Another public call for Bruce Morris and the Norwalk BOE to account for Morris’ hours. This time for the editorial board of the Norwalk Advocate.
When a public employee is a lawmaker too
Editorial Published December 21 2007
Some problems just don’t have an easy answer, and the question of what to do about Bruce Morris, who serves in the state Legislature while employed by the Norwalk Public Schools, is one of them.
Shortly after Mr. Morris was sworn in for his first term as a member of the state House of Representatives, grumbling began that he shouldn’t be spending time in Hartford while being paid by the city to do a job here. It’s not hard to see why that would make some look twice.
But Mr. Morris and several supporters assured taxpayers that he was able to handle both jobs. His position as the school district’s human relations officer isn’t an 8 a.m.-4 p.m. affair, he said. Much of the work occurs at night and on the weekends.
That sounds good, but taxpayers deserve a solid accounting of how he spends his time. The city pays him $80,000 - no paltry sum. And the question remains about what to do when Mr. Morris’ position with the state does take him away from work that needs to be done here.
The Norwalk Board of Education this summer decided that Mr. Morris would have to pay for a substitute when he could not perform his duties for the city.
Mr. Morris agreed to the terms, but his colleagues in Hartford wanted a closer look at the arrangement. Most state legislators also hold full-time jobs, and there are laws in place to protect them against penalty from an employer, although employers can withhold pay for time lost.
But Mr. Morris’ situation is different from most. He is paid by the public. Taxpayers cover his Norwalk duties - which include diversity training, investigating harassment complaints and several others. They also pay him $28,000 for his role as a freshman lawmaker, plus a $4,500 expense allowance.
It just doesn’t seem right to ask the public to kick in again if a substitute is needed to cover for him.
But against all that we have to weigh the benefit of having someone with his background in the General Assembly. The reason for adopting protections for employees who serve in the Legislature was so we don’t wind up with a governing body made up solely of the “wealthy and self-employed,” state Attorney General Richard Blumenthal said in a legal opinion on the issue he released this week.
For obvious reasons, we need people who exist in the real world to serve in the Legislature. And that includes people who work in the public sector. Make it too hard for that to happen, and we could wind up with a bunch of lawmakers who have little grasp of most of our day-to-day lives and problems.
Mr. Blumenthal in his opinion said the school district could require Mr. Morris to pay for a substitute if and when one is needed, but it would have to do the same for other administrators whose absence from work “for other purposes” would require the hiring and training of a substitute.
That certainly seems fair. But perhaps the first thing the school board should do is take a look at what other things, if any, administrators might be doing while on the public’s dime. It’s hard to see many cases where that would be acceptable. House Speaker James Amann in an October letter to Mr. Blumenthal, said, “I further understand that the (Norwalk school) board may have a policy of allowing administrators to absent themselves during work hours for other purposes, such as teaching classes at outside institutions.” If that is in fact the case, school administrators need to explain when that is happening and why.
On the larger issue, perhaps the school board could set a level after which employees have to cover the cost of compensating for their absence. That’s not perfect, but there’s no perfect answer here. As for Mr. Morris, both he and school officials owe the people a public accounting of how he is handling his dual role.
