Tom Curtis to STRS board: The only job STRS staff and Board have ever had was to provide the very best benefits for all STRS retirees and their beneficiaries and in my opinion, they have failed us miserably.

Tom Curtis' speech to STRS board and staff

September 20, 2024

Good afternoon,

My name is Thomas Curtis. I taught Industrial Arts and Technology at the high school level for 26 years, then left teaching on a disability in 1998.

Over 21 years ago I began attending and speaking at this podium on a monthly basis from 2003-2006. Why? Because I had learned of all of the misspending at STRS that had been brought to light in 2003 by former Board members Dr. Dennis Leone and John Lazarus and then corroborated by an investigative reporter from the Cleveland Plain Dealer, all of which the OEA denied.

The only job STRS staff and Board have ever had was to provide the very best benefits for all STRS retirees and their beneficiaries and in my opinion, they have failed us miserably.

I am hopeful that the new reform majority Board will come together in their resolve and demand gross cutbacks in this staff and expenses and rid this pension system of this sickening scamming culture that has permeated this building for over 30 years.

In the 1990’s, when the corruption began under then Executive Director Herbert Dyer and assistant ED Robert Bowers, they unjustly spent multi-millions on increasing the size of this facility. This building is unjustified and needs to be sold, which will save multi-millions in future operating expenses.

From 2003-2006 I learned that the staff would not be held accountable by a Board made up of a majority of OEA-supported members or Governor Robert Taft. That was when I stopped attending Board meetings, but I have never stopped my advocacy for reform and change.

What exists today here at STRS is best described by another benefit recipient, Trina Kay Prufer…..

I quote, “STRS operates for the betterment of staff, Wall Street and politicians. Ohio’s educators are the source of this largesse. The roots of this scam go way back decades and its enablers are legislators, senior staff, consultants, accountants, legal staff, the OEA, the governor and the attorney general’s office. Just writing this makes me sound like a crazy conspiratorialist; however, after looking at this situation for the past year, there is no other conclusion to be found. STRS is an outlier in the public pension world and brings grief and financial instability to those it has promised to provide for.”

STRS is broken! What Trina has written is something I have known for over two decades, during my advocacy for reform at STRS.

This is something every member needs to understand, for their pension is definitely at risk, if the current administration continues.