Pension official resigns
The police pension board chairman stepped down Wednesday in the wake of the disclosure that he sent and received photos of nude women on government email accounts.
W.B. Smith, 74, will remain a trustee on the state board that oversees the $2.5 billion police pension fund.
“I want to apologize to everybody for my mistakes,” Smith said at the start of the monthly board meeting.
The emails were discovered
during an investigation into an anonymous tip about the travel of the executive director of the Oklahoma Police Pension and Retirement System.
The executive director, Steven K. Snyder, was fired and charged in Oklahoma County District Court because of the investigation. Snyder, 61, is accused of disguising personal vacations as business trips so he could be reimbursed at state expense. He denies wrongdoing.
The Oklahoman reported Sunday that the investigation found Smith sent five nude photos to the executive director in a 2010 email.
The Oklahoman also reported the investigation found the executive director emailed Smith inappropriate emails in 2012, 2013, 2014, 2016 and 2017.
One of the 2012 emails to Smith had 43 photos of the same nude woman in bed. Many of the photos show her posing in sexual positions.
“They were overall pretty graphic in nature,” Interim Executive Director Sean Ruark said Wednesday at the board meeting. “Some of them were pornographic.”
Smith told the other trustees at the start of the meeting that he hoped they would accept his apology. He reluctantly offered to resign as chairman shortly after they began expressing to him their concerns.
“You want me to step down and off chairman, hey, I have no problem,” Smith said. “You all can have it if you all want it.”
The board voted 10-0 to accept his offer. Smith abstained.
In a pointed exchange just before the vote, the board’s vice chairman, Ryan Perkins, said Smith had not been truthful when they first discussed the emails.
“You feigned that it had not happened . ... You literally said this is a conspiracy against you,” said Perkins, a Tulsa police major.
“Excuse me?” Smith said.
“Yeah, that’s what you said to me,” Perkins said.
“I did not say that,” Smith said.
“That’s what you said to me,” Perkins said again. “You said, ‘This must be a conspiracy.’ And so my frustration lies in the fact that after you alleged ignorance to the idea, that you were outraged that this allegation could be made then suddenly that tune changed and there was this contrite interview with The Oklahoman.”
Smith told The Oklahoman last week that he regretted emailing the nude photos.
He also told The Oklahoman last week he deleted inappropriate emails Snyder sent to him.
“I didn’t forward them on. I told him not to do it,” he said at the board meeting
Wednesday.
A number of trustees specifically complained that Smith should have alerted the board about Snyder’s inappropriate emails.
Some trustees wanted Smith to also resign from the board. He refused.
“You know we all make mistakes . ... I don’t want to get in an argument here. But I was elected by the retirees,” Smith said. “And there’s no way. My term’s up in 2019. I’m sorry that’s the way you feel.”
Trustees were told they could not under the law force Smith off the board under the circumstances.
Smith has been chairman since July 2016 and leaves the leadership position two months early.
He has been a trustee more than 20 years and also was chairman in 20102011, 2000-2001 and in the early 1990s. Trustees are not paid for their service.
Smith also is a retired Oklahoma City police lieutenant who now works for the city as a legal investigator at the Municipal Counselor’s Office.