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Wednesday, January 14, 2009
Big Pay Bump for UNM Vice President
By Martin Salazar
Journal Staff Writer
Months before imposing a partial freeze on hiring and taking other cost-cutting measures, the University of New Mexico gave Vice President and Chief Financial Officer David Harris a $10,000 raise and an extra $50,000 in deferred compensation.
The extra money pushed Harris' compensation package for the current fiscal year to $428,000 — a 16.2 percent increase.
By comparison, faculty and staff received average raises of 3 percent and 2 percent, respectively, for the fiscal year that began last July 1. Then in November, President David Schmidly imposed hiring and pay restrictions in response to the economic downturn.
The extra $50,000 was pumped into Harris' deferred compensation account through a contract amendment approved without fanfare by Schmidly on May 22, roughly three weeks after UNM faculty took Schmidly to task for what some of them said was excessive spending on top executives.
News of the Harris increase wasn't received well by others in the university community who learned of it this week.
"It's going to be received extremely badly, I'm fairly certain," UNM biology professor Tim Lowrey said. He said faculty and staff are committed to doing their share to deal with the economic crisis but are demoralized when they see administrators getting such perks.
News of Harris' extra compensation didn't sit well with Loyola Chastain, president of UNM's Staff Council. "Once again, I just feel this is demoralizing to the staff," she said.
The hiring freeze means some faculty and staff are taking on extra duties. However, the pay freeze stops merit increases and extra money for employees who are asked to do more.
Schmidly was out of his office Tuesday because of a death in the family, but he said during a public forum in December that he didn't want to see cuts in any UNM employee's compensation.
Harris told the Journal he would be willing to give back part of the payment if Schmidly asked.
"If I were asked to make a sacrifice, I'd be happy to do it," Harris said this week.
Harris, a retired state employee, said the amount UNM contributes to his deferred compensation account is in lieu of the standard retirement contributions UNM makes for other employees. He already receives an annual pension of $65,000 from the New Mexico Public Employees Retirement Association.
Harris' contract was to have expired Dec. 31, but the amendment extends it to June 30, 2011. The amendment leaves intact the 2006 provision that says either UNM or Harris can end the contract for any reason with 120 days written notice and that neither party would face legal liability for doing so.
Schmidly has amended Harris' contract twice since taking over as UNM president in June 2007. The first amendment — signed less than two months after Schmidly started — gave Harris a $9,600 yearly automobile allowance.
All of Harris' compensation comes from UNM's instruction and general fund. Among the compensation that Harris receives:
n A base salary of $293,500.
n A monthly $800 vehicle allowance.
n A $125,000 payment to his deferred compensation account on July 1, 2008. The amount consists of $50,000 of new money approved by Schmidly; $25,000 outlined in his previous contract approved by regents in 2006; and another $50,000 the 2006 contract calls a "retention bonus."
Beginning July 1, 2009, the contract says, the annual amount UNM must contribute to Harris' deferred compensation account will go down to $75,000. That is because the retention bonus approved by regents in 2006 was a one-time payment, UNM spokeswoman Susan McKinsey said.
She said the additional $50,000 payment approved by Schmidly was partly because of his desire to raise Harris' annual deferred compensation payment to $75,000 — the amount the two other executive vice presidents receive.
Also, the contract revisions approved by regents in 2006 did not contain Harris' deferred compensation for the second half of the current fiscal year, McKinsey said.
Before UNM
Harris began working for UNM in 2004 and spent more than a year as interim president. Previously, he had a 33-year career in state government.
Before UNM hired him, Harris was executive director of the New Mexico Finance Authority, which is now at the center of a high-profile federal investigation involving a $1.4 million contract awarded to a company whose president donated $100,000 to Gov. Bill Richardson's political committees.
Harris was interviewed by the FBI in August and has retained legal counsel. The investigation derailed Richardson's nomination for commerce secretary.
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