Board News you won't hear about from STRS, OEA, OEA-R or ORTA

Your rapidly shrinking pension dollars at work -- in beautiful Milwaukee and Chicago!

STRS Board shoots down spending moratium (to benefit themselves, of course -- shades of dejà vu!)

At last Friday's STRS Board meeting (5/18/07), two Board members, Mary Ann Cervantes and Steve Puckett, desired for the Board to approve thousands of dollars (your dollars, of course) so they could attend upcoming conferences in Milwaukee and Chicago. Dennis Leone made a motion (seconded by Tai Hayden) for the Board to have a self-imposed moratorium on Board member out-of-state trips due to:

1. Retirees on STRS health insurance plans are looking at premium increases of between 15% and 20% when the Board votes in June.

2. The Board in June also will be voting on a new STRS operational budget that proposes an overall increase of 8.6% and a categorical increase of 13.7% in the "salaries and wages" line item.

3. The Board's need to set an example.

This upset some board members, who said how important it is for them to attend such out-of-state meetings for in-service purposes. Dr. Leone's response?

(A) The voting record of board members after they return from out-of-state conferences hasn't shown that they learned much

(B) All 5 pension systems in Ohio need to be more aggressive in getting the desired in-service speakers to come to Ohio so all would save money.

The motion went down 6-2-1, with only Ms. Hayden voting with Dr. Leone (John Lazares was unable to be present for the vote). Brooks chose to abstain, also stating his agreement with some of Leone's budgetary concerns. Voting to defeat the motion were: Ramser, Cervantes, Meuser, Puckett, Johnson and Chapman. The Board then voted to spend the money to send Puckett and Cervantes to Milwaukee and Chicago.

Some good news: Shortly before the above action, the Board did agree with a policy amendment Dr. Leone recommended that will make sure no pension money is used by anyone in the future for "entertainment." Damon Asbury also presented documents that summarized how the staff will be expected to adhere to the newly adopted travel policy for Board members (i.e., itemized receipts for meals, 30-day advance registration for airplane tickets, etc.). Leone expressed his concern over what exceptions might be approved in the future for staff members -- since Damon has the power to do this -- and that he intends to monitor the situation.