Now that State Attorney General Dick Blumenthal has weighed in, Bruce Morris can breath a sigh of relief that he doesn’t have to pay for a substitute to cover for the hours that he isn’t working. Since no one on the BOE has seen fit to actually just ask for Morris to account for his hours at work during the legislative session, the silly requirement crafted by Jodi Bishop-Pullan has been knocked down. From the Advocate:
The Norwalk Board of Education decided over the summer that Morris - who has been the district’s human relations officer since 1998 and was elected to the General Assembly last year - should pay for a temporary substitute when he could not do his work duties.
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The cost of the substitute, including training, would be taken out of Morris’ paycheck.
State Attorney General Richard Blumenthal said yesterday that the district may be discriminating against Morris.
State law prohibits employers from discriminating against staff who serve as legislators, although an employer may withhold wages for time lost.
The board cannot require Morris to pay for a substitute, unless it requires other employees who are absent because of similar outside obligations to do the same, Blumenthal said.
“The decision of whether to require payment by the legislator for training of a substitute is a policy issue for the town to resolve,” Blumenthal said. “We’re saying it is permissible, but they need to treat everyone equally.”
Jody Bishop-Pullan, chairwoman of the Norwalk Board of Education when it made the decision, said the board will review Blumenthal’s opinion.
The board had its attorney review the issue before the decision was made, Bishop-Pullan said.
“There was a lot of pressure on the board to do something,” she said, noting the concern that Morris’ $80,000 annual salary was covered by taxpayers.
Morris declined to comment yesterday, saying he wanted to read Blumenthal’s opinion.
Morris’ responsibilities include drafting and implementing diversity, conflict resolution and other human relations training for school staff, students and the community; investigating discrimination and harassment complaints; acting as the superintendent’s liaison with community agencies; and coordinating the Norwalk Parent Leadership Training Institute.
Let’s see this BOE do the right thing, and ask for Morris to submit a time sheet each week. Pay him for the hours he is actually working on site or in documented meetings offsite. The charade of not being able to produce a time sheet has gone on long enough.
source: The Advocate, School board demand called discriminatory, By Lisa Chamoff, December 19 2007
