David G. Carter, the former head of the state university system, has paid a $2,000 fine for failing to alert system trustees or state ethics officials in 2009 when faced with a conflict of interest involving the temporary hiring of his wife, the Office of State Ethics announced Thursday.
A consent order signed this week by Carter and a state ethics official says that during a hiring freeze in 2009, then-Chancellor Carter "retained and exercised authority to approve the hiring of administrators, including deans." Carter, who retired effective last month, "had the same authority regarding rehiring retired administrators, including deans, for each of the universities" in the Connecticut State University System, the ethics office said in a statement.
Carter's wife, Sandra C. Holley, retired in mid-2009 as the $165,730-a-year dean of the School of Graduate Studies at Southern Connecticut State University, the state comptroller's office says. In July 2009, Carter's office -- through executive assistant/associate vice chancellor David Trainor -- approved the rehiring of Holley in a "temporary rehired retiree appointment" at Southern, the ethics office said.
Under that arrangement, Holley was in what's commonly called a "double-dipping" situation. After retiring July 1, 2009, the comptroller's office says that Holley collected both her pension, at a rate of more than $110,000 annually, and the following amounts for her temporary position at Southern: $26,209 in the second half of 2009, and $52,578 during 2010.