Editorial commentary: A letter to an STRS stakeholder who feels my blog posts pertaining to our COLA are one-sided

August 26, 2021

You know, if I could trust STRS, I would never have started my blog in the first place. Remember all the stuff [that was] uncovered in 2003? STRS knew exactly what was going on then, and ENCOURAGED all the misdoings of the Board. Why? You tell me. 

A leopard doesn't change its spots. I decided years ago where there’s money, there’s greed. STRS brags about how wonderful they are and how much money they're bringing in. OK, where IS all that money? And why did it take them THREE YEARS to tell their own Board they had lost OVER HALF A BILLION DOLLARS TO PANDA? No WONDER we lost our COLA!!

If people want STRS "facts", they can look for them on STRS's website, not mine. STRS has plenty to hide. Why else does it take the Ohio Supreme Court to make them turn over requested FOI papers to Ted Siedle? It's OUR money they're playing with. I believe we have a RIGHT to know what's happening with it. They STILL aren't producing all the requested documents Mr. Siedle needs to complete his investigation. Where's the transparency? Why so much secrecy? Why all the smoke-and-mirrors?

I will gladly post items from those I trust: people like Wade Steen, Rudy Fichtenbaum, Bob Buerkle, John Damschroder, Dean Dennis, Robin Rayfield and others. They do the investigating and run the numbers. I don't see any of them hiding a thing. They are the ones who are uncovering the discrepancies and demanding answers, so of course I will post their findings. I know them and I trust them.

The longer I live, the less I trust ANYTHING STRS puts out. If they're hiding documents, what else are they hiding? And where is all that money going? A lot of it, right into THEIR pockets! That's one fact we DO know. Those numbers have been posted. You can find them online.

If STRS is hiding stuff from us then how can we believe anything they tell us? How can ANYONE believe them? The Board? The ORSC? The media? 

And by the way, why has the ORSC broken the law by not performing an audit on STRS every ten years? It's been FIFTEEN years, and they're doing it now because WE EXPOSED THEM. Gee, you don't suppose STRS might have been rewarding them handsomely to look the other way, do you? 

And what about the state auditor, the governor and all the other legislators? I used to wonder how all those people got so rich performing a public service that doesn't pay the kind of money they seem to have. Where's it coming from? No doubt from many sources, for many reasons. I haven't trusted politicians since Watergate. And I haven't trusted STRS since [someone] uncovered what was going on there in 2003. They've only gotten better at hiding it. 

I'll gladly post the facts when I GET the facts from STRS. But until there's complete transparency, there's no way I can get at the truth. What are they holding back, and why? Where there's smoke, there's fire. We may need an oceanful of water to put this one out. As for my blog, heck, nobody has to read it if they don't like what's in there. That's OK with me.

MAYBE I can find reason to trust STRS when they release those documents to Ted Siedle so he can complete his investigation, but not a minute before. I would LOVE to find out I've been wrong all along, and that STRS's intentions and actions have been nothing less than pristine all these years. Mea culpa? Could be, but I doubt it. 

Kathie Bracy