Letter from Sondra Stratton to three Columbus "Honorables"

From Sondra Stratton [contact info included in original]
May 18, 2009

Dear Honorable Bubp, Neihaus, and Strickland; I am writing to you in regard to some needed legislation for the state pensions funds, particularly STRS. In the past 6-7 years many retirees have been fighting what seems like an endless and battle over the ridiculous spending of the OUR retirement money !!!!

We need regulations to control the out of control BONUSES that have been given and are continuing to be given to employees even though they lost a large part of our money. NO EMPLOYEE should receive anything other than their huge salary when money has been lost! AND, they should receive much less than employees have been receiving. It is time for those employed at STRS to have their era of ENTITLEMENT ended!! Teachers are people who could have gone into industry or other means that would have garnered they higher wages instead of sacrificing to teach the children of Ohio. Most recently, a raise was given to the executive director of STRS in the amount of $39,500. Almost $40,000 for ONE year. That is almost what I made at the END of my 30-31 year career!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! This is so ridiculous!!!!!!!!!!!!!! This kind of raise and millions of dollars in bonuses MUST STOP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

We are now hearing that we might lose part of our 3% COLA (3% of what we each made the day we retired just gets us further and further behind each year…….you see it does NOT begin to keep up with the cost of living!) and it has been discussed that should be not buy generics ( some of us have problems with fillers in generics and can not take them!) we could be responsible for up to $300 for the cost of EACH medication!!!!! Do you have any idea what this will do to retirees???? All the fat cats in Columbus are living high on the hog at our expense!!!!!!!!!!! The United States pays for the whole world’s development and testing of drugs and we can not even buy them!!!!!!!!!!!! We are being forced to take older less effective drugs!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

We need you to legislate the bonus and yes, also the raises for STRS employees!!!!! We have continuously been told “We need those employees, they are the best, and they will leave.” Well, with all the people out of work., as far as I am concerned, they should not let the door hit them where the good Lord split them because there are people out of work, who would be happy to work at STRS for less, and would do just as good a job, probably better, as those who have taken advantage of teacher retirees all these years. Here’s one who does not feel the present employees have done such a darned good job over the time I have been retired (9 years).

PLEASE do something about this ASAP!!!!!!!!!!!! It is long overdue. Retirees can work and fight and fight and get no where. When we lost John Lazares and soon, Dennis Leone, our allies are gone. OEA has no concern for retirees. As we were told early on, we don’t pay dues any more and we got what we paid for. YEAH!!!! RIGHT! If I knew then what I know now about OEA, here is one person who would have saved her dues money for her retirement!!!!!!!!!!

Another thing that rubs salt in the wounds of retirees is the STRS employees getting Health care insurance far superior to retirees….and I believe it is free or nearly so. JUST NOT RIGHT!!!!!!!!!!!!! STRS employees should be a part of the retirees’ HC insurance program, getting the exact same benefits at the exact same cost!!! They should also be paying their retirement money into STRS not into another pension system for that gives them absolutely NO INCENTIVE TO WORK FOR STRS!!!!!

Other states have recognized these problems and have put legislation into effect to protect both the pension system and retirees. PLEASE DO THIS FOR STRS RETIREES ASAP as our pension is in grave danger!!!!!!!!!!!!

I would like to hear from you and to learn what you are doing about this situation.
A constituent,
Sondra K. Stratton

NOTE TO GOVERNOR STRICKLAND:

I was one Republican who was so sick of Bob Taft that I was happy to see you run for this office. I have known of you for many years dating back to the time when Darlene McCall Herrell helped with your campaign early in your political career. I thought you would do a great job for Ohio. However, for me, you have been a great disappointment. I do not think you have always acted in Ohio’s best interest (or that of the nation for that matter) and with you backing Jennifer Brunner in not having the computers ready to clean out those who have filed to vote improperly, I am sorry to say that as of the present, I do not think I will be able to vote for you in the future. I would think that anyone who would run for office would want to win fair and square. I would. I take my voting rights and responsibilities very seriously and do not take voter fraud lightly or anyone who commits or acts in any way to keep from sorting out those culprits !

Take care!
Sondra