STRS FLASHBACK - 7 years ago - For STRS, the days of the "cushy front seats" are over!

From John Curry, August 8, 2010

"Childers, a retired educator who started with Garaway Local Schools in Tuscarawas County, said he believes board members purposely booked the more expensive coach seats. He said records indicate some seats reserved weeks in advance were more expensive than they should have been."

"He also said some tickets were bought just days before a flight when the event being attended was scheduled months in advance. That makes the seat more expensive."

Canton Repository, August 9, 2003

Travel agent: STRS board enjoyed frills

By PAUL E. KOSTYU Copley Columbus Bureau chief

COLUMBUS — Coach airline seats turned into first-class travel in a legal scheme used by members of the board of the State Teachers Retirement System, according to a Chillicothe travel agent.

After analyzing travel receipts turned in by board members from 2000 through 2002, Terry Childers, a travel agent for the past eight years, said it was clear to him that board members manipulated the system so they could fly in “cushy front seats.”

Deborah Scott, chairwoman of the STRS board and one of those targeted by Childers, said she had “no idea what this person is talking about.”

Laura Ecklar, a spokeswoman for STRS, said, “We have not purchased upgraded coach tickets. We do not do this. We do not allow it.”

STRS travel policy, however, allows frequent-flier coupons to be used to upgrade seats, she said. The policy applies to the board and staff.

The board spent $221,236 on out-of-state travel from 2000 to 2002, according pension fund reports. By law, board members must book coach class, but there are multiple fees for coach seats. More expensive seats in that fee structure gives a person a better shot at first-class seats if any are available.

With an expensive coach seat in hand, a traveler can upgrade to first class by either using a complimentary system offered by some airlines or by using frequent flier miles. Because frequent flier points cannot be assigned to a business, when STRS board members travel, they accumulate those miles on their individual accounts.

Scott said she always flies coach and has never been in a first-class seat on a board-related trip. She said she could only speak for herself and not the rest of the board.

Scott said she sometimes has to fly out of Cincinnati, where she lives and where Delta Airlines has a hub. Both she and Childers said Delta flights there are more expensive than those from Columbus or Dayton.

Connie Hahn, the owner of En Route Travel Services, a Columbus agency that books most of the travel for STRS, refused to talk about STRS travel. After checking with her attorney, she said the information was privileged.

“I don’t want anything to be misconstrued,” she said. “They’re going through an audit. I don’t want to talk about it.”

The Ohio Retirement Study Council has approved an audit of STRS, but it has yet to begin.

Hahn and Childers agreed that ticket pricing is based on airline capacity, advanced purchase, length of stay, time of travel, length of trip and availability of seats. Fees and coach class designations vary from airline to airline.

Childers, a retired educator who started with Garaway Local Schools in Tuscarawas County, said he believes board members purposely booked the more expensive coach seats. He said records indicate some seats reserved weeks in advance were more expensive than they should have been.

He also said some tickets were bought just days before a flight when the event being attended was scheduled months in advance. That makes the seat more expensive.

“It bothers me greatly that waste is going on,” he said. “There’s too much at stake here. These people blatantly abuse the public’s money. It’s my money and the public’s money and it’s got to stop.”

Chillicothe Superintendent Dennis Leone, who provided Childers with the travel documents that he obtained from STRS, said it was “a shameful practice to deliberately and consciously pay more than necessary for air fare.”

“This by itself represents ground for some board members to step down,” Leone said.

He said Childers’ findings were “absolute, undeniable fact” that coach tickets costing “four or five times more than the coach tickets the rest of the world buys, have frequently been purchased.”

Childers said he could save STRS money.

“The objective of our agency is to get the very lowest fair,” he said. “If the board is sincere about regaining trust, our agency is willing to do their ticketing.”