By Chris Powell
How can you tell that something is part of public education? That’s easy: It strives to keep the most important things secret.
That’s the lesson of the Journal Inquirer’s attempt to discover why, two years ago, the Board of Regents of the Connecticut State Colleges and Universities system set about to fire the chief executive of Manchester Community College, Nicole Esposito, only to restore her after she brought a federal sex discrimination lawsuit. The college system paid Esposito $775,000 in damages and legal fees.
Last August the JI asked the college system to provide access to the personnel files of the three system officials Esposito had cited in her lawsuit as perpetrators of illegal discrimination: Community College Regional President Robert Steinmetz, Chief Operating Officer Alice Pritchard, and Vice President of Human Resources Andrew Kripp. The newspaper wanted to know if they had been disciplined for the Esposito disaster.
While state law makes such personnel files public, the college system stalled, refusing to grant access, since the officials whose files were sought objected, claiming an invasion of privacy. But this month, as the dispute was about to be scheduled for a hearing before the state Freedom of Information Commission, the college system relented, knowing that the commission almost certainly would order disclosure because the conduct of public officials on the job is public business.
The files were made available and showed that none of the sued officials had been disciplined for anything involving Esposito.
The college system might have resolved the issue quickly long ago simply by answering whether the sued officials had been disciplined, but it refused. Indeed, the college system has never explained why it tried to fire Esposito in the first place.
So $775,000 has been paid to Esposito, and probably much more has been spent in state government personnel time, for — what? No one outside the college system is to know.
Meanwhile the three defendants in Esposito’s lawsuit remain employed by the college system at spectacular annual salaries: Steinmetz at $276,754, Kripp at $242,217, and Pritchard at $228,354. The president of the college system, Terrence Chung, is paid even more extravagantly: $360,000.
In January Chung pleaded poverty for the college system. He asked the governor and General Assembly to nearly double the system’s annual spending over the next three years, from $318 million to $597 million.
When that request gets a hearing before the legislature, Governor Lamont and state legislators should ask Chung to explain the Esposito case and its huge expense as well as the necessity of the system’s spectacular salaries. Students in the college system should ask as well. After all, the college executives claim to be doing everything for the benefit of their students, many of whom say they lack food, secure housing, and transportation and need more support from their colleges.
With a few candid answers, maybe the college system would take a step toward becoming [ITALICS] public [END ITALICS] education.
* * *
START WITH SIKORSKY: No place in Connecticut has as much untapped potential as its largest and most impoverished city, Bridgeport — located on Long Island Sound with a great harbor, superhighways leading to the east, west, and north, a major stop on the Northeast Corridor railroad line, and a city-owned airport just over the municipal line in Stratford.
But state government long has overlooked Bridgeport’s potential because no one in authority has dared to deal with the poverty of the city’s residents.
Refurbishing the airport and restoring scheduled commercial flights there could contribute greatly to Bridgeport’s revival and economic development. But predictably enough Stratford doesn’t want to cooperate. Two of its state legislators, Republican Sen. Kevin Kelly and Democratic Rep. Joe Gresko, have introduced legislation to thwart Bridgeport’s sale of Sikorsky to the Connecticut Airport Authority, essentially giving Stratford control of the airport, which would mean no improvement.
Bridgeport is too poor and ill-managed to restore Sikorsky itself. But it could be done by the airport authority, which has greatly improved Bradley International Airport in Windsor Locks. If Bridgeport is ever to be improved in [ITALICS] any [END ITALICS] respect, state government will have to do it. Let it start with Sikorsky.
—–
Chris Powell is a columnist for the Journal Inquirer in Manchester, Connecticut. (CPowell@JournalInquirer.com)
-END-
Chris Powell column 