’re “malcontents” as well.

I’m here today to say thank God for the “malcontents” for what they have done to try to make things better; and my wish is, Joe, as you leave this Board, you would thank them for what they’ve done, instead of refer to them in the derogatory way that you have.

Thank you.