Senator Blasts Regents For ‘Wastefulness’ In Paying Two Top Administrators For Same Job [Courant]

Hartford Courant

A top-ranked Republican senator on the legislature’s higher education committee slammed a decision by the state Board of Regents for Higher Education to continue paying its lame-duck president’s hefty salary after his replacement starts work in late September.

The board’s outgoing president, Gregory Gray, is expected to receive more than $31,000 a month until the end of the year — about $95,000 in all.

Sen. Kevin Witkos, R-Canton, on Tuesday called it a waste for the regents to continue paying Gray at his full salary rate of $380,000 after Sept. 28, when his replacement, Mark Ojakian, is scheduled to start.

Ojakian, 61, Gov. Dannel P. Malloy’s chief of staff, was hired by the regents last month as interim president. Under a two-year contract he will be paid $335,000 a year.

Witkos questioned paying big salaries to both Gray and Ojakian during the time they overlap at the agency, which oversees the troubled Connecticut State Colleges & Universities system.

“The wastefulness and inefficiency of the Board of Regents has never been more evident than now,” Witkos said in a statement released to news organizations in reaction to a Courant Government Watch column published Saturday.

“Why is the Board of Regents paying two huge salaries for the same job at the same time?” Witkos said. “It’s ridiculous. President Gray failed to make the Board of Regents successful. So he resigns, gets replaced, and still gets to keep collecting his paycheck for three months? What world are they living in?”

The regents’ spokesman, Michael Kozlowski, had said in the column that Gray will help Ojakian with the transition and “will also be acting as an adviser and consultant to the Board of Regents working on special projects.” Gray won’t have set, regular hours, and won’t have to be in the office every day or even every week, Kozlowski said.

“If Dr. Gray is truly being kept around to ‘advise’ on special projects I hope to see a detailed report on all of these as well as monthly updates highlighting exactly what taxpayers are getting from two president salaries,” Witkos said.

“The Board of Regents is like a tape worm, eating up more and more taxpayer funds every day. There’s no limit,” Witkos said. “Money is being poured in, and it’s quickly absorbed in salaries before it even comes close to reaching our students. This is another example of repeated, outrageous wasteful habits, and shows why the Board of Regents is thoroughly flawed. Our schools and our students deserve better.”

Kozlowski responded Tuesday that Gray’s resignation, which becomes effective Dec. 31, comes six months prior to his contract’s original expiration date, and “as a result, the system will save $190,000 in the six-month period between January 1 and the end of June 2016.” He said Gray will “help Mr. Ojakian get up to speed” on pressing issues, including “four collective bargaining unit contract negotiations; review and modification of the 2015-2016 CSCU budget status … and input into the 2016-2017 CSCU budget in light of state budget projections.”

As the board’s interim president, Ojakian will earn $148,000 more than his current $187,000. He has worked for the state government in various positions for 35 years, and under the state’s most lucrative pension program, called Tier I, he’d be eligible for a lifetime annual pension of more than $122,000 if he retired today.

That pension will increase greatly because of his new job. If he retires in 2017 after working the full term of his contract, he’d be eligible for an annual pension starting at about $170,000. The regents have reserved the right to extend his contract beyond two years.