Agency's top pay draws fire again

Eighteen months after an audit questioned bonuses given to senior management at the School and Institutional Trust Land Administration, the bonuses have stayed at similar levels.

That's because SITLA's governing board hired a compensation and human resources consultant in December who concluded that total compensation — salaries and bonuses — was actually close to market value.

But a follow-up audit by the Office of the Legislative Auditor General presented Wednesday to legislators disputed the consultant's conclusions.

Following the auditor's presentation, legislators debated the merits of paying SITLA employees higher than other state employees.

While Michael Morris, chairman of SITLA's board, said the law requires that SITLA's senior management be compensated competitively with the private sector, auditors maintain there are no similar positions in the private sector to provide comparisons.

"I like the idea that you said we look to color the compensation (toward) the private sector," but not to mimic private-sector salaries because it's the public's land, said Senate President John Valentine, R-Orem.

Valentine favors legislation to set "guidelines" for compensation.

SITLA sells, develops and leases some 4.7 million acres that remain from acreage granted at statehood to support public education and other beneficiaries.

Oil and gas leases are the "bread and butter" of the revenues, SITLA director Kevin Carter said. The profits are put in a permanent fund and invested, with the interest ultimately ending up in schools.

Last year, Carter made $152,142, including a $40,000 bonus.

Five other managers received $20,400 bonuses last year, according to the follow-up audit.

Bonuses have hovered around $150,000 for senior management for the past four years.

State auditors argued the consultant's average market salary of $146,818 for an executive was inflated by $25,000; and the market average bonus for an executive is $89.31, not the consultant's average of $15,633.

"Our problem was in looking at the consultant's work. We did not like the way he had used the numbers, using averages of averages" of executive salaries at other businesses, government agencies and non-profits throughout the United States, said audit manager Tim Osterstock.