“Over-max” University of Iowa salaries questioned

IOWA CITY — More than 100 University of Iowa employees are paid nearly $1 million more a year combined than allowed for their assigned duties.

Because these employees already exceed their pay grade, they aren't supposed to get raises. Instead, supervisors award lump sum bonuses, in some cases up to $4,500 a year.

Among 112 people on the over-max list are upper-level athletics officials, space scientists and assistants to powerful people, including Vice President for Finance Doug True and Vice President for Medical Affairs Jean Robillard.

'Some jobs may appear outside of the common range because of the market-specific conditions for a particular job,' said Kevin Ward, assistant vice president for Human Resources relations.

But at a time when Iowa's state universities are undergoing cost-cutting reviews with plans to use the money to freeze undergraduate resident tuition, the over-max pay seems excessive to at least one lawmaker.

'Those are some pretty big numbers,' said Rep. Josh Byrnes, R-Osage, and a division administrator at North Iowa Area Community College. 'For those folks making above and beyond, what are they getting the college in return?'

New system set pay ranges

The UI paid a consultant more than $500,000 in 2011 to help develop a new job classification system for more than 5,000 professional and scientific (P & S) staff members.

The previous system was based on pay equity within the UI instead of matching salaries with comparable positions at other universities. When department chairs wanted to hire someone new, they struggled to determine a competitive salary, Ward said.

The new system defines hundreds of UI job classifications ranging from analyst and assistant chemist to veterinarian and vice president. The classifications are grouped into job functions and job families, with each having a minimum, median zone and maximum annual salary set through market analysis.

About 230 P & S employees in 2011 had salaries higher than the maximum set for their duties but were allowed to keep their pay. The 2014 over-max list includes some of those employees as well as new hires.

Over-max employees aren't supposed to get raises, but they are eligible for lump-sum performance payments if their supervisors give them a score of 'commendable' or 'distinguished' on their annual reviews. UI Human Resources generally approves these bonuses without questions, said Bob Millsap, director of UI Compensation and Classification.

Powerful units have most over max

Some of UI's largest over-max earners work for the UI's most powerful and prestigious programs.

Amy O'Deen is senior assistant director of the UI Hospitals and Clinics, the state's largest hospital with 700 beds and nearly 10,000 employees in fiscal 2013. O'Deen has an annual salary of $150,500, which is $30,500 more than the maximum $120,000 she's supposed to be paid under the 2011 classification system.

On top of that, she was paid nearly $10,000 in bonuses over the past three years.

Not that O'Deen isn't doing important work. She oversees six departments, including pathology, radiology, neurosurgery, neurology, psychiatry and ophthalmology, as well as UI Women's Health, UIHC Child Care and Early Learning Center and A Massage Oasis.

Karen Butler is chief of staff for Robillard, the vice president who oversees both the hospital and Carver College of Medicine. Under the UI's job classification, Butler is supposed to be paid no more than $120,000, but her annual salary is $153,000.

O'Deen and Butler declined to be interviewed for this story.

On the other side of the Iowa River is the Iowa Writers' Workshop, known for famous alumni, including John Irving, Flannery O'Connor and Rita Dove.

Connie Brothers has been with the UI since 1974, functioning at the Workshop as an office administrator, student adviser and assistant to the director. She makes $87,200 — 23 percent more than the $70,800 maximum salary for her job classification

Brothers received three annual bonuses totaling $9,000 since 2012. She did not return a call for comment.

Athletics tops list

It doesn't get any bigger at the UI than Athletics. The Athletics Department is self-supporting and does not receive taxes or tuition. But the unit still is subject to the UI classification system.

Athletics has nearly three times as many over-max employees as any other program at the UI, with 13 people making a combined $205,000 more than the maximum salaries set for their job classification. Athletics alone accounts for 20 percent of the total $989,300 million in over-max pay.

Two athletics officials top the over-max list. Gene Taylor, hired in July to be No. 2 to Athletic Director Gary Barta, is paid $245,000 a year — $75,600 more than the maximum pay outlined for his job classification.

Taylor was AD at North Dakota State University before coming to Iowa.

Paul Federici, director of football operations, is paid $152,300, which is $72,700 over max.

The UI justifies the pay based on a survey of 'over 50 professional and administrative level Athletic Department classifications, plus coaches' in the Big Ten.

That data is collected by the 1A Athletic Directors Association, which did not respond to requests for the information. UI officials said they would not release the report without the group's permission.

'Any unique positions with market ranges that fall outside the normal compensation/classification categories are reviewed and must be approved by central campus administration,' Barta said in an email.

Paying their way

The only non-sports, non-hospital unit to have at least five over-max staff is physics and astronomy, world renowned for space science.

James Van Allen, the physicist who discovered the radiation belts that encircle the earth and developed instruments used on spacecraft for decades, continued his research at the UI until shortly before his death in 2006.

Van Allen's colleagues and successors have continued the tradition of space exploration, earning accolades and, perhaps more importantly, grant money that pays their salaries

'Those individuals are worth their weight in gold,' said Fred Skiff, Physics and Astronomy Department chairman.

Bill Kurth, a space scientist who played a critical role in the recent discovery NASA's Voyager I satellite, launched in 1977, had gone interstellar, is paid $205,900, $54,400 over max. Donald Kirchner, an engineer who built an instrument now orbiting Mars, gets $186,000 a year, $50,500 over max.

Terrance Averkamp, paid $27,300 more than others in his pay grade, writes software used on interplanetary satellites, Skiff said.

'They could go somewhere else and be paid more,' he said.

And that's what it's all about for UI officials. The UI's pay structure, while not perfect, attempts to keep salaries competitive enough to maintain quality employees, Ward said.

'The bottom line,' Ward said, 'is to recruit and retain employees we need to be successful.'