Hopoi ordered unauthorized pay raise

Last night's Associated Students of Oregon State University weekly House of Representatives meeting revealed that certain paid members of the ASOSU executive cabinet had given themselves unauthorized pay raises.

The pay raises, which date from June 1, 2011, when President M. "Tonga" Hopoi took office, have amounted to an estimated overpayment of $4,000 to $6,000. The raises given to a majority of executive cabinet members range from an extra $900 paid to the President and Vice President to $100 to task force directors, according Douglas Van Bossuyt, chairman of the House Ways and Means committee.

Hopoi authorized the pay increases without consultation with the legislative branch. ASOSU statutes delineate pay for members who receive stipends. Stipends are based off the established state minimum wage of the time and are adjusted with minimum wage increases. Statute changes must be approved by the legislative branch in addition to the executive branch.

Though she said the executive cabinet did not get overpaid, Hopoi did not deny the pay increase and said they were necessary to attract talent because OSU wasn't competitive in what it paid.

"I never got an idea of what I can and cannot do," Hopoi said. "We weren't aware we needed legislative approval."

While the overpayment may be illegal, representatives from the House Ways and Means committee are currently working in tandem with the Senate Oversight and Ethics committee to come up with a solution to avoid a replay of last fall's impeachment proceedings against Hopoi.

"We're reaching out to the executive to resolve this," Van Bossuyt said. "We want to work together to find an equitable solution that is fair for everyone."

During a Ways and Means committee meeting that followed the general house session, Van Bossuyt said that Mousa Diabat, chairman of the House Ethics Committee would be meeting with Hopoi and Vice President Sokho Eath on Friday to find a solution.

"It's unethical to give yourself money without oversight," Van Bossuyt said.

The house additionally looked at several pieces of legislation. Joint resolution 71.02, the so-called "Get Out the Vote Act," which was passed by the Senate last night, was tabled until next week. It was tabled due to questions about the intent of the resolution. The resolution would authorize ASOSU to work with other universities in student voter registration and education.

Senate bill 71.04, which would redefine the nature of work and office hours for ASOSU office holders, was tabled and sent to the student government committee for further consideration.

The House also presented Joint bill 71.04, which would require ASOSU to hold two town hall meetings per term to provide students with an opportunity to voice their concerns and for legislators to have a better handle on student body opinion. The bill is a result of the positive feedback the authors, Victoria Redman and Prachet Bhatt, received from the town hall meeting two weeks ago. However, the bill was tabled to be rewritten after concerns that without a requirement for attendance, ASOSU members would not attend.

The meeting concluded with two resolutions to instruct the House Ways and Means committee. The first, which passed 13-1, instructed the committee to include $650 in the 2013 fiscal year budget for nametags for all ASOSU members.

The second resolution told the committee to look into compensation for legislators. Legislators, with the exception of a few posts, such as the Speaker of the House, are currently unpaid.

The House Ways and Means committee that met after the regular house meeting, approved the ASOSU budget that will be presented to the Student Incidental Fee Committee tonight. Provisions were included for $650 for nametags.

The committee also looked at two proposed bills currently being written by Van Bossuyt that intend to provide more fiduciary oversight for monetary expenditures by the ASOSU executive. One would require the ASOSU executive to give monthly briefings to the House Ways and Means committee about account expenditures, balances, pay rates, etc. The other would require the ASOSU administrative and logistics advocate to sign various big ticket expenditures, including pay raises, in addition to the ASOSU director of finance. Currently the director of finance, who is part of the ASOSU executive branch, has sole responsibility to sign off on expenditures.