Right to Know Coalition of Nova Scotia: Obsessive secrecy in Duckville

Obsessive secrecy in Duckville

Thursday, February 14, 2008

The Oregonian

T wo years ago, Bill Harbaugh came up against what he calls the University of Oregon's "culture of secrecy" for the first time.

Harbaugh, the faculty member who forced the university to finally make public a consultant's report that challenges the extravagant revenue projections for its new $200 million basketball arena, was questioning the administration's plans to diversify its faculty and student body.

The institution's "obsessive secrecy" was such, Harbaugh claims, that University President Dave Frohnmayer "was unwilling to give me copies of the university's affirmative action plan. He and his lawyer, Melinda Grier, spent months trying to hide that from me."

For those with short memories, Frohnmayer helped to craft and openly championed the state's public records law back in the 1970s.

"When that happened," Harbaugh said, "I decided I would not work at a university with that sort of disrespect for the basic principles of openness and informed debate. I also decided I didn't want to leave Oregon."

In short, Harbaugh said, "I got angry with the university for trying to hide documents. And I learned how to work the system to get them."

As part of UO's campaign to fund its new arena with $200 million in state bonds, a funding mechanism mandated by Phil Knight and the restrictions on his $100 million "donation," the university has vigorously promoted revenue projections by CSL International.

In December, CSL estimated an arena opening in 2010 would produce annual revenue between $10.5 million and $16.1 million. The accuracy of those projections is significant because the debt service on 30-year bonds would approach $15 million each year, slightly more than the $1.3 annual operating expenses at debt-free McArthur Court.

Meanwhile, Harbaugh -- who teaches Behavioral and Experimental Economics, interestingly enough -- got wind of a 2004 EcoNorthwest report that projected the arena's annual revenue at $4.1 million.

On Oct. 7, Harbaugh, an expert on charitable giving, asked the University of Oregon Foundation for copy of its Form 990 from 2004, which lists the nonprofit's five largest payments to subcontractors.

When the form arrived, that information was not attached. Harbaugh requested it again. This time, the appendices were included and showed a $123,431 contract with EcoNorthwest for "arena consulting."

On Oct. 10, Harbaugh asked Karen Kreft, the foundation president, for the report. She responded by e-mail, "As we have communicated, the EcoNorthwest report is unknown to the Foundation." Kreft told Harbaugh future requests should be directed to Grier, the university's general counsel.

When Harbaugh followed those instructions, he said "it took three petitions to the attorney general's office and probably 20 e-mails to Melinda Grier and President Frohnmayer" before the report arrived.

How did they respond to those e-mails? "Mostly, they would not respond," Harbaugh said. "When they did respond, they said they couldn't find the documents. I explained in every message that all they had to do was e-mail EcoNorthwest and ask for another copy. And I gave them the e-mail address of the president of EcoNorthwest to make it easier for them."

EcoNorthwest's president, Ed Whitelaw, teaches at the university.

Grier said Harbaugh didn't make a public records request until early January and received the report five weeks later. An argument over copying and transmitting fees -- public records law states those fees can be waived if there is a legitimate public interest -- contributed to the delay, she added.

Frohnmayer was not available for comment.

Harbaugh is not the only UO professor who believes the administration hasn't been open and transparent about the funding of the new arena.

As Gordon Sayre, president of Oregon's university senate, told The Oregonian's Rachel Bachman last week, "it looks as though CSL was retained because they produced the numbers the athletic department wanted. And this (EcoNorthwest) report was basically canceled and buried and kept secret because it produced forecasts that were more skeptical than what the athletic department wanted to hear."

The EcoNorthwest report also made clear, way back in August 2004, that the university would lose Phil Knight's donation if it "decides to build a more modest facility." An attempt to construct an $80 million facility without funds from Knight and other major donors, the report said, would be no easier to finance than the super arena Knight wanted.

Knight's $100 million donation, university officials finally acknowledged last week, is "contingent on the approval of the state of Oregon" to issue $200 million in bonds that cover design and construction costs.

When I asked Allan Price, UO's vice president of university advancement, if Oregon was ducking the more problematic aspects of funding the arena in its drive to sweet-talk the Legislature out of $200 million in state bonds, Price disagreed.

"There was no attempt to hide" the $123,000 EcoNorthwest report, he said. "I didn't even remember for sure if we had a copy of it. And I don't think this has been rushed through the Legislature.

"We've been talking publicly about an arena project for at least six years. We have not papered over the arbitrage issue. Just think about who's reviewed the financial details, starting off with the University of Oregon athletic department. Then the UO administration looked at it, then the treasurer's office, legislative fiscal, the department of administration's budget and management office."

Harbaugh remains incredibly frustrated with the university's adversarial attitude toward public records' requests and Frohnmayer's priorities. "Frohnmayer has worked so hard on this arena. This impressive effort could have done wonders for UO's teaching and research," he said. "I just hope he builds the damn thing soon and retires."

And he wants to see the arena built. "Now's a great time to build it," Harbaugh said. "There's $100 million on the table from Phil Knight. But the terms of the gift are such that the taxpayers and the university are going to end up paying a lot for something that's really what Phil Knight wants."

Steve Duin: 503-221-8597; 1320 S.W. Broadway, Portland, OR 97201 steveduin@news.oregonian.com http://blog.oregonlive.com/steveduin

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