USF Didn't Cut Car Allowances

Amid staff cuts and a hiring freeze, University of South Florida is paying car allowances of at least $450 a month to more than a dozen employees.

Six of the allowances go to administrators. The rest go to coaches, including head football coach Jim Leavitt, who receives $450 a month plus the use of a dealership car.

Including Leavitt, 10 coaches receive $450 a month. The others have cars provided for free by local dealerships.

The coaches with allowances are paid from athletic department money, which comes mostly from television contracts, student fees and ticket prices. Four of the six administrators are paid with state tax money. The purpose of the allowance is to cover personal vehicle expenses.

At the University of Florida, the president and vice presidents receive car allowances of $7,800 a year, but most of the money comes from a private foundation at UF and other auxiliary sources.

UF coaches get the use of dealership cars but no allowances. "No money changes hands," UF spokesman Steve Orlando said.

The USF Foundation, supported with private donations, pays car allowances for 13 people, including Provost Ralph Wilcox and several officials responsible for university fundraising.

The foundation doesn't pay for a car allowance for USF President Judy Genshaft, but it does cover the $147-a-month cost of her Tampa Palms Golf & Country Club membership. The foundation also pays for several other administrators' country club memberships. USF spokesman Michael Hoad said these are important for fundraising.

The university, including the athletic department, pays a total of about $100,000 for the 16 car allowances to coaches and administrators.

"It's not a huge amount of money, but it's the appearance of it," said USF faculty union President Sherman Dorn.

A few years ago, before USF eliminated 450 staff and instructor positions and cut $52 million from its budget, news of car allowances would not have captured much attention, he said. "But at this time, when the university is telling faculty to do more with less support, it sends the wrong signal."

The other problem is that the money is going to coaches and administrators, not faculty. "The university is behaving as if perks are more important than professors," Dorn said.

Bill McClelland, head of the USF staff union, said the university has adopted the corporate model of operation.

"Often that is no more than adopting the model of excessive executive compensation, bonuses, and perks. The public is rightly angered by this in the private sector and should be no less tolerant in seeing that in our public institutions," he said. "How many taxpayers earn a car allowance?"

Car allowances can be part of a recruitment package or a way to reimburse employees who use their cars for university business. "It's a way to attract people," Hoad said. "There are people who legitimately do a lot of driving for their jobs."

One of the highest-paid USF employees, USF College of Medicine Dean Stephen Klasko, receives a $650 a month allowance. It is not paid with tax money but with USF medical service contracts and patient fees. Klasko earns about $1.17 million a year, including his physician's pay.

Other car allowance recipients are Jennifer Capeheart-Meningall, vice president for student affairs, who receives $650 a month; Arthur Guilford, chief executive officer and vice president of USF Sarasota-Manatee, who receives $650 a month; Kathy Betancourt, associate vice president for governmental relations, who receives $550 a month; and Karen White, who receives $650 a month.

White stepped down as the USF St. Petersburg chancellor last year to become a special adviser to Genshaft.