SPECIAL REPORT:
MONEY AND THE UH ATHLETIC DEPARTMENT
UH may be breaking
state ethics laws
How booster funds are used for
SECOND OF A SERIES
country club memberships, travel
and other personal benefitsBy Ian Lind
Star-BulletinThe University of Hawaii athletic department may be violating state ethics laws by allowing coaches to use money from booster organizations for country club memberships, family travel and other personal benefits. Associate Athletic Director Jim Donovan said booster funds provide a way to supplement coaches' salaries and improve staff morale. He said ethics concerns had been raised in the past, but he believed they had been resolved.
Donovan and Athletic Director Hugh Yoshida said similar expenditures are common at other universities and are necessary to recruit and retain qualified coaches.
Dan Mollway, executive director of the state Ethics Commission, said the law prohibits state employees from using their official positions to obtain "unwarranted privileges, exemptions, advantages, contracts or treatment" for themselves or others.
The commission has consistently ruled that state employees cannot accept outside compensation beyond authorized salaries, or accept tickets or similar items for personal or family use, Mollway said.
Nonprofit booster organizations are established to benefit UH teams and players by generating fan support and providing incidental funds for things not included in the university budget.
There are no specific guidelines on permissible purchases, and decisions are left up to the coach of each team.
Financial records made available to the Star-Bulletin show that booster funds are used for:
Private clubs: Booster funds pay for memberships at the Waialae Country Club, Oahu Country Club and the Outrigger Canoe Club, including monthly dues and fees. Head coaches in football, baseball, men's basketball, and women's volleyball submit monthly expenses for reimbursement, Donovan said.
Former football coach Bob Wagner had memberships at both the Outrigger Canoe Club and Waialae Country Club, as well as a boat that was moored alongside his Hawaii Kai home, all supported by booster funds, the records show.
When the Rainbow Wahine volleyball team traveled to the national championships late last year, the volleyball booster club paid more than $6,000 for a group that included members of coach Dave Shoji's family.
Similarly, men's volleyball coach Mike Wilton used booster funds for his wife to fly to the NCAA tournament the last two years, including air fare, car rental, hotel and meals.
Such expenditures represent just a fraction of more than $1 million raised annually by booster clubs and appear confined largely to booster clubs in major sports.
University procedures require that the expenditures be reviewed by athletic administrators and the UH Foundation, who routinely approve them without regard for potential ethics issues.
Donovan said he has privately questioned spending booster funds for personal expenses, such as air fares or hotel rooms for coaches' wives but has allowed them to be paid.
"Sometimes I look at some expenses that come across my desk, and I don't understand how the coach can say he's upset about his budget but he's doing this," Donovan said.
Yoshida and other administrators know they are operating outside the boundaries of public agencies or charitable organizations.
"While it may not be standard for charities like the Aloha United Way to pay for country club memberships, it is very standard for coaches of high-profile programs across the country to get club memberships from the athletic department," Donovan said.
The problem is that salaries offered to coaches are substantially lower than those at many of the schools that the University of Hawaii competes against. Why booster clubs?
For example, the average head football coach had a compensation package worth $268,000, according to a recent University of Texas survey, while Donovan estimated UH coach Fred vonAppen's total compensation package to be worth about $160,000.
Donovan said the university and coaches are not misleading donors about the use of the funds: "While (basketball coach) Riley Wallace is not running up and down saying, by the way, I pay for my country club monthly dues with the money you guys generate, he's not lying either. He's not saying that this money will go toward basketball scholarships, or feeding his players, or anything like that."
No one is forced to donate, Donovan said. "If you don't want to be part of the booster club, you don't have to be. You can still buy season tickets elsewhere in the arena."
Donovan said attempts by the athletic administration to control spending from the booster accounts at this time would probably backfire.
Budgets for most men's teams have been stagnant or dropping over the past few years, and booster clubs have provided a jealously protected source of funds that coaches have sometimes tapped for themselves as well as their team's needs.
"If we took the money away now after we cut their budgets, I think you would almost have a revolution, a lot of very unhappy campers," Donovan said.
Robert J. Frank, a professor at Oregon State University and the institution's faculty representative to the NCAA, said salaries for coaches in high-profile sports are rising across the country. What's happening elsewhere
"If an institution wants to remain competitive, both in terms of winning and attracting coaches that will have competitive and successful programs, the pressure is there to match, or at least continue to offer a competitive salary," Frank said.
C. Ron Huff, a former member of the Ohio State University Athletic Council, a faculty oversight committee, said his university had ended the practice of giving coaches free country club memberships.
"They argued it was a recruiting advantage, but we didn't know why coaches should get one while faculty and other staff did not," Huff said.
Booster policy runs
By Ian Lind
counter to rulings
Star-BulletinOpinions of the state Ethics Commission appear to directly challenge the athletic department's use of booster club funds to supplement coaches' salaries. Commission Executive Director Dan Mollway said he could not comment specifically on the athletic policies, but he pointed to commission opinions dating to the mid-1980s that seem to prohibit such practices.
In a 1985 opinion that was highly publicized at the time, the commission concluded that the university could not pay then-UH President M. Cecil Mackey more than the maximum amount set by the Legislature.
The university had intended to solicit private contributions to a special account in the UH Foundation that would have paid for a supplemental benefits package for Mackey.
The commission determined that such outside compensation is prohibited by law, a position it has continued to take.
According to state law: "No legislator or employee shall use or attempt to use his official position to secure or grant unwarranted privileges, exemptions, advantages, contracts or treatment, for himself or others, including ... accepting, receiving, or soliciting compensation or other consideration for the performance of his official duties or responsibilities except as provided by law."
The commission concluded in 1986 that giving state employees free tickets to events for use by personal guests would be prohibited "unless there was a state purpose related to their acceptance and use."
The commission reaffirmed its stance in another opinion issued last month concerning another state agency.
"Tickets and seating ... controlled by the agency were state property, and could not be used to grant unwarranted privileges or advantages to agency officials or others," the opinion said.
"It did not serve a valid state purpose to distribute additional free tickets or passes to agency officials or other government officials so that they could be accompanied to events by a spouse, family members, or personal guests."
