If it weren't for Dennis Leone.....

From Kathie Bracy (response to a letter)
January 8, 2008
(xxx) --

I'm curious. What do the Baldrige Principles say to do if somebody doesn't follow the rules? I'm glad you credit Dennis Leone for blowing the whistle on past mistakes, but what if mistakes are still occurring and nobody else on the Board is calling attention to it? Dennis is still a whistle blower (thank heavens), but he's still getting a lot of flak for it. If he brings up touchy issues in a "polite and civil" manner, he is ignored. If he doesn't turn up the volume in his pleas for oversight and action, nothing gets done about it. Do the Baldrige Principles tell board members what to do if everybody's being polite and civil to each other, but letting a lot of crappy stuff get by at the same time?

If Mark Meuser or any other Board members feel they're being insulted, there are ways to deal with it. If the Baldrige Principles don't address it, Board members themselves can do it, publicly or privately, whatever they wish; they're all adults and don't need intervention.

I believe the King of England and his Parliament would love to have had a good working relationship with the American colonists, too. Why do you think he didn't get it? When the old rules don't work, it's time for new rules. It sounds to me like the Baldrige Principles go only so far, but not far enough. I wholeheartedly agree with you on this point: "If he or she [the executive director] is not following policy, terminate them." And if, as you say, "all sides are to blame," then the spirit of reform is still alive and well. This won't last forever. Either reform will win out or we'll end up with the same kind of rubber-stamping, ethics-out-the-window Board we had before. Either way, the process is not going to be easy or fun.

Whether people like it or not, Dennis has brought about far more change than anyone else on the STRS Board. Had he not spoken up -- many times -- I wonder where we'd be now? How many changes have OTHER Board members initiated? The sounds I keep hearing are those of rubber stamps and Board members objecting to the one who dares to be vocal about wrongdoings. Here's a list I've put together:

Some of the things that would very likely still be going on if it weren't for Dennis Leone:

• Legal expenses paid for by STRS for staff members who hire their own lawyers outside STRS, for whatever purpose, without prior knowledge and consent of the Board

• Huge bonuses for over 300 non-investment staff members/employees who do no more than their day-to-day job (investment staff deserve the bonuses)

• Bonus checks for investment staff members would still be based, at least in part, on subjective factors instead of solely on benchmark factors

• STRS employees who adopt children would still be getting a $5,000 gift from STRS

• Cars for staff members and their families to use at their own discretion, permitted by official Board policy

• As many as seven Board members taking the same expensive trip and to faraway places such as Hawaii, Palm Springs, Anchorage, Kiawah Island, China, Africa; stays at fancy hotels with a minimum of "business" being conducted

• Free lunches/dinners at fancy restaurants; free booze; STRS paying beach bar bills

• Free use of STRS laptop computers in the homes of Board members, with no way of really monitoring whether the use of the laptops was personal -- in violation of Board policy

• Free credit cards for staff and Board members

• Free newspaper subscriptions, personal long distance phone calls, personal fax machines for Board members

• Unitemized lunch and dinner bills paid by STRS

• Thousand dollar plane tickets to New York, paid by STRS, with no requirement that far more economical reservations be made 30 days in advance

• Broadway shows, baseball games, concerts, trips to Kings Island and Columbus Zoo Light Show, etc., either at STRS expense or as gifts from companies doing business with STRS

• State Attorney General and State Auditor would still be on the Board

• Executive director would still be advising the Board to approve big money contracts without documentation, and most of them would be dumb enough (call it "trusting") to do it

• Lawyers would still be inserting language in such contracts after the Board approves it (thanks to the "trustworthy" executive director/staff)

• Free second night stays in Columbus and elsewhere (Orlando, etc.) for Board members, following meetings, for no legitimate reason

• Free hotel stays and meals for spouse/partner of Board member

• There would still be nine members on the Board, with no investment experts whatsoever

• Herb Dyer would still be there, along with a number of other Board members whose ethics prevented them from following the spirit and the letter of ORC 3307.15

• Child care services for STRS employees would not come close to covering the operating costs of the center; cafeteria services would not be cost neutral

• STRS would still be spending $5,000 a year to beautify the front lobby at Christmas time (remember all the poinsettias?)

• There would be no policy requiring that the Board receive copies of big ticket contracts before voting on them

• Free college education would still be offered/provided for employees, regardless of whether the employee gets a "C" or a "D" in the course

• STRS would still be buying tickets to the zoo for employees' families, then appropriating them for themselves so that somebody else would have to pay for the children to go, or they wouldn't get to go at all (talk about Grinches)

• Reimbursements for unused sick leave/vacation leave for employees who don't qualify

• There would be no policy prohibiting the awarding of sick leave accumulation to rehired retirees who were already paid for their accumulated sick leave at their previous public employer

• Escalating, unchecked administrative expenses; unchecked hiring of staff and employees

• Waterfalls would still grace the main lobby

• The Board still would be allowing the executive director to give severance cash and free health insurance to laid off STRS employees without formal board approval

• The Board still would be going into executive session, illegally, to discuss proposed policies

• The Express Scripts contract would not have several provisions that it currently does regarding the company’s fiduciary obligations with the board

• There would still be secret balloting by the Board

• There would be no statutory provision in Senate Bill 133 in 2004 that prohibited the likes of Jack Chapman, Hazel Sidaway, Eugene Norris, and Debbie Scott from ever serving on the board again because of their STRS spending habits

• There would be no language in Senate Bill 133 stipulating that future dishonesty on STRS Board election materials (such as saying that you are teaching social studies at Perry High School when you’re really not) will knock you off the board

• Mike Billirakis, Jack Chapman, Hazel Sidaway, Eugene Norris, Debbie Scott, Joe Endry and Herb Dyer would not have been convicted in court. Say what you want about it being an Ethics Commission investigation, but it was the Commission's head, David Freel himself, who said that Dennis Leone’s 2003 findings triggered the whole thing (along with Sondra Stratton pushing the Commission relentlessly in 2004).

It's been almost two years since those legal fees were paid by STRS. How come Dennis is the ONLY Board member (along with John Lazares) who sees this as WRONG and is trying to do something about it? How come NO OTHER Board members have brought it up? And WHY are they disturbed when Dennis brings it up (other than the fact that they don't like his behavior)? What else is going on that isn't reaching the surface here? What or who are they afraid of? I'd like to know, and so would a lot of other people. At the moment, we can only guess.

Kathie Bracy