YOUNGSTOWN Police captain offers to serve on pension board

One trustee quit after the F.O.P. of Ohio president called for resignations.
By JoANNE VIVIANO
VINDICATOR STAFF WRITER
YOUNGSTOWN -- A Youngstown police captain said he's ready to step in if a Dayton police detective who serves as an Ohio Police & amp; Fire Pension board member bows out, as requested by the president of the Fraternal Order of Police of Ohio.
Capt. Kenneth Centorame lost his run this spring against Detective Thomas Bennett in a pension fund trustee election. Bennett now is accused of misusing pension funds.
The Dayton Daily News has reported that the detective and other trustees stayed at pricey hotels in resort areas, spending heavily on travel and expenses in the past five years. The fund lost $1.67 billion on investments between 2000 and 2001.
"I feel I was cheated," Centorame said. "If this had come out before, no one would have voted for him."
Ohio Police & amp; Fire Pension Fund trustees spent about $612,000 since 1998 on travel and expenses at seminars and meetings in places including Las Vegas; Lake Tahoe; Palm Springs, Calif.; and Key West, Fla., the Dayton paper reported after reviewing the fund's records.
Two of the 16 trustees alone -- Bennett and Dayton firefighter David Harker -- spent more than $218,000 in travel expenses, the newspaper said. A third trustee, Cleveland Police Detective Robert Beck, spent $108,492 in travel expenses.
"To see this arrogance going on the last few years, it really gets the blood pressure going," Centorame said. "I think it was a Good Old Boys' network down there and it needed to be looked into."
Harker, board chairman, resigned Tuesday.
Changes made
Nick DiMarco, Ohio F.O.P. president, had called for the resignation of Bennett, Harker and Beck. Bill Estabrook, fund executive director, said Beck will take over as chairman.
More than half of Harker and Bennett's spending was on more than 170 out-of-state trips, in some cases for seminars that offered just half-day sessions, the Dayton newspaper reported.
Bennett stayed five nights in March 2001 at the Four Seasons Palm Beach, a five-star hotel in Palm Beach, Fla., while attending a conference, records showed. Each night at the oceanfront hotel cost the fund $522.
That same year, Harker and Bennett stayed at Camelback Inn Resort Golf Club and Spa in Scottsdale, Ariz., for $408 a night.
"I'd like to go on vacation too, but I don't spend other people's money," said state Rep. John Boccieri of New Middletown, D-61st, who sits on the state's Ohio Retirement Study Council. "It's disgraceful."
Boccieri said the ORSC met with Beck in Columbus on Wednesday and Beck told council members that he has no intention of stepping down.
The ORSC earlier this year called for an audit of all five state pension funds after allegations arose regarding misuse of State Teachers Retirement System pension funds.
Gov. Bob Taft recently called for reform legislation that would hold trustees of all the state's pension funds accountable by giving the ORSC authority to conduct independent audits of funds, apply Ohio's ethics law to funds' board members and staffs, and give ORSC authority to investigate allegations of abuse of any retirement funds.
About the fund
The Ohio Police & amp; Fire Pension Fund, established in 1965, serves 51,741 active and retired police officers and firefighters as well as their survivors. It gets its money from deductions from the paychecks of police and firefighters, contributions from local governments and investment profits.
The $7.4 billion fund is the third-largest of Ohio's five public pension systems.
Harker, the board's most frequent traveler, was on the road 696 days since 1998. He spent $144,617 in travel expenses and has charged the fund for minibar expenses, in-room movies and laundry. His expenses were more than those of any other trustee.
Beck was second. He said the trustees travel to learn more about such things as disability retirements and deferred retirement programs and that it is worth the time, effort and expense.
XThe Associated Press contributed to this report.