The Plain Dealer on current ethics charges and some hard questions re: Mike Billirakis and OEA involvement in STRS scandals

From John Curry, Sept. 1, 2006:

Tlcohio - Maybe you haven't been following CORE's emails over the last 3 years. I have not been a supporter of Mr. Billirakis.

I and others at CORE have criticized the leaders of the OEA for their lack of leadership by being asleep at the switch when the misspending, mismanagement, and entitlement philosophy blossomed at STRS under the leadership of Billirakis, Norris, Scott and other former OEA Executive Council members - also for the lack of forward thinking by not pressing for the increase in the employer contribution rate toward healthcare years ago as other state retirement systems have done.

We, at CORE, have cut Billirakis no slack - nor have I.

Billirakis was on the board when much of the items you mention below were approved by the STRS Board. We need active educators to help pass on the message of misdoings by the public officials at STRS. I hope you have helped by spreading the word. By the way, would you please share with me your name? When I write my articles or notes I do not do so anonymously. Since you didn't indicate that this letter should be confidential I will pass this on to the troops.

I notice that you used a reference below to the Education Intelligence Agency. I have read their website periodically. They are very much anti-organized labor, which I am not. I have also researched the salaries paid by the OEA to their employees through the U.S. Department of Labor website and have published this public information for three years running. The results below you have provided seem somewhat high for the year 1998 as compared to what I have seen from the U.S. Dept. of Labor, but I do agree that current active educators aren't getting the best bang for their bucks (annual dues) and OEA salaries are way above those of the classroom teachers. Once again, I am not against organized labor, but not all labor organizations have been corruption free either. I think the OFT has done an excellent job representing their members throughout the past and present. There are good ones and there are bad ones - just like STRS Board members and anyone else you come across when you walk down the street.

Sincerely,

John Curry
-------
From: Tlcohio@aol.com
Sent: Friday, September 01, 2006
Subject: Why no attacks on Billirakis, OEA-Connected STRS Scandals

John: Why no coverage and outrage about Mike Billirakis and his being criminally charged in Court this week for doing much of what Bob Taft did? Billirakis apparently did wrong and has been in control at STRS. Is that OK? According to one 1998 report shown below while Billirakis was at OEA he made much, much more money than the Governor in salary. Couldn't he afford to buy his own tickets when OEA people get paid so much? Is that OK? Let's hear more about Billirakis, OEA and their involvements in the scandals at STRS. Why doesn't Billirakis explain his wrongdoing and resign from STRS? If convicted, will Billirakis resign from his high NEA position? Did Billirakis approve the two fancy, wasteful waterfalls in the STRS Taj Mahal building? Thanks!
-------
Cleveland Plain Dealer/AP Newswire, Thursday, August 31, 2006

Ethics panel accuses 4 of violations

By Andrew Welsh-Huggins Associated Press

Columbus- The Ohio Ethics Commission charged three former members of the state teachers' retirement board and one current member Tuesday with failing to report gifts from companies doing business with the agency.

The filings in Franklin County Municipal Court bring to seven the number of officials with the State Teachers Retirement System who have been charged with ethics violations in recent years.

Michael Billirakis, a current board member, was charged with two counts of conflict of interest for accepting tickets to "Hairspray," a Broadway musical in New York, from the Frank Russell Corp./Russell Real Estate Advisors, now the Russell Investment Group, according to the Ethics Commission.

Billirakis, who is also a former president of the Ohio Education Association, the state's largest teachers union, was also charged with accepting tickets to a Cleveland Indians game from Salomon Smith Barney, now Citigroup, the commission said.

The retirement fund was doing business with both companies at the time.

Billirakis also was charged with two counts of filing false financial disclosure statements with the Ethics Commission for failing to report the companies' gifts. Such disclosure is required for all gifts over $75.

Billirakis is represented by Columbus attorney Terry Sherman, according to the Ethics Commission's Chief Investigative Attorney, Paul M. Nick. A message was left seeking comment.

Former board members Eugene Norris, Joseph Endry and Deborah Scott were each charged with one count of conflict of interest and a count of filing a false financial disclosure statement for accepting the "Hairspray" tickets.

Endry and Scott are represented by Columbus attorney Ritchey Hollenbaugh, Nick said. A message was left seeking comment. Nick said Norris did not yet have an attorney.

Norris has an address in Ann Arbor, Mich., but there was no phone listing for the address that was included in the charge filed against him. Each charge carries a punishment of up to six months in jail and a $1,000 fine.

-------

Mike Billirakis: Executive Committee, National Education Association

Michael Billirakis, a social studies teacher at Perry High School in Perry (Lake County), Ohio, was elected to the National Education Association’s (NEA) Executive Committee in July 2002 and reelected in July 2005 for a second full three year tear, after fulfilling a one-year vacancy in 2001-02. He is now on the second year of his second full term. Billirakis has been active in the NEA since he began teaching 33 years ago at Field High School in Portage County, Ohio. During his tenure as president of the Ohio Education Association (OEA) – from 1994-2001 – Billirakis was at the helm when the OEA challenged the Cleveland voucher program, which was eventually upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court. OEA joined more than 500 schools challenging Ohio’s public school funding formula, resulting in billions of additional dollars for education funding. Under his leadership, OEA also stopped the state from eliminating due process rights for teachers. In addition to serving as OEA’s vice president and president, Billirakis was president and an executive committee member of the Northeastern Ohio Education Association. He served on the Ohio Governor’s School Accountability Committee and currently sits on the board of directors for the State Teacher’s Retirement System, which has assets in excess of $67 billion, and is a Commissioner on the Education Commission of the States. After graduating from Youngstown State University with a bachelor’s degree in history and a Master’s in European history, Billirakis completed 30 hours of graduate study in education at Akron University. A native of the Island of Kalymnos in Greece, Billirakis immigrated to the Buckeye State when he was 12 years old. He and his wife, Valerie, now live in Pickerington, Ohio. Both of their daughters, Christine and Cynthia, are students at Ohio State University and are pursuing secondary education and elementary education, respectively. The NEA Executive Committee is composed of the three NEA officers plus six members elected at-large by the nearly 9,000-member-Representative Assembly.

-------

FROM 1998 web reports Education Intelligence Agency (June 1998), p. 17. During 1997, the highest paid (in gross salaries and expenses) OEA staff members, lobbyists, and labor negotiators/political organizers ("UniServ consultants") were:

1. Michael Billirakis president $166,733
2. William P. Sundermeyer executive director $164,347
3. William Dorsey secretary-treasurer $148,208
4. Gary Allen vice president $145,988
5. Benjamin Gerber UniServ consultant $145,112
6. Edward Spiezio UniServ consultant $144,309
7. Dennis Coughlan UniServ consultant $140,990
8. William Canacci UniServ consultant $140,537
9. James Romick UniServ consultant $140,241
10. Alan Adair, Jr. UniServ consultant $137,906
11. Dorothy Fay UniServ consultant $137,590
12. Thomas Scarpelli UniServ consultant $137,256
13. Charles Williams UniServ consultant $134,095
14. Mary Jo Shannon Slick UniServ consultant $132,971
15. Michael Shanesy UniServ consultant $131,912
16. Donald Looker UniServ consultant $125,058
17. Richard Bourgault executive director $120,608
18. Barry Bartelt computer services consultant $119,907
19. Richard Baker magazine editor $119,082
20. Jerome T. Rampelt director $116,272