STRS FLASHBACK - 4 years ago - The OEC drops the hammer on Herbie after a hair-brained e-mail to a retiree!

From John Curry, July 25, 2009
Dyer was pressured to resign from his $153,000-a-year post in the summer of 2003 after he defiantly declared in an e-mail to a retired teacher that the retirement system was the board’s money "to distribute as they see fit."

"I only wish there would be some way that restitution could be secured for STRS and the retirees," said Dennis Leone, the former superintendent of the Chillicothe school system whose private investigation into the system’s spending helped bring down Dyer.

The culture of accepting expensive gifts with the retirement system "involves all levels of staff in the investment sections," Paul Nick, chief investigative attorney for the Ohio Ethics Commission, said at the time."

Agency’s ex-chief charged in gift probe

Food, travel among items man who led retirement fund is now accused of accepting

Thursday, August 04, 2005

Bill Bush

THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH

Herb Dyer resigned from the State Teachers Retirement System in 2003.

The former head of the State Teachers Retirement System, who resigned in 2003 amid accusations of extravagant spending by his agency, was charged yesterday with taking gifts from contractors.

Herb Dyer is charged with four counts of conflict of interest. Authorities say he received items of value between 1998 and 2003 from the Frank Russell Corp., a real-estate adviser under contract with the teachers’ retirement system.

Dyer accepted meals, golf outings, travel and tickets to the Broadway musical Hairspray, according to the Columbus city attorney’s office, which brought the charges.

Dyer also is accused of not disclosing the source of the gifts on his state-mandated ethics statements.

Dyer did not return a telephone call left at his home in Powell yesterday evening.

The violations are first-degree misdemeanors punishable by up to six months in jail and a $1,000 fine. Dyer is scheduled to be arraigned Sept. 8.

"The law prohibits public officials, whether trustees of the retirement system or not, of receiving things of value from those they do business with," said David Freel, director of the Ohio Ethics Commission, which investigated Dyer and referred charges in April.

The law also requires officials to report any gifts of more than $75.

According to the charges, Dyer received and did not report:

• A golf outing, including transportation, valued at $169.

• Meals at Mitchell’s, Downtown, and Barcelona, in German Village, totaling $125.

• Tickets to Hairspray in New York City, valued at $550.

• Other assorted meals, drinks, lodging and entertainment for himself and his wife, totaling hundreds of dollars.

In June, former State Teachers Retirement System board member Hazel Sidaway, 61, of Canton, was charged with seven ethics-law violations accusing her of receiving free meals, gifts, travel and outings from businesses and people doing business with her agency.

At the time, officials said that dozens of other board and staff members of the State Teachers Retirement System could face similar charges.

The culture of accepting expensive gifts with the retirement system "involves all levels of staff in the investment sections," Paul Nick, chief investigative attorney for the Ohio Ethics Commission, said at the time.

Dyer was pressured to resign from his $153,000-a-year post in the summer of 2003 after he defiantly declared in an e-mail to a retired teacher that the retirement system was the board’s money "to distribute as they see fit."

His comments came as teachers were complaining that the system had taken a $12 billion-dollar bath when the stock-market bubble burst; was cutting retiree health benefits; and was opening a new $94.2 million stone and glass Downtown office building.

"I only wish there would be some way that restitution could be secured for STRS and the retirees," said Dennis Leone, the former superintendent of the Chillicothe school system whose private investigation into the system’s spending helped bring down Dyer.

He has been elected to the retirement system’s board and is to be seated this fall.

The gifts that were routinely accepted were "symptomatic of a culture of entitlement that had developed over a number of years," Leone said. "I hope it will never happen again."

bbush@dispatch.com