Posted on: Saturday, April 21, 2001

Groups sue for more sunshine on new UH president's salary

By Karen Blakeman
Advertiser Staff Writer

The University of Hawai'i Board of Regents was named yesterday in a lawsuit that contends the board violated state open meetings laws when it decided the salary of Evan Dobelle, the new university president.

The Circuit Court lawsuit was filed by the Hawai'i Society of Professional Journalists, Common Cause Hawai'i and C. Mamo Kim, a graduate student leader at the university. It alleges that board members violated state open meetings laws when they more than doubled the president's salary without seeking public testimony or making their deliberations public.

Dobelle, who was hired by the board to replace outgoing president Kenneth Mortimer in July, will make $442,000 a year under his new contract, which expires in 2008. Mortimer makes $165,184 annually.

Jim Manke, spokesman for the university, said it is university policy not to comment on pending litigation. He said before the lawsuit was filed, university officials had responded to student concerns over Dobelle's pay by saying no state laws had been violated.

Carl Varady, lawyer for Kim and the two groups, said because Dobelle's salary is paid from public money, trustees should have decided how much to pay him during public meetings in which students and others were allowed to express their views.

"My clients are not challenging the decision (to pay Dobelle),'' said Varady. "What they want is a fair and transparent process. They want to see and hear how the decision was made. They want a fair opportunity to express their views."

The lawsuit asks the court to declare the regents' actions illegal and to stop them from implementing the salary until public meetings have been held.

Kim and two other students asked the board yesterday, during its regular session, to hold public meetings on Dobelle's salary. The students alleged then that failure to make the decision in public was a violation of state laws.

The board said it would not schedule further meetings on the matter.

Manke said decisions concerning the hiring of the new president and the salary to be paid were made during an executive session early this year and announced during a March 12 public meeting.

He said university general council Walter Kirimitsu told board members that the meetings held and decisions made regarding the president's salary were in full compliance with state laws.