July 25, 2008
Expensive goodbyes
In the village of Port Chester and the Cambridge Central School District, taxpayers will be paying for severance packages for departing executives--as well as salaries of their replacements.
Elected officials wanted to keep the public in the dark about the severance deals. It took dogged reporting by the Journal News and the Glens Falls Post Star to make the details public. Both papers filed Freedom of Information Law requests.
According to the Journal News, taxpayers in Port Chester (Westchester County) will pay:
...the outgoing village manager's $150,000 salary through January, give him a lump sum of three months' salary upon his retirement and provide him with lifetime health benefits...
Port Chester will be paying a new village manager at the same time.
Health insurance for life? Bill Williams, 60, has worked for the village only since June 2006.
The village board terminated his contract in March. According to the severance deal, he will serve as a consultant to the village until February. That could be problematic since he's accepted a $135,000-a-year job as town manager in Billerica, Massachusetts.
In Washington County, Cambridge School Superintendent Melody Troy (salary: $120,000), is leaving her job in August, ending her three-year contract one year early.
The Glens Falls Post Star reports the joint agreement she reached with the school board entitles her to $80,000 in severance pay, in two payments of $40,000 each. The newspaper reports:
Jeff Ravreby, the board vice president, said neither the board nor Troy wanted her contract extended.
"Basically, we felt there needed to (be) some change in the district and this was the only way to expedite this process," he said.
But Troy's 2006 contract with the school district--a copy of which has been obtained by the Empire Center--contains the following clause:
This agreement may be terminated at any time, without cause, by mutual agreement, in writing, between the Superintendent and the Board; or by the Superintendent's written resignation on sixty (60) days notice to the President of the Board.
There is no provision for a severance pay, much less one costing $80,000.
In September, Troy begins a job as a school principal in Vermont.
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