This Will Help

Boy, my timing stinks.

The Triton School Committee approved it's solar deal today, according to the Daily News. I don't have time to get into the article, but I think the details of the deal are the same.

The article some complaints from another vendor who says they could have offered the city and school a better deal on electricity. But the school district's business administrator Brian Forget told the committee he checked all the facts and figures and Triton--and presumably Newburyport--was getting the best deal. I'm not sure what to think.

It also included this nugget at the end, which I still don't quite understand.

In regard to the ethics question involving Wootan at Triton, Forget said he had discussions with an investigator with the State Ethics commission this week, and after explaining to her what Wootan had done on the school's behalf while under the employ of a company potentially benefiting from the work, the investigator
told him Triton wasn't at risk.
"Given the details, she said first of all this is an issue with this individual — it's a reflection on him, not on you as a district," Forget said.
Forget added the investigator told him in extreme cases the ethics commission would recommend this person be removed from the process, which Forget said Triton has done.
"He's still involved in the details, but in terms of making the decision, he had zero input with the decision," Forget said.

I'm not sure what "at risk" means. I also don't understand how the issue can be with the individual and not the government body. I suppose that means that any penalty would be paid by the individual, but I'm not sure.

I also don't know how that jibes with the state law I quoted in the below post.

As a taxpayer, I still think the disclosure should have been in place. Perhaps my naivete is showing.

But this should soften some criticisms and lend support to those defending the deal.