Kathie Bracy: Letters to Sen. Harris and Rep. Husted: Remove Geoffrey Meyers

From Kathie Bracy, October 22, 2006

Subject: Remove Geoffrey Meyers

To the Honorable Bill Harris

President, The Ohio Senate

Dear Senator Harris:

I am writing to request that you and House Speaker Husted immediately remove Geoffrey Meyers from the STRS Board for the reasons I will outline below:

• Geoffrey Meyers comes from a corporate background and is woefully out of touch with the STRS membership and their plight

• He has consistently demonstrated a lack of regard for the improper spending of the membership's funds, seeing only the size of the dollar signs before him

• He is totally insensitive to the fact that there are retirees in desperate need of smaller amounts of money ($500 - $1000) to pay their day-to-day living expenses and put food on the table, let alone larger amounts for high healthcare costs which they cannot afford for such items as specialized wheelchairs and speech computers for invalid children; cancer treatments they are foregoing because of costs; medications they are taking in half-doses or skipping; and homes they are losing because they cannot afford to keep them.

• He feels it is OK to reimburse $1400 legal fees to staff members who chose to hire their own outside attorneys (without prior knowledge or approval of the Board) instead of using, for free, the services of the STRS legal staff; $1400 may be peanuts to someone like Geoff Meyers, but would provide some relief to many retirees for a year!

If rules are to be bent by Board members, they should be bent in favor of RETIREES, not for THEMSELVES: ORC 3307.15

Please remove Mr. Meyers NOW and send a suitable replacement. Anyone as insensitive and uncaring as Meyers has absolutely no business being on the STRS Board when thousands of lives are being directly and adversely affected by actions and attitudes such as his.

Thank you.

Katherine B. Bracy,

Retired teacher

Columbus, OH

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To the Honorable Jon Husted

Speaker, The Ohio House of Representatives

Dear Representative Husted:

I am writing to request that you and Senate President Harris immediately remove Geoffrey Meyers from the STRS Board for the reasons I will outline below:

• Geoffrey Meyers comes from a corporate background and is woefully out of touch with the STRS membership and their plight

• He has consistently demonstrated a lack of regard for the improper spending of the membership's funds, seeing only the size of the dollar signs before him

• He is totally insensitive to the fact that there are retirees in desperate need of smaller amounts of money ($500 - $1000) to pay their day-to-day living expenses and put food on the table, let alone larger amounts for high healthcare costs which they cannot afford for such items as specialized wheelchairs and speech computers for invalid children; cancer treatments they are foregoing because of costs; medications they are taking in half-doses or skipping; and homes they are losing because they cannot afford to keep them.

• He feels it is OK to reimburse $1400 legal fees to staff members who chose to hire their own outside attorneys (without prior knowledge or approval of the Board) instead of using, for free, the services of the STRS legal staff; $1400 may be peanuts to someone like Geoff Meyers, but would provide some relief to many retirees for a year!

If rules are to be bent by Board members, they should be bent in favor of RETIREES, not for THEMSELVES: ORC 3307.15

Please remove Mr. Meyers NOW and send a suitable replacement. Anyone as insensitive and uncaring as Meyers has absolutely no business being on the STRS Board when thousands of lives are being directly and adversely affected by actions and attitudes such as his.

Thank you.

Katherine B. Bracy,

Retired teacher

Columbus, OH