Exec raises mired by conflict of interest?
By Hannah Larking
News Editor
September 10, 2008
A recent increase in salary for the UWSA executives is raising the brow of former board of directors member, Robert Wagner.
The UWSA executives requested a $1,500 raise each (totaling $6,000) that was approved unanimously by the board of directors. This money was originally meant to be used as a gratuity to be spent at the University of Windsor’s student pub, The Basement. The ‘tab’ was instated eight years ago as a raise, said UWSA president Tiffany Gooch. But when the pub closed last April, the board decided to keep this money as a salary increase. “There hadn’t been a raise since 2004 for executives,” Gooch said. Now that the pub is reopened, they want another $1,500 — and they’ve got it.
According to Wagner, this raise was unwarranted. The UWSA executives already get a raise each year based on a CPI pegged at a certain percentage that coincides with costs of living, said Wagner. The executives submitted their request to reinstate the tab to the board of directors along with a whole new budget for approval.
“The board of directors unanimously approved all items on the executives’ wish list,” Wagner added.
In addition to this, a relationship between Shae Kavanaugh, an executive, and Aaron Campbell, a member of the board of directors, which was confirmed by the UWSA president, was not addressed in the decision making process.
Normally, in a situation like this, a conflict of interest is declared, said Wagner. The person in the relationship who sits in a position of influence should announce the conflict, and abstain from voting.
This did not happen. According to Gooch, the relationship had never really been mentioned before, and their training conferences across Canada never discussed how to handle a relationship in the workplace, let alone when dealing with pay raise. “There was no discussion at the training regarding relationships between elected UWSA members,” Gooch said.
According to Gooch, when the pub reopened, the executives did not get a cutback in their salary because they were already being paid at the increased rate since April.
“We basically, through all of this, got a $1500 raise (each). The board was fully aware of this, and when the decision was being made to reinstate the tab, they saw this as fine,” Gooch explained.
Aaron Campbell arrived at the decision to give the executives a raise completely on his own, Gooch explained. Gooch later admitted that the raise probably would not have happened if the pub had not closed.
Gooch sited only two reasons for why the pub tab is necessary: It allows us [the executives] to eat on campus and engage in conversation with students, she said.
The tab is convenient because we’re always here. “Sometimes we eat two meals a day here,” she added.
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