The UW System Board of Regents meets frequently in small group discussions or teleconferences prior to their scheduled and televised meetings, The Capital Times reported Tuesday.
While the practice is not illegal, it raises ethical questions. The newspaper's review of Regents' phone calls on the Wisline teleconference service showed they held unpublicized small group meetings before 15 of 19 of their regularly scheduled meetings from November 2001 to August 2003.
Regents told The Capital Times they hold meetings that way to get around Wisconsin open meetings laws.
\There is nothing sinister about these conference calls,"" Regent Guy Gottschalk said. ""We were sure to be careful to make sure there was never a quorum of a committee.""
However, regents may have broken the law eight times in the last two years when at least half of them were engaged in a phone conversation together without making a public notice, which is illegal because discussions with quorum must be public.
Regents have been criticized recently for a scarcely publicized Sept. 2 teleconference where they voted to raise UW System administrators' pay-scales. Attorney General Peg Lautenschlager found them guilty of violating open meetings laws but dropped the matter when regents rescinded the decision.
The Wisconsin State Journal reported Tuesday that UW System President Katharine Lyall advised regents that they should not raise salary ranges for top UW officials, but find other ways to attract and maintain quality administrators when they reconsider their rescinded decision Thursday and Friday.
