SENATE REQUIRES COLLEGE CONTRACTS BE FAIR TO ALL

Reacting to a "sweetheart deal" for former Central Missouri State University president Ed Elliott, the Missouri Senate Tuesday approved an amendment to require that future college contracts be applied "uniformly, consistently and fairly" to all.

Under the amendment, compensation, retirement and severance policies of public colleges and universities must be applied uniformly to all officials and employees.

The amendment, introduced by Sen. Wayne Goode, D-Normandy, would prohibit schools from signing contracts that would be inconsistent with formally adopted policies and practices at such schools.

Goode, Senate appropriations chairman, said Elliott's $621,000, three-year contract "was nauseating to say the least."

Elliott's contract includes a one-year paid leave of absence, which runs through Oct. 31. The deal also transfers public property, including office equipment, to the personal ownership of Elliott and his wife, Sandra. It also pays public money to Elliott's wife.

Goode said the CMSU board and Elliott cut a "super sweetheart deal."

Said Goode: "We can't go back, I think, and do anything about a past contract. But this would put the institutions on notice that we don't want anything like this happening again."

Goode's amendment was attached to retirement legislation by a voice vote. Sen. Peter Kinder, R-Cape Girardeau, voted for the amendment.

Kinder doesn't know if the provision will make it through the Legislature. Will it actually make a difference in university contracts? "It isn't clear that it will," said Kinder.

But he said it is an attempt by the Senate to respond to the CMSU contract.

State Auditor Claire McCaskill recently took issue with the contract, and to some extent with the University of Missouri's contract with former basketball coach Norm Stewart and Southeast Missouri State University's contract with Chancellor Dale Nitzschke.

As to Nitzschke's contract, McCaskill questioned the regents' decision to allow Nitzschke to serve as a fund-raising chancellor from his home in Ohio.

But Kinder said Southeast's contract hasn't been a major issue with lawmakers. "Nobody is talking much about the Southeast Missouri case."

Don Dickerson, president of the Board of Regents at Southeast, doesn't oppose the Senate's action. "I don't quarrel with that," he said.

But Dickerson said college governing boards need to be given the freedom to enter into contracts that they believe benefit their schools.

"You can't lay out hard and fast rules. It is a matter of judgment by the board," he said.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.