Four state senators from the powerful Ways and Means Committee toured the University of Hawai'i's athletic department yesterday and saw worn carpets, exposed wiring, peeling wallpaper, bald fields and empty shells of coaches' offices that were built but never completed.

Some of the senators were frustrated by what they did not see, specifically a list of projects from former football coach June Jones, who cited the conditions of UH's athletic fields and training facilities as one reason for his leaving to take the head coaching job at Southern Methodist University in Dallas.

"This is very frustrating," Sen. Donna Mercado Kim, D-14th (Halawa, Moanalua, Kamehameha Heights), said at the end of the athletic department tour and before heading off to see academic buildings. "We want to see what was promised to him (Jones) and agreed to. ... You would think they would be ready to give us the information. It's a disgrace that the leadership of the university isn't saying, 'The coach wants this and it's a priority.' "

Kim repeatedly asked UH officials for budgetary and other athletic department information and was told it needed to come from either the president's office, the chancellor's office or may lie in the office of fired Athletics Director Herman Frazier.

"Everybody's mum. Nobody knows," Kim said. "Certainly we have the scapegoat, which was Frazier. Whether it was Frazier, in fact, I think not. I tend to think it's a whole bunch of bureaucracy."

For instance, Kim could not get an answer about how UH officials decide which projects take priority and end up before the Legislature to be considered for funding.

John McNamara, UH's associate athletics director, promised to provide the senators with all the information they requested.

The senators came prepared with their own list of items officially requested by UH in its supplemental budget request, which included only two athletic department projects.

The supplemental budget list did not match another list of 32 athletic department requests the senators received yesterday on the tour.

"Fingers have been pointed at the Legislature that we haven't stepped up," Kim said. "But we've never seen requests for these projects."

The senators were visibly bothered by the empty shell of two coaches' offices that have sat empty and unfinished for three years because of lack of financing. The senators of the Ways and Means Committee said they had not been asked to provide money to finish the project.

"UH never said that this is a priority," Kim said.

Sen. Rosalyn Baker, D-5th (West Maui, South Maui), chairwoman of the Ways and Means Committee, called it "appalling" that UH rooms could sit unused and unfinished for three years.

STRUGGLE FOR ANSWERS

Yesterday's nearly four-hour tour of the 306-acre Manoa campus began with a briefing in historic Hawai'i Hall, which was quickly interrupted by unexplained fire alarms that forced the evacuation of the building.

Before the fire alarms went off, UH-Manoa Chancellor Virginia Hinshaw spoke to the senators and struggled to answer reporters' questions about why deteriorating UH dormitories — which have seen lax security, break-ins and a sexual assault this school year — were not included in the senators' tour.

At first Hinshaw said that dormitory upgrades are not part of legislative capital improvement projects but was corrected by some of the senators, who had their own documentation.

Finally Hinshaw said, "It was just the amount of time we had available."

Following the football team's unprecedented season, Hinshaw told the senators "it is Manoa's moment. Facilities are an issue that cut across what we're trying to meet."

Baker tried to look ahead to what legislators and UH administrators can do to fix funding problems, specifically trying to encourage more corporate sponsorships and public-private partnerships.

"We can't undo what's happened in the past," Baker said. "It's clear that we should be able to ride the Warrior pride that we have here. But we have to realize there's never going to be enough public money to go around. We're hoping there's going to be a greater dialogue between the Senate Ways and Means Committee, the Legislature, the Board of Regents, the chancellor's office and the line departments."

Reach Dan Nakaso at dnakaso@honoluluadvertiser.com.