Fired MOHELA director getting $830,000

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) -- A man fired as director of the state's student loan authority in January is receiving a severance package worth more than $830,000, according to documents provided Wednesday to The Associated Press.

Michael Cummins and the Missouri Higher Education Loan Authority signed the agreement earlier this month. It provides that Cummins will continue receiving his $13,461.54 salary every two weeks through October 2007. He's also being paid for vacation and sick time and getting a lump sum pension benefit and continued health insurance coverage through July 2007, among other things.

So far, that would mean Cummins has collected about $250,000 in salary since he was fired. Cummins' replacement, MOHELA Executive Director Raymond Bayer Jr., said Wednesday that he could not comment on personnel matters.

Cummins started working for MOHELA in 1997 and was fired in January by a 4-3 board vote after expressing opposition to Gov. Matt Blunt's plan to sell the agency as a way to finance college building projects and other higher education initiatives.

Critics of the governor's plan took issue with Cummins' severance package.

"In legal terms this is called a severance package. In practical terms this is called hush money," Democratic Party spokesman Jack Cardetti said. "It is going to cost college students $830,000 for Matt Blunt to get his way and fire someone who didn't want to go along with his disastrous plan to sell MOHELA."

After Cummins' firing, the MOHELA staff proposed an alternative to Blunt's plan that would have sold off a significant portion of the agency's student loans but still allowed it to function. That plan failed during the legislative session that ended in May.

Blunt and the MOHELA board endorsed a revised plan last month that would direct $350 million in MOHELA money to public colleges and universities over six years. The Legislature is expected to consider that plan next year.

Cummins' severance agreement also lays out various requirements, such as Cummins agreeing not to sue the agency; not to speak ill of MOHELA; not to work for one of its competitors while being paid by the student loan authority; not to communicate with MOHELA employees for 10 years, other than in social settings; and not to ever work again for MOHELA.