STRS "FLASHBACK" - 6 years ago....The STRS $70,940 Stored Sofa Saga

From John Curry, September 16, 2009

Storing sofas cost STRS $70,940
Canton Repository, October 2, 2003
By PAUL E. KOSTYU
Copley Columbus Bureau chief

COLUMBUS — When the new $94.2 million building housing the State Teachers Retirement System opened in 1999, it included $10.2 million in furniture, fixtures and equipment.

Some existing furniture had to be dismantled, moved, stored, moved again and reassembled as parts of the East Broad Street facility were remodeled. A lot of the furniture, some of it in former facilities scattered across Columbus, did not fit the decor of the new headquarters, so it was sold for pennies on the dollar to employees and others.

The public pension fund also paid three Columbus warehouses $70,940 to store furniture from December 1999 to October 2001, according to documents obtained by Copley Ohio Newspapers.

That figure contributed in part to the building’s eventual price tag of $99.9 million by 2002, according to STRS documents.

Laura Ecklar, a spokeswoman for the teachers pension fund, said it did not keep track of what furniture was sold, the price it sold for or who bought each piece.

That is not unusual. The Ohio Department of Administrative Services, which handles the sale of surplus equipment for state agencies, also does not keep track of those details.

But state employees are not allowed first crack at purchases, said Dave Settlemire, administrator of state and federal surplus for the department. He said state law requires employees be treated just like any other member of the public.

When surplus material is sold by the state, Settlemire said, it goes through several kinds of sales. First, it must be offered in floor or Internet sales to other state agencies or tax-supported political subdivisions, like counties, cities and their offices.

Once agencies and municipalities have had a chance to buy, then the public — individuals and businesses — can make purchases. The public also can offer sealed bids. If material still hasn’t sold, then the department negotiates a sale to have the equipment hauled away.

Not all agencies are required to go through the department to get rid of equipment, but some exempted agencies do so anyway, Settlemire said, “because we do it cleaner and easier.”

Ohio’s five pension funds are not required, but can, use the department to unload furniture, a spokesman for the department said.

Ecklar said there were several sales at STRS.

“Because all the items were used, and some were damaged, the prices were very modest, ranging from about $10 for a chair to $100 for a desk,” she said.

She said STRS staff determined what the prices should be. Settlemire said his staff uses its experience to determine the prices assigned to the equipment.

Proceeds from two STRS sales, one in September 2000 and another in April 2001, were donated to three charitable organizations. Canine Companions for Independence, a nonprofit organization that provides trained assistance dogs for people with disabilities, received $11,471. United Way received $11,752, and Operation Feed, a Central Ohio effort to prevent hunger, was given $3,850.

The furniture not sold was hauled away by Thomas W. Ruff & Co., a Central Ohio furniture distributor that received one of the contracts to outfit the new headquarters. Ruff & Co. charged STRS for that service but neither a spokesman for the company nor Ecklar knew what that amount was.

The furniture had been stored at Commercial Movers , City Properties and Graebel Moving & Storage, all based in the Columbus area.

Ecklar said STRS does not have any furniture stored off site now.

Pension fund revisions

A bill to be introduced in the Ohio Senate today will revamp the way Ohio’s five public pension funds operate, and not everyone is happy about it. Among the proposals:

Changes in the membership of each retirement-fund board and in the Ohio Retirement Study Council, which oversees them.

A removal process for pension board members.

Authority for the Ohio attorney general to investigate and charge board members with violations of responsibility.

Requiring public financial disclosure statements by board members, senior staff and investment officers to the Ohio Ethics Commission.

Mandatory ethics training for board members and staff.

.....hey, that was MY couch you sold!