"Confusion" surrounds new contract for N-W school superintendent

Local News

September 27, 2010

By Nick Mattera Niagara Gazette The Niagara Gazette Mon Sep 27, 2010, 10:22 PM EDT

SANBORN — Niagara-Wheatfield School Superintendent Carl Militello has received a contract extension that will increase his annual salary by $4,171 — however, there appears to be some confusion on when and how the deal was approved by the Board of Education.

A Gazette review of meeting minutes and personnel reports posted on the district’s website and made available by Human Resources Secretary Barb LaDuca showed no apparent public vote on the three-year extension of Militello’s contract was made by the board. Militello’s contract was set to expire in June 2012 and now will be valid until June 2015.

The only mention of the contract in documents reviewed by the Gazette was on July 21 when the board pulled the approval of the extension from its agenda.

After reviewing the reports and asking Militello why no public vote was taken on his contract extension, he replied Monday by saying “it doesn’t need to be done in a public session.”

However, after a Gazette reporter challenged that stance, Militello contacted attorney David A. Farmelo from the Buffalo law firm Hodgson Russ and retracted the statement. He then said the contract was approved following an executive session on July 7, despite no resolution appearing on the agenda, or meeting summary posted on the district’s website.

Militello said the board came out of an executive session at 11:21 p.m. on July 7 and approved his new contract by a 6-0 vote.

Militello said the district does not keep tape recordings of its meetings, nor do they have a district employee who transcribes the meetings verbatim.

School Board President William Conrad signed the contract extension on Aug. 24 and said the sequence of events which led to Militello’s contract receiving approval is “confusing.”

“There was some confusion, as far as whether it was approved or not, we were scrambling that night (July 7) trying to make sure we did the right thing,” Conrad said.

Conrad said the approval of the contract should have appeared on the district’s website and it must have been “overlooked” by administrative staff.

Late Monday, Conrad provided the Gazette with a copy of the board packet from the July 7 meeting which showed the board voted to “approve the superintendent contract as submitted.” The contract was dated July 21 and not attached to the board packet provided by Conrad.

Under the terms of his new contract, Militello will be paid $164,596 per year. He made $160,425 under his previous contract. Upon his retirement from the district and until the age 65, he will receive health insurance coverage which is 90 percent funded by the district.

Militello offered little insight into the contract approval, citing the fact he was asked to leave the executive session due to him being the subject of discussion.

“The district has been focused on transparency and accountability and we just want to make sure all of this is on the up and up,” Conrad said.

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