Regents backtrack on reason for closed meeting with UI President Mason

The Board of Regents on Friday clarified that it is meeting in closed session on Tuesday to evaluate University of Iowa President Sally Mason's performance, as opposed to discussing her retirement, as was originally stated.

The board office on Friday released an update to Thursday's meeting notice changing the purpose of the closed session after questions emerged around the legality of private discussions of Mason's retirement.

According to the Friday meeting notice, regents will meet in closed session to 'evaluate” Mason and then authorize Executive Director Robert Donley to 'develop a process and timetable for the presidential search at the University of Iowa.”

Sheila Koppin, a spokeswoman for the board, said discussions on the presidential search will be public. And although the office amended its official reason for Tuesday's closed session, Koppin on Friday said she does not have information on whether the board also will discuss Mason's retirement during that time.

Mason on Thursday announced her plans to retire Aug. 1 after eight years with the institution, and Koppin said the board office 'prematurely” released a notice about 30 minutes later calling the Tuesday meeting 'to discuss in executive session President Mason's decision to retire.”

In the updated meeting notice sent Friday, the board justified the closed session by citing the portion of Iowa Code that allows governmental bodies to talk in private for purposes of evaluating the professional competency of a person 'whose appointment, hiring, performance, or discharge is being considered.” The law says those discussions can be closed 'when necessary to prevent needless and irreparable injury to that individual's reputation” and when he or she requests a closed session.

According to the board office, Mason requested the closed session. Koppin said the closed discussion will act as a midyear performance review, similar to ones Mason has received in the past.

Presidents of the other two regent universities - Iowa State University and University of Northern Iowa - will not undergo midyear reviews at the same time, Koppin said.

The agenda for Tuesday's 10 a.m. meeting has not been finalized, Koppin said, and it's unclear whether the board will take any action.

Kathleen Richardson, executive director of the Iowa Freedom of Information Council and dean and associate professor with Drake University's School of Journalism and Mass Communication, said a person's retirement is not among those topics that can keep a meeting closed in Iowa.

'You can have closed meetings to evaluate the professional competency of an individual whose appointment, hiring, performance, or discharge is being evaluated,” Richardson said.

'But,” she said, based on the original meeting notice, 'they are not evaluating Mason or her competency, appointment, hiring, or discharge.”

Discussions around the presidential search process also do not exempt a meeting from being open, she said. And, according to Richardson, there is no exemption involving the discussion of compensation in Iowa Code.

Mason, on Thursday, said that in discussing her possible retirement with Board of Regents members, she asked them to look at the deferred compensation package included in her original contract.

That package was increased in 2011 from $60,000 a year to $150,000 a year through June 30, 2016. Mason, whose salary stands at $525,828, has been working without a contract on an at-will basis since her first five-year contract expired July 31, 2012.

That contract said, after her presidency ends, she could continue her appointment with the usual fringe benefits and with a salary equal to 60 percent of her presidential salary.

When asked Friday, several members of the Board of Regents declined to comment about Mason's potential compensation plan and the upcoming search process in advance of Tuesday's meeting.