October 10, 2012

Attorney General George Jepsen today issued the following statement on the matter involving salary increases and the Board of Regents for Higher Education:

“As the issue has come to our attention only within the past two days, we have not been asked to provide a formal opinion. Any formal opinion in this matter would have to await investigation and confirmation of what has transpired.

“That being said, the statute governing the Board of Regents provides that the ‘board shall fix compensation of its professional and technical personnel.’

“If, in fact, the individuals who received raises are considered professional or technical personnel, only the Board of Regents – not its president – could have approved the raises. In a similar situation, this office concluded in 2010 that the then State University System Board of Trustees could not delegate its statutory responsibility to remove a University President and that such action taken without that Board’s approval was without legal authority.”

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