State Ethics Office Rules Corey Edsall Can Coach Only This Year At UConn; Ethics Laws Broken | Page 4 | The Boneyard

State Ethics Office Rules Corey Edsall Can Coach Only This Year At UConn; Ethics Laws Broken

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I know we like to claim that the entire state of CT supports UCONN but it is obvious from the comments on the story that is not the case. These people need to get on board because we are the only game in town.
 
How a snarky draft opinion got out without some supervisor saying knock it off is a question. Beyond that, the commission can though rarely does over rule it's staff. Like a lot of state boards they genuflect when a lawyer speaks. But they can. The really bizzare thing about this decision is that the lawyer who wrote the draft opinion basically ignores the law in recommending that Corey be allowed to stay for this year. There is nothing about "disruption of a program " as allowing it to be ignored. Finally this is an example of unintended consequences big time. This law goes back to the Nixon-Watergate era and has probably never intended to apply to the. Football coach. It probably needs updating but nobody has the time or inclination to do it nor do they relish being in favor of unethical behavior if the try to modify it. And all this while the governors chief of staff's wife gets a job at the department of housing. If the commission is any good it will admonish its staff and send this one back to the drawing board.
 
And these guys are state lawyers. Basically guys who have 3 goals. 1. Get home by 4:30 every day.
2. Don't take any even position that could be considered even vaguely offensive. 3. Get home by 4:30 every day.
 
Drew said:
Randy Edsall's son will coach tight ends for his father for one football season at UConn, despite new findings by the state's ethics office that the arrangement violates bans against nepotism and a father helping to negotiate a contract for his son.

Ethics lawyers are recommending that the state ethics board take no action against Randy Edsall or UConn, and that Corey Edsall be kept in the $95,000-per-year job for this coming season — as long as the one-year pact is not renewed.

The ethics board recognizes the "potential disruption" to UConn's football program if Corey Edsall were prohibited from coaching this year, the draft opinion states. It will be presented to the state's citizen ethics advisory board at its July 20 meeting.

The opinion notes that it isn't unusual across the county for sons to coach in their father's major-college football programs, but states that Connecticut isn't willing to overlook the nepotism clause in the state ethics code to allow that to happen in this instance.

The draft opinion rejects UConn's assertions that it was proper for Randy Edsall to negotiate details of the job for his son, concluding that Edsall was a state employee on Dec. 28, the date he and UConn executed his contract. Edsall's renewed relationship with UConn began when he received and accepted the offer, the ethics lawyers found.

http://www.courant.com/news/connect...sall-son-ethics-violation-20170714-story.html

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I'm surprised in all the comments about this ridiculous decision that no one has mentioned the most obvious conflict in Connecticut,politics today. We have the majority leader of our House of Reps who will shortly be voting on a state employee contract give back and extension is also a municipal union rep. I believe that this has been ruled to be not a conflict.
I'd love to say " only in Ct.", but having lived in Ct this is standard operating procedure there as well.
 
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Two thoughts come to mind. Sorry if they've already been asked

1) This is involves a state employee. Did no legal checking process occur in his hiring? UConn football is fairly high-profile within the state; how did the hiring initially go through?

2) The link mentioned "as long has his one-year contract isn't renewed." Can UConn just negotiate some new contract that complies with state laws?
 
Rocktheworld said:
Two thoughts come to mind. Sorry if they've already been asked

1) This is involves a state employee. Did no legal checking process occur in his hiring? UConn football is fairly high-profile within the state; how did the hiring initially go through?

2) The link mentioned "as long has his one-year contract isn't renewed." Can UConn just negotiate some new contract that complies with state laws?
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Actual draft Advisory Opinion w/ answers/facts here: http://www.ct.gov/ethics/lib/ethics/advisory_opinions/2017/draft_advisory_opinion_no._2017-2.pdf
 
BlueDogs said:
Simply infuriating...proving once again beyond any doubt that the folks running this state are incompetent, small time, petty, idiots.

Interestingly, it probably breaches RE's contract since it was specifically negotiated as part of the consideration for his contract and him agreeing to come back. Since the Cory hire was part of the inducement for RE, its not nepotism because RE didn't use his position or authority to hire Cory or extend special privileges to him. Moreover, Cory doesn't work for his father.

This should just be appealed to a court. It's really stupid. Or, as an alternative, have the legislature write in an exemption by special act.

It reminds me of the huge crumbling foundation problem where our illustrious leaders help hide the problem for 17 years with the insurance industry, and allowed them to get away with rewriting their policies to exclude coverage so thousands of homeowners are now victimized.

As long as they can tax and regulate the hell out of you to cover their state pensions, they could care less about anything else.

The swamp in CT is alive and well. The whole rotten bunch running the state for the last 20 years need to go.
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I tend to agree here that they will appeal the ruling. I wouldn't be surprised if it gets overturned but what do I know. Frankly I think it's pretty ridiculous this has become an issue given all the other issues our state has plus the fact we gave FHCBD a huge extension after minimal results.

In hindsight Edsall's agent probably should've been the one discussing salaries for Corey.
 
Dizzy21 said:
By the ethics board's logic, Warde was an employee of Michigan the entire February and part of March that he was working for UConn because he had signed the contract to start March 14 at Michigan in January.
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And there is your closing argument.
 
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huskymedic said:
Actual draft Advisory Opinion w/ answers/facts here: http://www.ct.gov/ethics/lib/ethics/advisory_opinions/2017/draft_advisory_opinion_no._2017-2.pdf
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Rocktheworld said:
Two thoughts come to mind. Sorry if they've already been asked

1) This is involves a state employee. Did no legal checking process occur in his hiring? UConn football is fairly high-profile within the state; how did the hiring initially go through?
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I read on the Courant that the hiring of RE's kid was hidden from the state by UCONN and/or RE until after he was hired.
 
SubZero said:
I read on the Courant that the hiring of RE's kid was hidden from the state by UConn and/or RE until after he was hired.
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You don't need to read the Courant - read the draft Advisory Opinion. Courant/Jacobs left out some key points along the way.

The whole thing is beyond stupid and shouldn't have happened the way it did. CE is qualified for the job and this wasn't a handout but there were some serious miscalculations on UConn's part.

I hope they craft a solution before next December.
 
The state is so little league. There is a segment of government and media that is happy UConn is outside looking in

If you go around state government there are so many relatives and spouses. In fact, if you marry the right person you are guaranteed two promotions.
 
Who Ha said:
The state is so little league. There is a segment of government and media that is happy UConn is outside looking in

If you go around state government there are so many relatives and spouses. In fact, if you marry the right person you are guaranteed two promotions.
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Actually, most Little Leagues are run much better [and more cheaply] than Ct. state government.
 
Uconngal said:
While I understand the need for anti-nepotism laws I struggle with this ruling. Those laws are intended to protect us from relatives without skills being given jobs that they aren't qualified for. In this case Corey is qualified for the position having coached elsewhere and this is pretty commonplace in coaching circles. Sometimes I think there are some who just don't want this program to succeed. Frustrating.
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In addition these laws are there to prevent a Director/Manager level employee from hiring a relative instead of hiring or promoting an existing employee from within that department that has the required skills and experience. This is a key point in this case as at the time of the hiring there were no other employees that CE was being hired over. There was no existing employees that lost out on an opportunity to get hired or promoted due to this. The law really doesn't apply in the case of an athletic dept. coaching staff.
 
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uconnbill said:
Here are those on the board that voted against UConn.

This just smells of small time, but then again this is Connecticut the home of small time thinking.
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...and maybe just a hint of anti-football bias.

huskymedic said:
They didn't vote yet... the vote is Thursday?
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Yep.
  • Pack the room.
  • Talk about the fact that there was no opportunity for abuse.
    • Negotiated with an independent party not unilaterally enacted.
    • AD Benedict will set Corey's future salary.
  • Talk about value for Connecticut
    • both RE2 and Corey's salaries are both under market.
  • Committee's opinion requires a redefining of the contract terms in order to create a violation:
    • Created a new "deemed starting date."
    • Created new "deemed supervisory structure."
 
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HartfordHank said:
MASSACHUSETTS! Their main piece of legislation this year was a pay raise!
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Mass has problems but it is in much, much better shape than Connecticut. More legislation is often the problem, not the solution.
 
If you read the opinion, you will relatively easily see the Chairman has some axe to grind because UConn did not genuflect at the feet of the commission and resisted asking for a formal advisory opininion, arguing it complied with law. The Chairman filed his own request for an opinion. To the extent the Chairman was involved in formulating rhe opinion or voting on it, it should be tossed on the basis alone. Secondly, the reason that it allows the one year continuation is because they are trying to avoid a claim of preemptive breach of contract. Either the contract is void by statute (it was per se unlawful) or it isn't. These guys are such political wimps they won't even stand behind their finding and they have no authority to allow the contract to continue. It goes well beyond their statutory authority to do so.

There is also a claim to be made by Cory since he was not a party to the action, and his name and reputation are damaged by a proceeding where he should have been a mandatory party in interest, violating his due process.

There is a high probability a court would overturn this. It is so tainted by arbitrary and capricious action it is laughable.
 
I also go back to my point when this first was brought up in the beginning of the year.

EVERY coach hired by Edsall was done outside the normal state hiring policy. As the board so cutely says, prima fascia bitches.

Simple question, how many people were interviewed for each position within normal hiring practices?

We all know the silly rule about having a position posted for X number of days. We also know the coach is interviewed, they get his resume and then they write the job description.

In other words, the process of hiring CE wasn't any different than the process of hiring the entire staff.
 
Unfortunately, a meeting just came up at work and I won't be able to attend. I hope others can make it.
 
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Anyone going?
 
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