Heads are shaking all over Rattler Country in response to the fact that Board of Trustees Chairman Bill Jennings has taken a position on President James H. Ammons’ bonus that is very different from the one he took on former Interim President Castell V. Bryant’s.At the September 23, 2010 board meeting, Jennings confirmed that he planned to meet with Ammons to discuss “restructuring” the bonus clause of the president’s contract. Jennings never asked for any changes in Castell’s bonus clause despite everything she did to nearly run FAMU into the ground.
Jennings negotiates bonus clause for Ammons
Jennings negotiated the bonus clause in Ammons’s contract back in 2007. The clause states: “Based upon his achievement of annual goals and objectives…Dr. Ammons shall receive an annual performance bonus. It is intended that said annual performance bonus shall be in the range of 25% to 35% of the annual base salary.”
Ammons’ base salary is $325,000 per year. In 2009, he accepted a 35 percent, or $113,750 bonus. It was based on his achievement of objectives such as restoring clean financial statement audits to FAMU and getting the university off probation with the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools (SACS). Ammons gave 50 percent of his bonus to the FAMU National Alumni Association.
The president accepted a $81,000 or 25 percent bonus in 2010. That bonus came six months after Ammons led FAMU to a ten-year reaffirmation of its SACS accreditation. In voting to award the bonus at the minimum 25 percent level, trustees said the decision was not a criticism of Ammons’ performance but a response to the tough economic situation that FAMU faces.
Jennings stays quiet about Castell's bonus
Jennings was absent from the board meeting on December 1, 2005 when trustees voted to give Castell a $35,000 bonus and a contract extension of two years. But he never publicly raised any objection to those decisions. On March 2, 2006, Jennings actually made the formal request for trustees to grant Castell a $50,000 raise, which was approved. The pay increase took Castell’s total salary up to $300,000.
The $35,000 bonus and raise $50,000 raise, totaling $85,000, were primarily based on Castell’s claim that she created an $8M surplus in 2004-2005 and straightened out the financial books.
Both of those claims turned out to be completely false. State auditors found that Castell really created a $10.4M deficit. The books were in such bad shape that FAMU received its first ever qualified state audit in 2004-2005. That was followed by another qualified audit in 2005-2006. Castell’s 2006 operational audit was worst in FAMU history with 35 findings.
Jennings never asked the Board of Trustees to revisit Castell’s bonus or raise despite all those problems. He did not state any concern about whether FAMU could afford to let her keep that money despite the big dollars FAMU lost from declining enrollment and wrongful termination case settlement costs during the Castell years. Many Rattlers wondered if it was because he and Castell were looking out for one another.
In 2005, Castell fired Law School Dean Percy Luney. The ouster followed news that lawyer Shirley Cunningham had been employed in the $1M chair he endowed at law school and was receiving a salary of $100,000. The Cunningham contract was authorized by former President Fred J. Gainous in 2003.
An investigation by the Orlando Sentinel found out that: “In June 2003, Orlando International Airport Executive Director Bill Jennings, a FAMU trustee, called a meeting with Luney, Cunningham and Gainous, who had become FAMU's president the previous summer. It was here, Luney and Cunningham contend, that a deal was struck to pay the lawyer $100,000 a year to advise the law school and raise funds.”
Later that same year, Castell told the Miami Herald that Gainous, former President Frederick S. Humphries, and former Provost Larry Robinson had been summoned by federal prosecutors for questioning. She did not mention that Jennings was summoned for questioning, too.
The federal prosecutors called all four men for witness questioning about Cunningham’s actions. None of them were actual subjects of the investigation.
FAMUans deserve answers
Many FAMUans continue to openly wonder why Castell did not tell the newspaper about the fact that Jennings was also summoned for questioning by the feds. Was Castell trying to protect Jennings from embarrassment because he was one of her top supporters? Did this have anything to do with Jennings’ decision not to speak out about Castell receiving a bonus and raise that were heavily based on claims that turned out to be untrue?
These questions still have not been answered. FAMUans deserve to know why Jennings has suddenly taken such a different position on Ammons’ bonus payments.