UH regents to review new Jones contract

By Ferd Lewis and Stephen Tsai
Advertiser Staff Writers

A University of Hawai'i Board of Regents committee will consider a new five-year contract that would make football coach June Jones the state's highest-paid employee.

State's highest-paid employee? UH football coach June Jones' proposed new 5-year contract would make him the state's highest-paid worker. • $442,000: Evan Dobelle, UH president • $210,000: Herman Frazier, UH athletic director • $94,780: Linda Lingle, Governor • $42,768: Average salary, public school teachers

Details have not been released of what is expected to be a deal worth more than twice the $320,000 base salary Jones has been receiving since joining UH in 1999. At least one regent was said to have not seen the finished contract.

The Advertiser has learned the contract being proposed is for five years and worth more than $700,000 but less than $1 million.

That would make Jones, 50, who has a record of 30-21 in his four seasons at UH, the highest-paid state employee, surpassing UH president Evan Dobelle and Edwin Cadman, dean of the UH medical school.

Dobelle's salary is listed at $442,000. Cadman's base is $330,000, although he stands to earn more through outside sources and surpass Dobelle, a person familiar with UH salary structures said.

The average salary for Division I-A football coaches in 2002 was $560,000 with more than 20 making at least $1 million.

Dobelle, who was said not to be involved in negotiations, said earlier this year that he believed Jones, who was a head coach in the NFL for parts of four seasons, should be paid in the 80th-percentile of Division I-A coaches.

"It is just raising the bar," Dobelle said in reiterating that he "wouldn't have a problem" with being paid less than Jones. "That's what I'm trying to do is hire people at competitive levels. I'm also trying to make the faculty (competitive with national averages), and I think the governor is supportive of that given a change in the economy of Hawai'i."

Athletic director Herman Frazier has said a new contract would become effectively immediately upon approval by the regents, meaning Jones would be contracted for four seasons after the 2003 campaign.

Frazier said Jones' raise will be paid for with private donations without tapping premium-seat fees.

Of his current $320,000 package, Jones receives a $220,000 base salary from the athletic department, a $40,000 housing allowance and $60,000 from television and radio deals.

The original five-year contract Jones signed after leaving the San Diego Chargers following the 1998 season ends at the conclusion of the Warriors' 2003 season.

To come to UH, Jones turned down a four-year, $3 million contract to remain with the Chargers.

Jones said he has not been involved in negotiations, leaving resolution to his agent, Leigh Steinberg. "I don't want to know anything until it is approved," Jones said yesterday.

"The only thing I requested was that the university would not have to foot the bill (for the majority of the money)," Jones said.

Jones said having his contract status settled would prevent other schools from using the uncertainty of an expiring contract against the Warriors in recruiting. "We faced it from every parent and every kid whose house we went into this year," Jones said.

Tongue-in-cheek, Dobelle said he would insist that any new Jones contract would include the clause that the coach has to "pick up the tab at Murphy's."

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