Disgraced Minot City Manager Gets a Big Payout, and a New Job in Minnesota
MINOT, N.D. — In June of 2013, North Dakota’s State Board of Higher Education fired Chancellor Hamid Shirvani.
Then, for the next three years, North Dakota’s taxpayers continued to pay him a $349,000-per-year salary plus benefits like retirement contributions.
Shirvani even got his scheduled raises during this time period.
Think about that for a moment.
The man was fired, but not only were taxpayers obligated to keep paying him, he got raises too.
The reason for that absurdity was Shirvani’s contract which was agreed to by the very same board that fired him. The State Board of Higher Education made a bad hire but had obligated themselves to that hire so thoroughly that, even when they decided to fire him, the taxpayers had to go on paying him.
I was thinking about the Shirvani debacle while reading news that the City of Minot has decided to pay out disgraced former city manager Tom Barry.
Earlier this year my reporting exposed Barry’s erratic behavior and egregious harassment of city employees. At one point, Barry even marched city employees into an interrogation room and threatened them with termination for allegedly speaking to me about problems with Barry’s leadership.
