The 'OEA Way' on 'truth' (deja vu) and a portent of things to come: Dennis Leone looks ahead at a frightfully inexperienced 'new Board'
From Dennis Leone, June 20, 2009
Subject: Additional Thoughts About 6-19-09 STRS Board Meeting
I mentioned to one retiree last night that the Myers’s OEA-type motion yesterday at STRS Board meeting (seconded by Ramser) to shut me up and “close the discussion” about bonus checks (a motion that barely failed, 5-4) was not something we saw in the worst of times during the Dyer/Chapman/Sidaway/Norris heyday of 2000-2003. With Meuser the chair now, and Myers the vice-chair, the board and the public will be woefully uninformed over the next two years. It is not the OEA way to make sure the truth is being told. I saw, first-hand, evidence of the board’s naivete in executive session yesterday when there was discussion about how to handle the evaluation of executive director Mike Nehf. With the exception of Brooks and Burch, the rest of the board has no idea what-so-ever what to do. They are utterly inexperienced in such things, as they are with the bigger picture of governance. It’s darn scary.
Before adjournment yesterday, I publicly asked Myers to explain his written comment to the Jackson Center Local School District Superintendent. Myers wrote a couple of weeks ago that if the STRS Board does not pay the bonus checks to the investment staff, the board would experience “a penalty ten times the amount” needed for the bonuses. I publicly asked Myers to explain what he meant by such a statement. He refused to answer. I guess he wants the board to believe he has some special expertise to determine that if sued, the board would end up paying ten times the amount of the bonuses. He won’t quantify the statement, however, because he can’t. Myers has given new meaning to the word immaturity. I have told STRS executive director Mike Nehf several times in the past few months that if he allows himself to believe that Myers/Meuser/Ramser have the pulse of the STRS membership, it will spell significant problems for both STRS and himself personally.
Dr. Dennis Leone
STRS Retiree Board Member
Subject: Additional Thoughts About 6-19-09 STRS Board Meeting
I mentioned to one retiree last night that the Myers’s OEA-type motion yesterday at STRS Board meeting (seconded by Ramser) to shut me up and “close the discussion” about bonus checks (a motion that barely failed, 5-4) was not something we saw in the worst of times during the Dyer/Chapman/Sidaway/Norris heyday of 2000-2003. With Meuser the chair now, and Myers the vice-chair, the board and the public will be woefully uninformed over the next two years. It is not the OEA way to make sure the truth is being told. I saw, first-hand, evidence of the board’s naivete in executive session yesterday when there was discussion about how to handle the evaluation of executive director Mike Nehf. With the exception of Brooks and Burch, the rest of the board has no idea what-so-ever what to do. They are utterly inexperienced in such things, as they are with the bigger picture of governance. It’s darn scary.
Before adjournment yesterday, I publicly asked Myers to explain his written comment to the Jackson Center Local School District Superintendent. Myers wrote a couple of weeks ago that if the STRS Board does not pay the bonus checks to the investment staff, the board would experience “a penalty ten times the amount” needed for the bonuses. I publicly asked Myers to explain what he meant by such a statement. He refused to answer. I guess he wants the board to believe he has some special expertise to determine that if sued, the board would end up paying ten times the amount of the bonuses. He won’t quantify the statement, however, because he can’t. Myers has given new meaning to the word immaturity. I have told STRS executive director Mike Nehf several times in the past few months that if he allows himself to believe that Myers/Meuser/Ramser have the pulse of the STRS membership, it will spell significant problems for both STRS and himself personally.
Dr. Dennis Leone
STRS Retiree Board Member
posted by Kathie Bracy at 10:29 AM
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