Ingram said the $30,000 agreement offered him the discretion to purchase or rent a home in Springfield.
Springfield schools superintendent Alan Ingram says an amendment to his initial contract with the city providing $30,000 for a down payment on a mortgage is "a legally binding agreement. It was negotiated and executed in good faith."SPRINGFIELD – Schools Superintendent Alan J. Ingram is defending an amendment to his 2008 contract providing $30,000 for a down payment on a mortgage, which was recently questioned because he hasn’t purchased a home and city officials claimed they never knew about the contractual add-on.
In a “side letter” to Ingram’s four-year contract dated June 30, 2008, former Finance Control Board Executive Director Stephen P. Lisauskas pledged the $30,000 as a “market differential” after Ingram was hired away from a job in Oklahoma City to take the top educational post in Springfield.
“Understanding that this payment may be required to assist you in making a down payment while potentially maintaining your current residence in Oklahoma City, this payment shall be made to you no later (than) August 18, 2008,” the letter reads, in part.
School Committee member and mayoral candidate Antonette Pepe questioned the $30,000 bonus and called publicly for Ingram to pay it back as Ingram lives in a rented apartment.
Ingram, however, said the contract gave him wider discretion and he has used the money properly for residential living expenses.
“It’s a legally binding agreement. It was negotiated and executed in good faith ... I didn’t do anything to hide it, and it was signed before I officially started, so it was not my responsibility to share it with the (school) committee. I assumed it was made available to them just like my contract,” Ingram said. “I’m as surprised as anyone else that no one knew about it.”
June 30, 2008 Side Letter From Springfield Finance Control Board to Alan Ingram
Ingram received the payment on top of an eight-month, monthly rental stipend of up to $2,000 per month, a $650-per-month car allowance, $15,000 retirement annuity and $190,000 annual salary that was boosted in May to $202,000.
The Finance Control Board was a state-run panel, blessed in 2004 by the state Legislature as a bail-out team for a financially floundering Springfield. The five-member board included three gubernatorial appointees, the Springfield City Council president and the mayor. The board had sovereign spending powers including in contract negotiations, trumping local officials. The Finance Control Board was disbanded in 2009.
Mayor Domenic J. Sarno, who was mayor and a de facto member of the control board in 2008, has said through a spokesman that he recalls voting for Ingram’s contract and authorizing Lisauskas to negotiate moving and relocating expenses but has no memory of the “side letter” granting the $30,000 payment or a subsequent side agreement extending the deadline for relocation reimbursement to June 30, 2011.
Sarno said in a written statement on Wednesday that he only saw the letters this week and intends to launch an investigation. Through spokesman Thomas Walsh, Sarno said he clearly remembers voting for Ingram’s contract and authorizing Lisauskas to negotiate relocation details.
Alan Ingram Contract of Employment
Melinda Phelps, a lawyer for the School Committee, said the contract was loosely worded and there appeared to be no specific language to obligate Ingram to spend the money on a down payment for a house mortgage.
Ingram said he did search for a home to purchase when he first arrived in Springfield, but he and his wife, a schoolteacher in Oklahoma, had not bought a home here “as of yet” for personal reasons. He lives in an apartment complex in Springfield’s South End, in keeping with a residency requirement in his contract.
He refused to detail how much of the $30,000 he has spent. The Republican has asked for all of Ingram’s reimbursement applications through a public records request. That response is pending.
Stephen LisauskasIngram has released two written statements in response to the controversy over the side letter, affirming his commitment to the city and its children.
In an email, Lisauskas, who left Springfield after the control board disbanded, released the following statement:
“In May and June 2008, I worked with the members of the Springfield Finance Control Board to execute a contract to bring a new Superintendent, Alan Ingram, to the Springfield Public Schools. Dr. Ingram was selected from a pool of more than fifty candidates in a nationwide search by a broad-based community process that involved forty members of the public, elected and appointed officials, and concerned residents from all walks of life.
“Dr. Ingram’s contract included a number of compensation items, including a one-time $30,000 payment that could be used to pay for housing costs. There was no requirement for it to be used in this way, but this one-time payment was helpful in finalizing our contract. While $30,000 is a large sum of money, even including this one-time payment placed Dr. Ingram’s compensation well below the market for school superintendents in communities of Springfield’s size and complexity.”
Lisauskas declined further comment.