By Chris Powell
This column’s recent criticism of the Connecticut Public radio and television organization for repeatedly refusing to respond to inquiries about its executive salaries and federal tax return induced the organization to come out of hiding.
Democrats would abolish public control of Connecticut’s schools
‘Rule of law’ advocates have many blind spots
Connecticut Public isn’t public about its salaries
Insisting that Connecticut Public is really transparent and accountable, the organization’s chief financial officer last week provided an internet link to its 2024 return. The return is not at Connecticut Public’s internet site at all but at National Public Radio’s. It can be accessed from Connecticut Public’s site but is well concealed, since searches on Connecticut Public’s site for “tax return” or “Form 990” don’t produce it.
The salary information in the return may explain why the return is not easily located. It shows that Connecticut Public’s chief executive officer, Mark G. Contreras, was paid $614,759, that 10 other officers and executives were paid between $204,000 and $321,000, and that seven of those received more than $240,000.
No wonder Connecticut Public needs so much money from the state and federal governments and is always asking viewers and corporations for more.
CEO Contreras’ salary exceeds by about $150,000 the salary of the (sort of) departing chancellor of the Connecticut State Colleges and Universities System, Terrence Cheng, who abused a whopping expense account besides. But Connecticut Public employs fewer than 200 people, the college system more than 14,000.
Since Connecticut Public is “regime media,” a news organization whose politics aligns closely with that of the party controlling state government, state government is spending $3.1 million to renovate the organization’s headquarters in Hartford. Meanwhile some private-sector news organizations in Connecticut can’t afford offices anymore. Their employees work from home.
In a recent essay published by newspapers in the state, Contreras appealed to the General Assembly to preserve state tax credits that bring Connecticut Public as much as $800,000 per year. The newspapers that published Contreras’ essay have not yet questioned state government’s financial support for an organization that, while purporting to serve the public, pays its executives so extravagantly.
In any case, if Governor Lamont and the Democratic majority in the General Assembly ever want to reconsider their principles for writing a state budget — that everything on which state money is spent is essential forever, that no expenses ever can be reduced, and that nothing can be audited for results — Connecticut Public’s tax return might be a good place to start.
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If the worst non-sequitur in government in Connecticut is that something can’t be discussed because it’s a personnel matter, the second worst is that something can’t be discussed because there’s a lawsuit about it. For nearly everything in government involves a personnel matter or a lawsuit.
The lawsuit excuse for unaccountability was the response of East Hartford town government to a report last week by WTNH-TV8’s Kathryn Hauser about an East Hartford school’s repeated abuse of a young autistic student. Supported by many surveillance videos taken in the school, WTNH reported that while the boy didn’t seem to be unruly or misbehaving, in December and January school staffers repeatedly dragged and manhandled him and pinned him up against the wall of a seclusion room.
With politically correct euphemism, the school calls the seclusion room its Mindfulness Center. People who are actually mindful call such places “rubber rooms.”
WTNH said an investigation by the state Department of Children and Families substantiated misconduct against the boy by six school employees and one was fired, two resigned under investigation, and the others were demoted, reassigned, or placed on leave. But because the boy’s mother is suing the town, East Hartford Mayor Connor Martin and School Superintendent Thomas Anderson refused to answer questions about the misconduct.
This is a scandal requiring urgent accountability to the public, not just to the abused boy and his mother. Having already acted against the staff members involved, the school administration knows what happened and should have nothing to hide. East Hartford’s Board of Education should insist on accountability. It’s just custom, not law, that school boards in Connecticut are secretive, cowardly, and feckless.
Chris Powell has written about Connecticut government and politics for many years. (CPowell@cox.net)
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Chris Powell column 