Comments from Jim N. Reed for STRS Board

Note: Jim was unable to attend the 1/17/08 STRS Board meeting to deliver his speech; below is the text of the speech he had planned to deliver. KBB

To:........STRS Board
From:....Jim N. Reed
Re:........Concerns and New Year’s Resolutions
Date:.....January 17, 2008

Good afternoon, Ladies and Gentlemen. My name is Jim N. Reed and I am a 43-year stakeholder in STRS Ohio. I appear before you today speaking as an independent retiree concerned about my retirement system.

The lines of communication between retirees and the Board seem to be clogged. One of the most active, respected, and moderate STRS-literate stakeholders , Mrs. Molly Janczyk, has been a most effective advocate for retirees. She has attempted to mediate among educator groups and I believe she has earned the right to be heard and listened to by this Board and Executive Director. Recently, she has attempted to get Board members to respond to a simple query about your individual contributions as an elected or appointed member. If you have not responded to her legitimate and timely question, especially in light of the frequent criticism of Dr. Leone’s style of persistent questioning, I urge you to publicly comply with her reasonable request. It is of significant interest to stakeholders and, furthermore, it is simply a matter of professional respect and courtesy.

I have frequently challenged this Board to pay close attention to its legacy. As retirees, we are in uncertain times. Many current and future retirees have been adversely affected by detrimental decisions made by past and current Boards and their Executive Directors. Attempts to escape from one’s heritage are unrealistic and unwise. The tracks remaining from previous Boards and Executive Directors can not be completely covered. However, you have the advantage of hindsight. You have a golden opportunity to take corrective, preemptive, and preventative action to bring about the kind of change that can continue the restoration of respect, honor, integrity, and trust to a once proud STRS Ohio initiated by Dr. Dennis Leone and Mr. John Lazares. This struggling Renaissance has openings for others so enlightened.

On another issue, is there among you one who has not read the Columbus Dispatch multi-month series called “The A-B-C’s of Betrayal?” Has it struck any of you as regrettable that there have been few rebuttals defending our profession by any of our profession’s organizations? Does this suggest some malignancy in the unity of our profession? Is this deafening silence a symptom that our profession’s organizations may have lost focus on what their legitimate “reasons-for-being” actually are as they continue to overindulge in individual and group ego trips and power plays?

In conclusion, I would hope that all of you made some STRS resolutions for the New Year: Resolutions to be more understanding and responsive to the daily concerns of retirees; resolutions to give credit to those Board members who have ferreted out issues and insisted on resolving them; resolutions to be genuinely introspective as to your real purposes and goals as Board members; resolutions to conduct business in a manner that will diminish the negative legacy of the tarnished regime of the Malevolent Seven; and finally, resolutions that require daily observance adherence to ORC 3307.15.

Thank you in advance for a better 2008.

Jim N. Reed