John Curry to Mark Meuser: Your recent STRS vote

From John Curry, October 22, 2006
Subject: Mr. Meuser - your recent STRS Board vote

Mr. Meuser,

I was disappointed in your vote against the motion that a contract summary (of a proposed amount over $100,000) had to be in front of you before the Board would consider a vote on awarding a contract to a vendor. Your vote (and that of Mr. Meyers) indicates to me that you put too much faith and trust in an administration at STRS which you are supposed to be a watchdog over. Mr. Meyers, being a former CFO, certainly doesn't view $100,000 in the same light that most educators do. However, Mr. Meuser, you are an educator. 100K to you (and over 400,000 STRS members) isn't pocket change.

It wasn't that long ago that Dr. Paul Kostyu, of the Canton Repository, authored an award winning series of articles about the misspending, mismanagement, and entitlement philosophy which prevailed at the STRS. These articles (more than fifty) outlined how the Board of a retirement system, of which you are now a fiduciary, failed to effectively examine administrative desires - you know, kind of a checks and balances system.

Because of this and a lack of planning by both the STRS administration and Board, we retirees - and especially retirees with spouses are now facing $700 monthly healthcare premiums, skipping doses of RX, suffering from high deductibles, suffering from high out of pocket medical expenses,and choosing among which of life's necessities we can ration or do without. You have a fiduciary responsibility to examine all STRS contracts, but especially the major ones - like the contracts exceeding $100,000. Please don't blindly take the word of the administration before you vote on a vendor contract - examine it for yourself.

I would be glad to send you a CD containing the entire collection of Dr. Kostyu's articles and would recommend that you read them. These articles are quite effective in educating the layman about the sordid history of a retirement system which lost its ethical leadership/administration and hopefully has righted its course. It even contains former Executive Director Herbert Dyer's suggestion that retirees "eat out less often." We do, but I doubt that Herb does. I have a feeling that Herbie would have really appreciated your "no" vote.

John Curry

An STRS retiree