Subcommittee members contend the payment was designed specifically for a down payment on a home in Springfield; Ingram has yet to buy a house in the city.
Springfield schools superintendent Alan Ingram.SPRINGFIELD – A School Committee subcommittee Thursday unanimously voted to recommend the full board ask Schools Superintendent Alan J. Ingram to repay a little-known $30,000 signing bonus they contend was designed specifically for a down payment on a home in Springfield because Ingram has yet to buy a house here three years into his contract.
The payment became public recently after member Antonette Pepe recently began asking questions about the totality of his compensation package. Ingram was originally hired at $190,000 annually under the state-run Springfield Finance Control Board. City records show he also received a $650 monthly car allowance, a $15,000 annuity, up to $16,000 in temporary housing costs for the first eight months and other relocation and travel expenses.
His salary this year was bumped up to $202,000.
The $30,000 "market differential" payment has sparked debate because the members by and large believe it was struck surreptitiously in a "side letter" signed only by the Oklahoma-based Ingram and Stephen Lisauskas, onetime executive director of the Finance Control Board.
"I think he owes (repayment ) to the citizens of Springfield. It was done behind their backs," committee member Christopher Collins said during the meeting of the Legislative and Contracts Subcommittee at the School Department's offices at 1550 Main St.
Ingram, who did not attend the meeting, told The Republican that the side letter authorized him to spend money on general living expenses and he was not required to use the $30,000 as a down payment on a house.
June 30, 2008 Side Letter From Springfield Finance Control Board to Alan Ingram
"The agreement said it 'may' be used for a down payment," Ingram said in a previous interview. He said he never moved his family from Oklahoma City to Springfield for personal reasons, and said he made no move to hide the payment and had no plans to repay it. "It was a legally binding contract. It was negotiated and executed in good faith."
Ingram has lived in an apartment in Stockbridge Court in the city's South End since he took the schools post here. The city reimbursed Ingram for $1,229 monthly for rent and for his electric bills in 2008 and 2009, records show.
Lisauskas sent an email to The Republican in which he said he worked with other members of The Finance Control Board on Ingram's contract, including Mayor Domenic J. Sarno, and that the $30,000 payment helped to bring Ingram on board.
"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 wrote.
More details will be added later tonight on MassLive.com; the full story will appear on Friday in The Republican.