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4 USF Officials Get Bonuses Despite Cuts

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By LINDSAY PETERSON

lpeterson@tampatrib.com

Published: March 11, 2009

TAMPA - After cutting millions from its budget and laying off staff, the University of South Florida gave bonuses ranging from $5,000 to $20,000 to four high-level employees in January.

The highest went to Marshall Goodman, vice president and chief executive officer of USF Polytechnic, in Lakeland. His $20,000 came on top of a $232,432 annual salary.

USF President Judy Genshaft's chief of staff, Cynthia Visot, received an $11,500 bonus on a $147,000 salary.

Les Miller, community relations director and student ombudsman, also a former state senator, received $6,500 in addition to his $90,000 salary.

And Michael Pearce, a chief technology officer making $175,000 a year, received $5,000.

USF faculty and staff representatives reacted to the news with puzzlement and anger.

"It certainly looks out of whack, especially when everyone is expecting harder times ahead," said Sherman Dorn, the head of USF's faculty union.

He helped negotiate a contract for the faculty that included a 2 percent raise this year and a pool of merit money that gave some faculty about $200 each.

"One of the greatest concerns I have is erosion of morale," especially when many faculty and staff members are taking on more work to deal with previous cuts and a current hiring freeze, Dorn said.

"The appearance is that the administration and trustees will protect people they know at a cost to morale," he said.

Genshaft approved the bonuses, said USF spokesman Michael Hoad. Three of the recipients, Goodman, Pearce and Visot, report directly to her.

One of the bonus recipients, Miller, said he deserved the additional money as compensation for extra tasks he has been given. He is in charge of a program to help students in danger of dropping out because of financial problems, in addition to other student and community relations programs.

"I've had a tremendous increase in responsibility at the university," said Miller, who plans to run for a seat on the Hillsborough County Commission next year.

Since fall 2007, the state Legislature has cut about $52 million from USF's budget, about 15 percent. In response the university eliminated 450 staff and nontenured faculty jobs, from a total of about 13,250 across the university. Most of those jobs were already unfilled, but about 70 people lost their positions.

Some were shifted to other jobs and some were laid off, said Bill McClelland, president of the union representing about 2,000 staff members, from lawn workers to managers.

"I'm very concerned to hear that these folks have gotten bonuses of such magnitude," he said. Some of the people he represents make so little, they could qualify for food stamps, he said. "The university is telling us that we all have to make sacrifices, and then to hear that others are benefiting is discouraging."

The people who received the bonuses may be taking on extra work, but so are others throughout the university, McClelland said. Every position that was eliminated meant extra work for someone else.

"I'm just perplexed," said Laurence Branch, head of the USF faculty senate. "We are letting people go. I am on three-fourths pay because of insufficient funding. ... The pervasive sense on the campus is that these kinds of bonuses are just for the very select few, and it's not for us mere mortals to even be concerned."

To spokesman Hoad, the more significant issue is that a majority of Genshaft's cabinet got no raises this year. Genshaft's pay remained the same as in 2008, at $395,000, with $225,000 of that coming from tax money. The rest comes from the private USF Foundation.

Hoad said that last year, "Genshaft said no salary increases for the Cabinet - she didn't promise to freeze bonuses. Her promise has remained accurate."

One cabinet member, Stephen Klasko, vice president of USF Health and dean of the College of Medicine, received a $56,000 raise. Hoad said that's because Klasko opened two new ambulatory care buildings, including the first surgery center at USF, and became chief executive officer of the Johnnie B. Byrd Sr. Alzheimer's Center & Research Institute. His total compensation, including his physician's pay, is $1.17 million.

Goodman, in Lakeland, who is not a cabinet member, received a $28,000 raise in addition to his $20,000 bonus.

In an e-mail, Hoad said "our business requires us to make decisions (including pay decisions) every single day. The hiring freeze that we are in does not mean that we don't continue to do business, it just means that there is an additional process for any exceptions. It means that things are looked at carefully but not that we don't pay people money."

Reporter Lindsay Peterson can be reached at (813) 259-7834.

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