Legislators grilled members of the UW System Board of Regents Tuesday on their decision to raise administrators' pay scale ranges during what one legislator called a \stealthy"" meeting.
The regents made the pay scale decision Sept. 2 during a telephone conference call two days before their regularly-scheduled meeting. Six of the members were not present and the board did not send out press releases or put notice of the meeting on its Web site.
Critics accused the board of trying to make the decision secretly. The state attorney general's office is currently investigating whether the board correctly followed open meeting laws.
As a result of the controversy, state Rep. Scott Suder, R-Abbotsford, introduced a bill that would give the Legislature's Joint Finance Committee final say over the regents' adjustment of salary ranges.
Three regents defended themselves and spoke against the bill at a hearing with the Committee on Colleges and Universities Tuesday. They also spoke against another bill that would require them to make all their votes by roll call.
Several of the legislators on the committee had harsh words for the regents. State Rep. Robin Kreibich, R-Eau Claire and chair of the committee, said he could not remember an issue in his 11 years serving on the committee that so angered students, taxpayers and lawmakers as the pay scale decision did.
State Rep. Jennifer Schilling, D-La Crosse, asked the regents to address the accusation that they are ""drunk with power.""
In the face of this criticism, Regent Vice President David Walsh and regents Fred Mohs and Peggy Rosenzweig defended their actions during the conference call. They said the board had to make the decision quickly because they wanted to post job positions for new chancellors in Stevens Point and Milwaukee.
They understood they were only raising the possible range of salaries and not the salaries themselves, Mohs said, so they thought, ""This isn't so bad to do.""
Walsh admitted the board had made a mistake in timing and said they would try to rectify it this week as they reconsider the salary range increase at their meetings Thursday and Friday in Oshkosh.
He personally offered to motion for a roll call vote from now on any time the board votes on salary matter, but urged the committee not to approve legislative oversight.
""Yes, I am saying the magic word; I think that's micromanaging,"" he said. ""We think it would be ineffectual and politicize the process.""
The committee did not approve the bill at the meeting, and Kreibich said they would wait to see how the regents conducted their meetings in the future and what they decide to do about the pay scale ranges this week.
""If they come back with reforms that clearly are window dressing, then we will act,"" he said.
