Iowa schools spent $27,000 last year on food for regent meetings

IOWA CITY — The institutions that Iowa's Board of Regents oversee spent a combined $27,130 last year providing menu items including grilled salmon, beef tenderloin and donated alcohol to regents during their monthly meetings.

At the time, the board was launching a sweeping efficiency review of its university campuses expected to eliminate more than 250 positions and eventually save $46 million a year.

The total spent on food included breakfasts, lunches, dinners and snacks provided by the University of Iowa, Iowa State University, the University of Northern Iowa and the Iowa School for the Deaf.

The meals appear to contradict a regents conflict-of-interest policy, although a board attorney said the policy never was intended to bar such food and beverages from being provided at full board meetings.

Records requested and reviewed by The Gazette show regent institutions so far this year have spent $10,050 on food in conjunction with the first two board meetings and one brief meeting to accept the retirement of UI President Sally Mason.

Most of the money for regent meeting meals comes from the institutions' general education budgets — although the schools' foundations donated more than $500 in 2014 for alcohol to go with the dinners, according to the regents office.

Board members — who serve as unpaid volunteers — do not have to pay for food provided at the meetings, and they don't have to request reimbursement from the board office.

Michael Gartner, who served on the board from 2005 to 2011, said the money for meals last year doesn't alarm him.

'It's a lot of work to be a regent — it's an enormous amount of time for most regents,' he said. 'It never occurred to me that there was a huge cost or we were violating any ethical rule. It was just an extension of the work as a regent.'

A typical breakfast buffet at a board meeting includes eggs, bacon, sausage, potatoes, pastries, fruit and beverages. Lunch buffet menus range from soup and sandwiches to sage marinated chicken or roast beef pinwheel with focaccia bread.

Dinners typically are more elaborate. During the most recent two-day March meeting on the UI campus, regents had a dinner at Kinnick Stadium that included appetizers of rosemary shortbread and fingerling potato cups along with roasted squash salad, beef tenderloin and potato gratin, sautéed carrots and Swiss chard, flourless chocolate cake and beer, wine, coffee and soda.

That meal, which served about 14 people, cost $1,053. The UI Foundation donated $299 in alcohol for the event.

Breakfasts usually serve 15 to 25 people. Lunches can serve as few as 17 people to as many as 120. Dinners often are kept to about 15 people.

The board has a policy stating that 'meals, travel, and accommodations for regents in conjunction with meetings are generally not permissible.' It continues: 'The host institutions can provide refreshments within the three dollar limit.'

Aimee Claeys, associate counsel for the board, said that policy was not meant to apply to food provided for full board meetings and the state auditor has never questioned the practice.

Digging deeper into the context of the policy's genesis, Claeys said, she contacted the board's former chief business officer, Pam Elliot-Cain, who said the language was 'included as part of overarching guidance to the institutions about the type of conduct that may represent an actual or apparent conflict of interest.' Cain said the policy was intended for when universities host one or more regents on campus at 'institution-specific meetings.'

Claeys noted the provision states institutions 'generally' should avoid providing meals, travel and accommodations.

'The policy is not an absolute bar,' she said.

Former regent Gartner said the board policy 'seems pretty clear' in its restrictions. But it 'also seems pretty absurd,' he said.

Gartner said he doesn't recall many dinners during his tenure. He remembers box lunches being standard. 'And they were never elaborate,' he said.

Regent Bob Downer, who has been on the board since 2003, said dinners for regent meetings seem to have become more frequent. Dinners at two-day meetings now are standard.

Breakfasts and lunches he said, serve a more useful purpose. The breakfasts double as meetings with student leaders and the lunches keep regents from going in search of food for which they could seek reimbursement.

'I frankly see more of a purpose in the breakfasts and the lunches than the dinners,' Downer said.

Meal expenditures at Iowa Board of Regents meetings (PDF) Meal expenditures at Iowa Board of Regents meetings (Text)