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BOISE, Idaho (AP) — Former Idaho Department of Administration Director Teresa Luna is still working at the state agency at the same salary, even though the governor announced she would resign at the end of the legislative session.
The Spokesman-Review newspaper in Spokane, Washington, reports that (http://bit.ly/1bpS19X) Luna is now employed as a "program specialist" and is earning $95,000 — more than her replacement interim director.
Luna oversaw the agency in charge of Idaho's now failed $60 million public school broadband contract. In February, a district judge ruled the contract was illegal and violated the state's procurement laws.
The broadband program is now housed in the Idaho Department of Education.
Gov. C.L. "Butch" Otter said last month that Luna would resign at the end of the legislative session, which was April 11.
"She is still here working through the transition of the director," said department spokeswoman Jennifer Pike. "So she is still an employee of the department."
The governor's spokesman Jon Hanian says Luna's last day at the agency will be May 8.
Republican Sen. Dean Cameron from Rupert, who chairs the Legislature's joint budget committee, called the decision an unusual step.
"Boy, that's news to me. That's not the way they had conveyed that things would be handled," he said. "Clearly the implication was that she was leaving."
Luna did not negotiate the collapsed contract, but she continued forward with it despite legal questions, even extending it to 2019 without telling lawmakers.
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