UH coaching contracts cause more than head scratching

As the Board of Regents prepares for an extensive review of the University of Hawaii athletic program, Regent Simeon Acoba Jr. would like some light shined into one of its most curious corners: coaching contracts.

“I think there seems to be in the public a perception that something is going on about contracts,” Acoba said at Thursday’s meeting. “That they are either lost in the system or there may be — I don’t want to use the word ‘shenanigans’ — (something) going on, but (there is a need) to make that process clearer. I think that would be helpful.”

Acoba is a compelling voice for transparency, having been a Hawaii Supreme Court Associate Justice for nearly 15 years until his retirement in 2014. He isn’t the only one on campus pushing for more openness, but the process has been halting, and the hope is that he can give it some needed momentum.

While Acoba wasn’t speaking directly to the contract of men’s basketball coach Eran Ganot, he very easily could have. Ganot’s hiring was announced April 9, yet, as of Thursday’s Regents meeting, his contract remained to be executed, officials said.

An athletics spokesman said there are no major hangups and that prime deal points, including contract length and salary — figures he would not reveal — “have not been in question since the first (month). Just a few language issues remain.”

Athletics isn’t the only area at UH where contracts have been puzzling. It has just been among the most visible, most prevalent and the most expensive.

Former men’s basketball coach Gib Arnold has a grievance pending over $1.4 million he claims to be owed under terms of his 2011 contract. That contract was in limbo for more than a year before it was executed.

In recent years, ex-football coach Greg McMackin was paid a $600,000 buyout and Bob Nash, another former men’s basketball coach, got $240,000.

Acoba said he would like to have an explanation of how contracts are generated. “I would hope they go through some uniform process and not something on an ad hoc basis. It is difficult to believe that every single contract has to be renegotiated. I’m hoping that we’re not starting from scratch and that we have good, binding legal contracts.”

Acoba told regents, “I really don’t see why coaches are public employees, but their contracts cannot be set out in public. I know there is a (basis) for negotiations, but, ultimately, the taxpayers pay their salaries and they should know what goes into these contracts and how they relate to contracts that are at similar institutions.”

Officials have said coaches are members of the Hawaii Government Employees Association, one of the few Division I schools in the country where coaches have union representation, if not the only.

“It is really difficult for me to believe that we don’t have the legal expertise to make a good contract,” Acoba said. “Contracts that are not seemingly always subject to suits or dispute. I mean, I would think that is not a difficult issue. So, if you can touch on that, that might be helpful.”

It has not been unheard of for regents, many of them lawyers, to wonder out loud during meetings when discussing contentious contract situations.

But Acoba wants to do more than just shake his head.

Reach Ferd Lewis at flewis@staradvertiser.com or 529-4820.