It was an act of generosity heard around the nation. The US News and World Report carried the story. As did the small towns of Hastings, Nebraska and Bristol, Virginia. But for University of Alaska President Jim Johnsen, donating his performance bonus back to UA programs was nothing special. He did the same thing last year, his first at the helm of the state’s public university.
“People don’t go into higher education — I didn’t go into higher education — to get rich,” Johnsen said a few days earlier when discussing UA’s search for a Vice Chancellor of Administrative Affairs. “I was making a lot more money in the private sector than I make here.”
It’s true Johnsen can earn more elsewhere. But with an annual salary of $325,000, he’s the highest paid employee on the state’s payroll. That’s more than 98 percent of Americans make. And what he earned as a senior vice-president with Alaska Communications already made him rich.
That said, his unselfish act should still embarrass most of his public university peers.
But not all. So I’ll start with one of the few exceptions.
From 2012 to 2106, Santa Ono was president of the University of Cincinnati. Just days before Johnsen was hired to run UA, Ono was awarded a $200,000 bonus. But as he had done every year of his tenure, he gave it to a variety of education programs and scholarship funds.
Without the bonus though, Ono still earned exactly that much more than Johnsen.
What draws these salaries into and above the top two percent is key to understanding how free market forces are undermining the meaning of public service.
In 1998, Gen. Mark Hamilton (Ret) became UA’s eleventh president. His salary was $148,000. It rose to $370,000 by the time he left in 2010. That’s five times more than rate of inflation.
The increasing fortune Hamilton earned in those 12 years followed a nationwide trend. Executive salaries at public universities rose precipitously to keep pace with the level of increases at private schools. And those were an attempt to match an even steeper rise in CEO compensation across America.
Simply put, corporate management had created an inflationary pressure uniquely enriching to itself. And it trickled down to the point where, to attract quality candidates, public institutions had to follow suit.
That’s partly why UA’s Board of Regents could entice Johnsen to consider the job. With a PhD in higher education management and 22 prior years at UA, he certainly had the credentials. But he might not have applied had it paid only $215,000 — the amount it would have been if the entry level salary Hamilton accepted in 1998 had, like most jobs in America over the last 35 years, risen commensurate with the rate of inflation.
But there’s a more important value at work here. Money is not Johnsen’s primary motivator. He seems to have a genuine appreciation for the honor of serving the public good.
That’s not the same as executive privilege, which is what Gov. Chris Christie (R-NJ) thought he was owed when, a day after he shut down state government and closed Island Beach State Park, he used taxpayer money for a helicopter to fly there and enjoy a day on the beach. “That’s the way it goes” he said, in response to widespread criticism. “Run for governor, and you can have the residence,” a reference to the state-owned beach house where his family was staying despite the fact he ordered every other family with homes at the park to leave until the government reopened.
It’s worth noting that, during our own budget crisis, Gov. Bill Walker voluntarily cut his pay by 35 percent. That’s the kind of selfless leadership we want from public servants.
Johnsen is giving us that. But if he’s the rare exception, many of the most qualified candidates will be looking to the private sector for help climbing the ladder of wealth.
That’s got to give UA’s Board of Regents an intense migraine every time they have to fill an executive staff position. It’s why three of those, currently staffed with interim appointments, are among the top 10 highest paid positions on the state’s payroll.
And if you think that’s a problem, blame the unchecked greed of corporate America for leading the way.
• Rich Moniak is a Juneau resident and retired civil engineer with more than 25 years of experience working in the public sector. He contributes a regular column to the Juneau Empire.
