OP-ED | Regent-gate Taints Malloy: Will Voters Remember?
by Terry D. Cowgill | Oct 19, 2012 5:30am
(8) Comments | Commenting has expired
Posted to: Education, Opinion
Unless his second two years are as daunting as the first two, Gov. Dannel P. Malloy is one lucky man. Then again, maybe not.
Since his swearing in, Malloy has accomplished a lot of unpleasant tasks (e.g. defusing a budget crisis, a record tax increase, intemperate remarks about teachers and givebacks from state labor unions) that ticked off a lot of his natural allies.
And as I wrote in this space late last year, if the governor wants to run for re-election in 2014, Connecticut’s wretched economy will likely have improved by then and Malloy will have gotten most of the ugly obstacles out of the way early in his first term, leaving those he offended with ample time to forget.
But I might have spoken too soon. Now add this one to the list of Malloy challenges: two senior executives of the newly created Board of Regents of Higher Education resigned last week over a scandal in which 21 education officials were improperly given hundreds of thousands of dollars in raises.
Robert Kennedy, the former president of the University of Maine who had been appointed by Malloy last August as Regents president, apologized last week for authorizing the extravagant raises without board approval at a time when higher education was being told to tighten its belt, most state employees were under wage freezes, and Connecticut was expected to finish the year with a $143 million general-fund deficit.
But it was too little too late, as the resulting public outcry caused Kennedy to step down a few days later, followed by regents’ Vice President Michael Meotti, a former state legislator whose 26-percent raise would have boosted his salary to more than $230,000. For reasons yet unknown, Meotti also had tried to launch a pricey purge of the state’s community college presidents.
Meanwhile, Kennedy, who already had a base salary of $340,000, along with a state vehicle, a unvouchered $25,000 annual expense account, and generous performance incentives, also had a clause in his contract allowing for six weeks of paid vacation and six weeks of paid “professional development” per year. But for almost nine weeks, Kennedy admitted he hung out at his family’s second home in Minnesota and “worked remotely” — which, given his mostly empty calendar, sounds like a euphemism for an extended vacation.
The reaction was swift and relatively furious, as Sen. Beth Bye and Rep. Roberta Willis, both loyal Democrats who co-chair the General Assembly’s Higher Education Committee, were willing to call a duck a duck. Indeed, Willis said she thinks Kennedy “violated the law.”
A picture emerges of a new government bureaucracy that was designed to be more efficient, but has turned out to be a wasteful monster with feckless leadership. The tone is set from the top. Effective leaders lead by example. They do not enrich themselves out of public view and expect the little people at the state’s community colleges to be happy with 9-percent unemployment, declining financial aid, larger classes, and 3.1-percent tuition increases.
Until now, Malloy has steered cleared of serious scandal. But the current specter of Regent-gate, as blogger and former state legislator Jonathan Pelto has dubbed it, threatens to drag the governor into the ash heap of disgrace.
For it was the governor who prevailed on the General Assembly to create the Board of Regents. And, bypassing the protocol of establishing a search committee, Malloy himself selected Kennedy, whom he had met when Kennedy applied unsuccessfully to be president of UConn. And it was Malloy who handpicked the overwhelming majority of the board and set Kennedy’s outrageous contract.
Clearly, Kennedy and Meotti assumed Malloy would either not notice, or look the other way, when they behaved like pigs feeding at the public trough. Either way, the whole fiasco reflects poorly on the governor’s leadership. Will the voters remember it in 2014? Maybe not. But you can bet Tom Foley will.
Terry Cowgill blogs at ctdevilsadvocate.com, is the editor of ctessentialpolitics.com and was an award-winning editor and senior writer for The Lakeville Journal Company. He can be found on Twitter @terrycowgill.
Tags: terry cowgill, Malloy, connecticut, scandal, Board of Regents, Robert A. Kennedy, Michael Meotti, dh
(8) Comments
posted by: Noteworthy | October 19, 2012 9:08am
Excellent piece and yes, the voters will remember. Know why? We’ll remember because what happened at the BOR with Kennedy and Meotti is emblematic of what has happened over and again with Gov. Malloy. From excessive security at his manse, to his wife’s griping about not getting a state car, no security and getting a seat belt ticket; from the steam rolled tax increases, the under-delivered savings from state operations;the continuing budget mess; from the $2,000 per inch Magic Bus to giving tens of millions of dollars to rich corporations to move a mile down the road - it has all been controlled and dictated by Malloy who holds town hall meetings not to listen but to argue with taxpayers. His bully and heavy handed attacks in order to get his way are stuff of legend.
The funny thing is when you demand things to be your way, and you get it your way, You’re responsible. Forget? Not in my lifetime and I’m a lot younger than Malloy.
posted by: THREEFIFTHS | October 19, 2012 11:25am
Dan Malloy is done.I bet the State Troops and Teachers will Remember.
posted by: state_employee | October 19, 2012 2:19pm
State Troopers, Teachers and all Union State Employees. We will all remember. Not only us, but our friends and families as well. NO MORE DAN MALLOY.
posted by: Linda12 | October 19, 2012 4:16pm
Oh Terry…let me assure you, as you may already know, women do not forget anything,
And my 43,000 to 50,000 colleagues in the teaching profession are mostly women. We shall not forget.
Malloy needs to surround himself with sycophants. He doesn’t take well to criticism, which is why he has the bulldog Occhio , whose only strategy is to insult and demean those who question or disagree with Dannel.
If he has supporters it would be the few who he hands our money to…..all those companies who say they will create 200 jobs (who follows up on that promise?) in exchange for millions.
Otherwise, he has isolated: teachers, higher ed faculty, state troopers, liquor store owners, state employees (except for his inner circle), conservatives, most taxpayers…that’s what comes to mind off the top of my head.
Believe me he IS done. Put a fork in it….it is over.
posted by: DrHunterSThompson | October 19, 2012 11:25pm
You don’t really think he’s running again, do you?
posted by: Terry D. Cowgill | October 20, 2012 12:03pm
HST, if the economy really improves in the next year, he just might run again. The man isn’t a political nincompoop. After all, he did survive in Stamford for what? 12 years?
posted by: Linda12 | October 21, 2012 4:57pm
He only won by about 6,000 votes…there are close to 50,000 teachers in this state. Run, Dannel, run…but you will LOSE.
If you think there are special deals and corruption in higher ed just wait until you see about the special deals in the K-12 circus…Oops. I mean “leadership”....special masters in capes who fly from impoverished district to another waving their saber swords and performing the illusion of reform….juke the stats, move the shells…maybe no one is paying attention…maybe not.
posted by: DrHunterSThompson | October 22, 2012 3:05pm
Terry,
You may be right, however, I do not think he wants to lose and election and if something doesn’t happen soon with the state’s financial picture his chances will not be good.
That said, the republicans really haven’t had a solid candidate since Rowland, and there doesn’t appear to be much on the horizon at this point (I always thought Roraback would eventually be that one). Additionally, lets not discount a spot for Malloy in DC during the President’s next term that looks like it will begin in a couple weeks.
HST