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100798 Critic sues schools about settlement
It was reported in the papers that Bedford schools citizen Philip Christe filed suit yesterday, hoping to force the district to release a secret settlement with an unidentified employee who resigned.
Christe went to court after school officials, responding to a request he filed under the state's Freedom of Information law, sent him the four-page agreement with all but three paragraphs erased.
Officials said they were allowed to withhold information that was an "unwarranted invasion of privacy."
But Christe's attorney, Stanley Tompkiel of Yonkers, said contracts involving the expenditure of public funds should be public. The settlement included a promise to pay the former employee's health and dental insurance from her resignation last spring until age 55 and beyond, as provided in the teachers' union contract.
Bedford schools Superintendent Bruce Dennis said the district's lawyer decided what to keep private. The school district has until Nov. 13 to respond to the lawsuit, which is in state Supreme Court in White Plains.