RH Jones: SERS Bd. voted 3-2 to approve Hawaii trip

From RH Jones, February 16, 2013

To all:

Three out of the five SERS Board members must not be aware of Ex-STRS Board member Dennis Leone’s fight to stop entitlement thinking on the STRS Board. To the STRS members, he understood the value of modern inexpensive electronic conferencing rather than expensive trips. Evidently the three SERS board members who approved the long trip to Hawaii have never heard of teleconferencing saving money for their SERS members. I wonder are the three, who voted to go, are the same three going? Not being a member of SERS, and not being privy to their Web site, I do not know for sure. Also, I wonder if NCPERS is the North Carolina Public Employee Retirement System? If it were the State of North Carolina’s conference, rather than a national conference, what benefit would it be to justify this great of an expense to their SERS?

As a Life Member of OEA, they forwarded me this info from the SERS Board meeting of 01/17, 2013.

Here is the OEA message concerning SERS:

Board Approves Travel Expenses

NCPERS CONFERENCE in Honolulu, Hawaii will be attended by three SERS Board members, May 19-23, 2013.

Cathy Moss: $3,972.03

Barbara Phillips: $3,978.16

MaryAnn Howell: $3,281.96

Board member James Rossler read a statement opposing this travel expense however the Board voted 3-2 to approve.

STRS members, if you know of anyone who may be a SERS member, it would be nice of you to mention that they might want to be more vigilant of their SERS Board. And if you happen to be a retired member of both STRS and SERS you should be doubly vigilant.

Out of the 5-Board members voting two did vote against the expensive trip. As you noticed, their SERS Board member James Rossler did read an opposition statement; so, I would think that SERS members would be grateful to him and want him, and the other opposition voter, to be re-elected! Certainly these thousands of dollars in travel expenses could have helped SERS funding during these hard times for Ohio’s public employees.

Being aware of the above extravagance, STRS retired members must remember what Dr. Leone did for us and vote for him ONLY when you receive your ballot. He is our best choice to speak out for retired teachers. His two opponents voted “yes” on our COLA cuts.

RHJones, retired Ohio teacher