56
told him that she saw no issue with the bonuses. The President acknowledges that he then authorized the bonuses. In an interview with the former Board Chair, she denied having any conversation of bonuses with either the former EVP for Finance or with the former President. Furthermore, this matter was not brought to the Board and the only person authorized at that time to have a bonus was the former President, which was allowed for by his contract and resulted from his performance evaluation.
According to OAG 62-1, the granting of a bonus from public funds would violate Section 3 of the Kentucky Constitution as it would be using public funds to pay for services not actually performed. Section 3 of the Kentucky Constitution states:
All men, when they form a social compact, are equal; and no grant of exclusive, separate public emoluments or privileges shall be made to any man or set of men, except in consideration of public services...
To comply with this section of the Kentucky Constitution, any payment to a public employee should be for consideration of public service, which has been interpreted to mean for salary and wages for work performed. No support was identified to substantiate these payments. As such, these payments are considered unallowable.
KSU payroll records identify that the former President received a retroactive housing allowance of $84,415 just over a week after the Board revised his contract on December 6, 2018. Among the contract changes, the following benefit was added to the former President’s contract upon approval of the Board:
KSU shall provide a monthly housing allowance in the net amount of ($4,030) (after deduction for all applicable withholding and payroll taxes). The University will pay the housing allowance in the first payroll period of each month.
The retroactive payment appears to cover the time between January 2018 through December 2018; however, during that entire period, the former President was living at Hillcrest, a property owned by KSU. After taxes, this retroactive housing allowance resulted in an additional $48,360 of personal compensation to the former President, to cover the cost of private housing in which the President did not live.
The former President stated that he was not aware of a retroactive housing allowance and thought perhaps the payment may have been his performance award. However, KSU records clearly identify the award as a retroactive housing allowance. The former Board Chair stated she also was not aware of a retroactive housing allowance payment, noting that the former EVP for Finance had told her that the payments to the former President would not begin until he was living off campus. The former President reports that he moved off campus to a new personal residence in February 2019. A KSU email identifies that the former President updated his residential address to his new home in May 2019, to be effective June 8, 2019. While a definitive move-in date could not be determined, it appears KSU awarded at least another $5,329 to the former President for housing allowance in January 2019 while he was still residing at Hillcrest.