Following Wis. Attorney General Peg Lautenschlager's declaration Friday that the UW System Board of Regents' decision to hike pay range scales for top UW officials was done in a covert meeting, the board rescinded the controversial decision.
As a result of a request by state Sen. Tom Reynolds, R-West Allis, to examine the Sept. 2 teleconference meeting, the attorney general's office found the meeting under-publicized. Because Regent President Toby Marcovich called the meeting abruptly, some regents were unaware of the meeting and were unable to vote on the pay scale raises that would cost the financially suffering UW System an extra $98,000.
Instead, regents decided Friday to research the matter more before installing raises. The board also approved a resolution keeping ill-publicized meetings from occurring in the future. Under the resolution, regents can only make executive salary decisions in open, full-board meetings.
Regent Roger Axtell outlined the board's dilemma when he said salary range increases would result in legislator disapproval, but underpaying staff is unjust.
\I think we owe it to our staff to pay them accordingly,"" he said in the meeting.
Despite the board's 12-4 vote to reconsider its pay range scale decision, all members except Marcovich were unaware of the attorney general's ruling during their meeting. Marcovich said he did not tell regents because he did not want to sway votes by adding possible pressure from the ruling.
However, the board did finalize a resolution calling for up to 4 percent salary increases for UW System faculty and academic staff, despite UW System President Katharine Lyall's recommendation for a salary freeze.
The board will ask the state to fund as much of the 4 percent as possible from the state compensation fund to minimize the 4 percent deficit UW System salaries face against those at other institutions.
""We recognize that there may not be the money in the compensation funds to pay these employees,"" Regent Mark Bradley said at the meeting. ""As I understand it, no one can tell us today what's in the fund.""
Among those who voted for the increase was Beth Richlen, student regent and UW-Madison law student, who said students wanted pay hikes for faculty and staff, especially if top UW officials will receive raises.
