State’s funding refusal frustrates UH head

The University of Hawaii is raising concerns following the state’s decision to not fund about $22 million for faculty raises over the next two years.

UH President M.R.C. Greenwood said the negotiated raises will now probably have to be covered by tuition dollars at each campus, which could be a tough task for smaller campuses.

Greenwood said she’s not sure why the raises weren’t included in the state’s budget — approved by legislators earlier this week — like those for other public-sector collective-bargaining units.

"It’s a big blow," Greenwood told the Star-Advertiser, adding her greatest concern with the budgeting process "is the state declined to support the core of our faculty contract."

University of Hawaii faculty are set to get 3 percent raises in each of the next two years, as part of a six-year contract that runs through June 2015.

UH had been moving through the legislative session assuming the pay raises would be covered with state general funds. But last week UH officials learned the governor hadn’t sent to lawmakers a procedural request for money for the raises.

UH tried to make an "11th-hour" appeal to legislators for the money, said state Sen. David Ige, chairman of the Senate Ways and Means Committee.

But by that time, he said, it was too late.

State Budget Director Kalbert Young said the decision to not request state general funds for the UH raises was intentional, and said the state always believed the raises would be covered by UH.

He pointed out the UH faculty contract was approved before Gov. Neil Abercrombie was elected in 2010.

"It wasn’t to be assumed the general fund was going to automatically fund the pay increases," Young said, and he noted other obligations under the UH contract have been covered by the university.

Those obligations included pay restoration and two lump-sum payments to make up for lost wages.

Greenwood said those were covered by UH because of the tough fiscal times and because the university had to meet the contract terms.

But Young said it isn’t fair to "readily assume" faculty raises would be covered by the general fund.

"There has to be contingencies," Young said, adding that he did have at least one conversation with UH during the session in which he said a request for the UH raises would not be made.

He added that UH can always return in the next legislative session with an emergency request.

As it tackles the budget situation, UH is also attempting to determine the potential effects of two bills headed to the governor’s desk that are aimed at improving UH transparency and accountability.

One measure, House Bill 114, takes away the university president’s authority to serve as "chief procurement officer" for new construction projects.

The bill transfers that responsibility to the administrator of the state procurement office.

The push to change the school’s procurement system was fueled by allegations of favoritism and mismanagement in the awarding of University of Hawaii construction and consulting projects.

Also headed to the governor is Senate Bill 1388, which would remove the UH president’s authority to serve as president of the Research Corp. of UH’s board of directors, and modify procurement exemptions for some construction work.

The bills were part of a package of measures introduced by Senate President Donna Mercado Kim, who has been critical of governance at UH.

She said while other measures she introduced died, including one that would have required Board of Regents members to undergo training, all the proposals spurred valuable discussions.

Kim introduced the bills to address recommendations of a Senate panel convened last year to investigate a botched benefit concert that turned out to be a scam, which cost UH more than $200,000.

She said issues raised in the Senate panel and during the legislative session make it clear that the concerns at UH are like an onion: "You peel each layer and there’s a whole bunch of new things."

Greenwood bristled at suggestions that the university is mismanaging its construction projects and other operations, and said UH has an "excellent record of doing hundreds of millions of dollars of construction and bringing projects in on time."

She said the decision to change procurement procedures for UH construction "was a mistake."