UCF pay should be equitable, transparent.

Where We Stand

University of Central Florida President John Hitt has overseen his institution’s growth into the nation’s second-largest university. More important, national surveys have rated UCF one of the most innovative universities and best values for students. sage Beyond UCF’s borders, Hitt has been a consistent leader in successful efforts to strengthen Central Florida’s economy. We agree with one of the trustees who oversee the university, John Sprouls, that UCF has been fortunate to have Hitt at the helm.

So why would we question the president and other UCF leaders receiving a total of $364,000 in “performance pay” on top of their salaries?

Well, additional compensation for faculty members at UCF has been a pittance by comparison. Their last raise, in 2014, was 3 percent, along with additional merit increases of about 2 percent.

The president of the faculty union told the Sentinel that some full-time faculty make just $31,500 a year. Possible faculty raises for this year are still under negotiation.

Meanwhile, raises for the taxpayers who support UCF and other public universities in Florida also have been hard to come by in recent years.

And while the UCF dividends would be performance pay, not a raise, we doubt taxpayers would see a big distinction. It’s more money, bottom line.

Largely for the same reasons, we didn’t support recent decisions to award bonuses at two other taxpayer-supported agencies, Space Florida and Enterprise Florida.

We understand that private corporations routinely reward their executives with performance pay. That’s an issue between those companies and their shareholders. Public agencies, however, must answer to the public — even when the money for the university’s performance pay comes from foundation funds or other sources not directly provided by taxpayers.

Hitt, whose base salary is about $506,000, is in line to receive $158,000 in performance pay — a 31 percent premium.

UCF vice president and medical school Dean Deborah German, who makes $560,000, would get another $40,000. Another nine UCF vice presidents, with salaries ranging from $175,000 to $325,00, would receive additional pay for performance of between $10,000 and $24,000.

Hitt’s base salary, considering the size of UCF and its accomplishments, is not out of scale nationally. Last year the average U.S. public university president made $428,000. Hitt certainly qualifies as above average.

Trustees Chairman Marcos Marchena told us he’s convinced that performance-based pay works. If so, that’s a good argument for doing it at other public agencies, too. But making performance pay standard across government could add a significant burden to taxpayers, and compound the inequity.

We appreciate the commitment to excellence at UCF from Marchena, Sprouls and the other trustees. We just don’t agree that additional pay for a small group of top earners is the fairest way to get there.

Trustees are scheduled to address performance pay in a meeting Wednesday. We hope they reconsider their plan.

Amid this appropriately public discussion about pay for the university’s leaders, UCF has refused to publicly release football Coach George O’Leary’s contract. In fact, UCF is the only public university in the state that has refused to release its coaches’ contracts.

UCF’s excuse is that its athletic department is run by a Direct Support Organization, which is exempt from state laws that require public agencies to make their records public. The university said it would ask O’Leary to voluntarily release his contract, but the coach said Thursday that he wouldn’t.

Who works for whom? The public has a right to know the details of O’Leary’s compensation.

And state lawmakers should remove the public records exemption from DSOs at their first opportunity.