May 17, 2010

Streifer's deal was no secret

While it's hard to argue that taxpayers should suddenly have to cough up a whole lot more money to keep Phil Streifer as school superintendent, it's not fair to say the deal that landed him a big chunk of cash from the state while he stays on in Bristol was secret.
The move was done in open session at a regular public meeting and the story was reported last November in the Bristol Observer. Here is the link. I'm not sure how the story fell through the cracks in the Press until recently, but these things do happen.
Criticize the agreement if you want. That's fair. But it wasn't really some kind of back room hush-hush thing. They did this right out there in public, as they should.
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Copyright 2010. All rights reserved. Contact Steve Collins at scollins@bristolpress.com

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

Wasn't the Mayor quoted that he wasn't aware of this until just recently???

He needs to get on the ball!

Anonymous said...

Oh gee, "It fell through the cracks"...nice explanation for keeping the sweet deal Striefer made secret from the tax payers of Bristol. And isn’t Streifer the guy who is telling people who make $15-20 /hour to take a cut!?

Steve Collins said...

I didn't keep it secret. The first time I learned about the deal was when I read the Press story recently.

Freesia Singngam said...

Thanks, Steve.

It might not have been kept totally a secret, but they didn't talk about his retirement at the meeting (I was there), and if you look at the minutes, it's not there either. His contract was approved rather quickly. It looks like Elio asked about it afterward, but he also wrote that Streifer's staying at his $190,000 salary through the duration of the contract. I recently got a copy of his contract that states that he can only earn 45 percent of that $190,000. It also shows that the district is contributing to some of his retirement plans. The plan does save the district money, but that doesn't mean that people didn't know he was retiring and that it didn't warrant a more updated story.

Anonymous said...

Steve,

But did the Mayor keep it a secret?

Steve Collins said...

Freesia -- No argument from me! I didn't know this was up at all.

Anonymous said...

I suggest Freesia look at the November meeting minutes of the BOE.