The search committee for a new University of Hawaii at Manoa athletic director is looking to hire an executive search firm at an estimated cost of $90,000.

The university "has identified" a firm to help review applications and recruit a new athletic director, the school said.

The selection committee met for the fourth time Tuesday.

"The committee is on schedule to submit a candidate’s name or candidates’ names to UH-Manoa Chancellor Tom Apple by the target date of early November," said UH-Manoa spokeswoman Diane Chang.

UH began advertising the AD position Sept. 12 and is still accepting applications, although it had been scheduled to begin reviewing them last week. So far, the university has received more than 60 applications for the job, Chang said.

"The retention of the search firm is subject to state and UH procurement procedures," Chang said.

However, documents posted on the UH Procurement Office website show that Apple asked on Aug. 16 for an exemption to the standard procurement procedures because of the short time frame to hire an athletic director.

UH President M.R.C. Greenwood approved the procurement exemption on Sept. 5.

"Private donations/funds are being solicited to pay for the search firm’s fees and expenses," Chang said.

The university did not name the search firm that it is hiring, nor did officials say how much the firm bid for the job.

According to the procurement documents, UH-Manoa planned to contact search firms that specialize in intercollegiate athletic sports executives and ask for bids. A committee experienced in executive searches would then review the request for proposal responses and submit no more than three names to the AD search committee.

In 2002, UH-Manoa paid about $60,000 to the search firm of Eastman & Beaudine to help find former athletic director Herman Frazier.

People involved in intercollegiate athletics on the mainland said current costs to hire search firms can easily run up to $100,000.

A common formula for determining payment to a search firm is a fee equal to 25 percent of a new AD’s first-year salary.

Former UH AD Jim Donovan made $240,000. The average salary for an athletic director in the Mountain West Conference was $277,351 last year.

One of the firms UH has been known to be considering is Chicago-based DHR, which it previously used on a limited basis for background checks of finalists for the football and women’s basketball head coaching searches in the past 10 months.

Rockne Freitas has served as acting AD since July 11, when Donovan was placed on indefinite administrative leave. Donovan has since been assigned to a position in the Manoa chancellor’s office.

Since the beginning of the fiscal year in July, UH received exemptions from standard procurement to hire three executive search firms. The estimated cost for a firm to help find a dean for the College of Business and Economics at UH-Hilo was $60,000. Hiring a search firm for a new vice chancellor for academic affairs at UH-West Oahu was estimated to cost $75,000 and the estimated cost of a firm to hire a new chancellor at UH-Manoa was $130,000.