Legislator’s bill would increase transparency from state universities

The bill would require Temple University and other state-related universities to provide information on employee salaries, contracts and Board of Trustees meetings.

State Senator Doug Mastriano introduced a bill on April 8 requiring Temple and other state-related universities in Pennsylvania to provide information on employee salaries and contracts. | COLLEEN CLAGGETT / FILE

A state legislator recently introduced a bill to require Pennsylvania’s state-related universities, including Temple University, to report additional employee salaries, minutes from Board of Trustees meetings and information on some third-party contracts to the commonwealth each year.

The bill, introduced by State Sen. Doug Mastriano (R-33) on April 8, would require state-related universities with more than 2,500 employees to disclose the salaries of their 200 highest paid employees, according to the bill

State-related universities in Pennsylvania include Temple, Pennsylvania State University, the University of Pittsburgh and Lincoln University, according to the press release

Information reported to the commonwealth would be available under Pennsylvania’s right-to-know law, according to the bill.

Former Sen. John Blake introduced the same bill on Feb. 5, 2015, according to the bill.

“We worked with Sen. Blake on the legislation,” wrote Ray Betzner, a spokesperson for Temple, in an email to The Temple News. “We agree that the provisions of the bill are reasonable. If the bill is approved and becomes law, we will certainly comply with it.”

Temple already published the agenda and minutes from each of its public Board of Trustees meetings from 1982 to 2019 on its website.

Mastriano’s bill would amend the Right-To-Know Law that required state-related universities to file their Form 990 and the salaries of the university’s officers, directors and 25 highest paid employees with the commonwealth by May 20 each year, which would continue to be required, according to the bill.

The bill would require state-related universities to provide Board of Trustees meeting minutes in print and online on the institutions’ websites. State-related universities would also have to provide the commonwealth with a budget of all taxpayer-funded projects and programs at their institution, according to the bill

Mastriano’s bill would require state-related universities to report vendor names, start and end dates and the total cost of all third-party contracts that exceed $5,000, according to the law.

A spokesperson for Mastriano’s office did not respond to a request for comment.

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