Tom Curtis to Marc Dann: Seeking justice at STRS

From Tom Curtis, March 12, 2007
Subject: 031207 Curtis To Att Gen Dann, STRS Misspending & Att Patterson

Hello Attorney General Marc Dann,

Congratulations on your election to State Attorney General. May you have a healthy, full and productive term in office? Considering the enormous amount of corruption I have read about in Ohio, you will have little time to call your own.

My name is Thomas Curtis. I am an STRS retiree, a life member of Concerned Ohio Retired Educators (CORE) and the Ohio Retired Teachers Assoc. (ORTA).

When you spoke to our CORE group last fall at the STRS, I met you in the lobby and escorted you to the room where you spoke with us. Your presentation provided many of us with a glimmer of hope, as you told us of the planned changes you would make, if elected. From what I have read to date in various newspapers, which I understand is not always accurate you are attempting to follow through with your promises. Thank you.

Over the past four years, I have worked with Dennis Leone, John Lazares and the many fine people that make up CORE in an attempt to bring the STRS back to reality. In my opinion, for over a decade the STRS was grossly mismanaged. The misspending was huge, yet those guilty of wrongdoing have never been brought to justice. This was because our prior State Attorney General and the Auditor of State (who both held a seat on the board during that time) lobbied Governor Taft to not permit the State Inspector General Thomas Charles to begin an investigation into the operation of the STRS in July of 2003. 109 legislators made that request. To my disappointment, the AG and Auditor were successful. The Governor vetoed the funds in the budget permitting such. Gov. Taft then handed the problem over to the ORSC. After one failed attempt, they finally ordered a performance audit in 2004 one year after the Inspector General was to have started his investigation.

That performance audit cost the STRS nearly $500,000 and was mandated by the ORSC. The final version of such was just recently presented to the STRS. The information in that report is over two years old and has not one component concerning the fiduciary responsibility of the Board and the mismanagement it perpetrated. How can that be? We were promised better. I interviewed with the Independent Fiduciary Services, Inc. staff. We were told we would be listened too, but we were not.

Dennis Leone, John Lazares and all of the members of CORE hope that we might help to bring back the STRS institution that was once worthy of the faith and trust it’s members had placed in it. There are so many issues concerning the mismanagement of the STRS. Few have been willing to listen and do anything to bring those guilty of wrongdoing to accountability. The mismanagement has simply been swept under the rug and the retirees made to suffer the losses. This whole mess saddens me greatly and deeply cuts into my appreciation for justice in Ohio.

In my opinion, the STRS of today continues with business as usual. The tail is wagging the dog. Many board members have been elected to positions they have no real qualifications to hold other then they were elected. This system for placing members on the board is obsolete and needs changed. It may have served the system well for many years, but it no longer provides the board with members that have the knowledge and common sense to make the necessary fiduciary decisions required of a board governing $72 billion dollars.

It really comes down to this, educators provide a dedicated flow of income for the STRS management to use as they see fit. CORE cannot fight the big money the OEA has. They have indirectly placed people from their rakes on the STRS board for decades and still continue to do so. The most qualified people are not going on the board; the most politically accepted are going on the board. Past OEA leadership held the majority of the seats on the board until the passage of SB133 in 2004. However, when it was found that there past leaders permitted the kind of misspending that took place since roughly 1992, the OEA did nothing to discipline there own. To the contrary, they called Dennis Leone’s findings misrepresentations and false allegations, simply to cloud the situation. As you are aware, each of those board members was found guilty of ethics violations and paid a small pittance of what they truly should have been charged with. I know I am not telling you anything you have not dealt with many times in your years of experience, people are greedy. Attorney General Dann, when is accountability going to return to our pension system?

Lastly, I must tell you that I was horrified to see that John Patterson was back in the STRS boardroom representing your office. He has not been a friend to those of us attempting to right the many wrongs at the STRS. In my opinion, he has not been supportive of Dennis Leone and John Lazares. Would you please reconsider his assignment and replace him with someone willing to bring about some much-needed change? If Mr. Patterson tells you there is no wrongdoing at the STRS he is not telling you the truth. I still believe an investigation of the STRS by the State Attorney General is needed. David Freel of the OEC completed an investigation and attempted to assure the CORE membership that no wrongdoing was present. How can that be? It has been documented by Dennis Leone through STRS records that money was misspent on items such as alcohol, yet NO findings of such, including any component of remuneration have been brought down to date. Where do we go for justice?

Thank you for your time,

Thomas Curtis
North Canton, OH
[Address, etc.]