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The Honolulu Advertiser
Posted on: Tuesday, July 19, 2005

Frazier in line for $40,000 salary increase

By Ferd Lewis
Advertiser Staff Writer

Herman Frazier could get a raise to $250,000 a year and a five-year extension at today's Board of Regents meeting.

advertiser library photo | Sept. 6, 2003

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University of Hawai'i athletic director Herman Frazier could receive a $40,000 raise in salary to $250,000 and a five-year extension of his contract from the Board of Regents today despite back-to-back years of budget deficits.

The contracts of Frazier and men's basketball coach Riley Wallace did not come up at yesterday's session but are expected to go before the board for final approval today, a school spokeswoman said.

School officials said the proposal before the board on Frazier's contract is for $250,000 and would take him through July 31, 2010. Frazier has been receiving $210,000 a year on a three-year contract that expires July 31. He was also eligible for several thousand dollars in bonuses based upon team performance but elected not to take them, an athletic department spokeswoman has said.

A school spokeswoman said Frazier's proposed contract included incentives but declined to reveal what they are or whether the term or money would be tied to achieving a balanced budget until the agreement has been signed.

The department has operated at a deficit for three consecutive years — two of them under Frazier — and he has said another, which closed June 30, will come in somewhere between breaking even and losing $300,000. He said through a spokeswoman that figures will be available next month.

Through fiscal year 2004, the most recent audit, the athletic department had an accumulated $4.4 million net deficit, according to auditors.

But regents who were willing to talk about Frazier's proposed contract without being identified due to privacy constraints, said they believe he has shown them "a solid plan" for solvency and "should be given the opportunity to show his plan can work."

In May, Frazier outlined before the board a plan to balance the budget by 2006 and pay off the $1 million loan from the Manoa chancellor's office by 2007.

"There is no single person in this room that wants to conquer this (deficit) issue more than yours truly," Frazier told the regents at the time. "I suspect that is the competitive nature that I have in me. However, I wake up every day dreaming and thinking of new ways to make and raise money for our department."

A raise in premium seating charges and a record three-year $1.75 million annual local television deal are key elements in moving UH toward a balanced budget.

Meanwhile, Wallace is up for a contract extension that would take him through April 30, 2007, and age 65.

He has been receiving $210,000 for the contract that expired April 30 and is up for what has been described as "a significant" raise. "I think it is within the range of what we've done," Wallace said. "I'm happy with it."

Wallace said some urged him to seek a longer contract. "I want to go to 65 and then see where I'm at," Wallace said. "Lute Olson (at Arizona) is 72 and Eddie Sutton (at Oklahoma State) is going to be 70, but that's a long way off (for me)."

Wallace, UH's winningest men's basketball coach, has a 299-241 record.

Wallace, who will begin his 19th season as head coach at UH this year, received $55,000 in his first year, 1987-88.

Even with the raise, Wallace would still be either second or third in salary among head coaches in the nine-team Western Athletic Conference, according to industry figures. Fresno State's Steve Cleveland is believed to be the leader at a reported $400,000 with Wallace coming in slightly below or ahead of Utah State's Stew Morrill.