Teacher! Teacher! I know the answer
Mr. Addkin said that the neighborhood was just tooo far gone and therefore would not receive any city funding to help solve the crime and poverty problems.

I'm glad none of the employees or customers were hurt.

December 31, 2009

Dear Members,

The intent of this letter is to bring the FOP membership up to speed with regards to Ohio’s public pension systems.  At the request of the Ohio Retirement Study Council (ORSC), each of the five public pension systems in Ohio were mandated to draw up a plan to ensure the pension systems get to or retain their funding within the 30-year statutory requirement.  These plans, developed by each of the individual systems, were presented at the September ORSC meeting to illustrate their current funding status and possible recommendations for legislative action within the requirements of Ohio law. 

Keep in mind that the ORSC requested these plans from the pension systems and the FOP has not endorsed nor taken a position on any of these current recommendations.  In fact the FOP has already met with members of the ORSC to highlight some of the positions we have taken in the past and encourage open communication should any of these recommendations be drafted into legislation. The FOP has also conducted meetings with local lodge leaders from throughout Ohio to gather input on the membership’s views and ideas.  For more specific information on the proposed changes see this document or look under the legislative section for additional news and updates.

Within the last couple of months, the FOP has had several meetings with Chairman Todd Book of the ORSC and members of the Ohio House leadership.  Currently, there has been no draft legislation that has been reviewable by our office.  However, we anticipate that legislation will be forthcoming early in the year 2010 and we are working very closely with all the interested parties on these issues to ensure the voice of the FOP is heard.

I also want to take this opportunity to make you aware of several editorials that will be propagated by Ohio’s newspapers in an attempt to “legislate by editorial”.  The newspapers feel it is their duty to speak for the people and question the “pension envy” issue when the public pension systems are failing to meet their own 30 year funding statutory mandate in Ohio law.  Certainly this will put pressure on the legislature to act on pension legislation but after speaking with our legislative leaders we are convinced that a knee-jerk reaction will not be taken.  We also will have much more debate and conversations with the legislature once a draft is circulated with the proposed changes.

I assure you that the FOP is taking, and has taken, steps to maintain the interests of our members, both active and retired, in supporting and maintaining our pensions and healthcare.  Furthermore, as more information is developed, we will do our best to get it disseminated to the membership.

Fraternally,

Mark Drum, Legislative Chairman