Over at AOL, I wrote about Penn State’s 5-year legal battle with the Harrisburg Patriot-News over the disclosure of how much Joe Paterno makes.
Quick recap: It seems Pennsylvania’s open-records law does not apply to state related schools like Penn State, Pitt and Temple. The law might get changed this year, but in the mean time the newspaper did an end-around by requesting Joe Paterno’s records from the state pension agency — which is subject to the open-records law. Paterno says he doesn’t care, but Penn State does. Penn State went to court to block this. It is now in the state supreme court.
It seems to me like this should be a slam dunk for the newspaper. Of course, this is the Pennsylvania State Supreme Court, and nothing is guaranteed. One of the justices had to recuse herself from hearing or voting on the case because she is also a Penn State Trustee.
Predicting the PA Supreme Court is always a big question mark. [digression] Pennsylvania has long had one of the least transparent government, in part because of the court. In 1998, the court struck down a basic lobbying disclosure act because they ruled that many of the lobbyists were also practicing lawyers and the PA Supreme Court has the only authority to regulate the practice of law. A new law was passed in 2006, but if this sort of attitude from the Philadelphia Bar is any indication, I expect it to go back to the PA Supreme Court — even if it says that the PA Supreme Court is going along with it this time. [/digression]
The State Senate Majority Leader has introduced legislation that would amend the open-records law to include state-related universities. It has a pretty good chance of passing, so the whole lawsuit eventually might mean nothing.
Pitt, while not required to, has been more responsive on the disclosure of salaries front.
The health sciences chief, the football and basketball coach and two other administrators including Chancellor Mark Nordenberg were top earners at the University of Pittsburgh last year, according to a federal tax filing.
…
Second-highest was head football coach Dave Wannstedt, whose compensation of $713,138 included $675,002 in salary, $28,959 toward benefits and $9,177 for expenses and allowances.
The third-biggest earner was men’s head basketball coach Jamie Dixon, whose total earnings of $676,712 included $622,753 in salary, $38,276 toward benefits and $15,683 for expenses and allowances.
The filing, required of non-profits each year, includes pay earned by officers and non-officers of the university for the fiscal year ending June 30, 2006. It was released yesterday by the university in response to a request from the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.
This, of course, does not include Dixon and Wannstedt’s radio/TV appearance fees or the money they make from their camps. If the open-records law is passed, that information will also become known.
