1/29/2011: Back in December Nigel Jaquiss reported Pernsteiner was on the short list of state agency heads Kitzhaber had told to prepare resignations. Below are bits from an Oregonian column from November in which Steve Duin reports on retroactive raises given to Pernsteiner by the OUS board – while he was pushing furloughs for the UO staff, and trying to get faculty to take them too:
… In February 2009, Gov. Ted Kulongoski told union officials he wanted to freeze wages and eliminate step increases for state workers and force them to take off 24 days without pay to help balance the state budget.
In May 2009, OUS Board Chair Paul Kelly wrote a new contract for Pernsteiner:
In it, Kelly “informed” Pernsteiner not only that his salary was being increased to $280,900, but also that the increase was retroactive to July 1, 2008.
How special. They must have learned how to do this from watching Frohnmayer and Bellotti. Then in May 2010, Kelly wrote Pernsteiner another contract. Also retroactive. Excerpt:
The OUS staff got furloughs, but there’s nothing in Pernsteiner’s contract about that, just clause after clause about his free car, insurance, housing allowance, free house in Eugene, expenses, travel for self and spouse, etc. The contract runs until 2012, and I’m willing to bet we’ll be paying him until then, even if Kitzhaber gives him the boot. Paul Kelly seems to love giving away other people’s money. We’re going to need another tuition hike soon.
Meanwhile 18 of the 88 people in the Chancellor’s office earn less than $40K. Spreadsheet here. There’s also some stuff in Duin’s column about the OUS’s utter confusion about how much they were actually paying Pernsteiner. Here’s what they’ve been telling the Chronicle of Higher Ed – apparently it was not the whole truth:
Be First to Comment