The Connecticut Post: The Tale of Two Contracting Controversies…
by jonpelto
There should be no question that the Connecticut Post deserves an award for its investigative journalism and editorial work surrounding Commissioner of Education Stefan Pryor’s inappropriate efforts to illegally sidestep Connecticut’s bidding laws to deliver public contracts to particular consultants.
The CT Post’s Ken Dixon broke the story and successfully pushed, prodded and followed it through to its conclusion. The CT Post’s editorial writers summed up the story with a powerful editorial last Friday entitled Bidding rules can’t be skirted.
At the same time, the same paper has been virtually silent on the parallel story that is closer to home and has even larger financial significance for the taxpayers of Connecticut and Bridgeport.
While Malloy’s Education Commissioner was directing state funds to particular consultants, Bridgeport’s new Superintendent of Schools Paul Vallas, in direct violation of Bridgeport’s municipal code, was directing more than fifteen times that amount of money