Dean is Paid by School Board, but has a Private Salary Contract With Monaghan and His Foundation
» Sun, July 12th, 2009 - 5:32 pm CST- Address for this article: http://avewatch.com/?p=140
- View date: 02-08-2010
Last week, AveWatch demonstrated that Ave Maria School of Law’s Dean, Bernard Dobranski, had a secret private contract with Tom Monaghan and his Foundation. Dobranski’s service as an employed instrument of Monaghan and his Foundation suggests that any previous claims of full autonomy and independence between the two organizations were an illusion. But an important ethical question remains: “Who pays for Dobranski’s $300,000+ salary – Monaghan’s Foundation or the Board of Ave Maria School of Law?”
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According to the deposition testimony of Paul Roney, the CFO for all things Ave Maria, Law School Dean Bernard Dobranki is paid approximately $300,000 annually by the school and not the Foundation. The latest available IRS-990 statement filed by AMSL (2007) shows Dobranski receiving $365,699 in total compensation from the school. The 2007 990 from the Ave Maria Foundation does not list Dobranski as a donation recipient or an officer-employee.
How would it even work in practical terms to have a salary contract with one organization that is fulfilled by performance through, and payments from, another wholly separate organization?
Consider the following: A person is paid to act as the CEO of Organization-A. But, this person has a contractual guarantee for that salary amount through a wholly separate entity, Organization-B. The boss of Organization-B is using the salary that comes from Organization-A to fulfill the private contractual salary obligation that B has with the CEO. This is accomplished by the position of powerful influence that the boss of B holds within Organization-A.
Further, it appears that board members of Organization-A operate – at least initially – under the illusion that the salary they are paying to the CEO binds him to act solely for their interests and not any other organization’s interests. The CEO, however, does not give his daily activity reports on Organization-A to the board comprising Organization-A, nor does he ever have a performance review by Organization-A. Instead, the CEO gives daily reports on Organization-A to the holder of his guaranteed salary contract, the boss of Organization-B. The daily reports on Organization-A have never been openly available to all of the board members of Organization-A.
The conflict-of-interest and deception are significant.
The following are excerpts from the July 2008 deposition testimony of Paul Roney, the CFO for all things Ave Maria (Paul Roney):
Q. Bernie Dobranski is paid by the foundation?
PR. No.
Q. Who is he paid by?
PR. The law school.
Q. And the money is put into the law school by the foundation for his pay?
PR. No, not specifically.
Q. Okay. And he has a contract whereby he will be paid whether he’s employed as a dean of the law school or not; correct?
PR. For a period of time, I believe that’s correct.
Q. Is there a plan for Bernie Dobranski to return as dean?
[AW Note: Dobranski took a health-related leave-of-absence, at least from AMSL]
PR. That’s a decision of the law school Board of Governors. I don’t know.
Q. Well, is there — why do you say that? I mean, why do you say it’s up to the law school Board of Governors? Bernie Dobranski has a private contract with Tom Monaghan and the foundation.
PR. Uh-huh.
Q. Bernie Dobranski has never reported once to the board with regard to a performance review; are you aware of that?
[AW Note: see Board member Kate O'Beirne's testimony here]
PR. No, I’m not aware of that.
Q. Well, he has never reported to the Board of Governors ever for performance review.
PR. Okay.
Q. So why do you say it’s up to the board? That’s just something you assume?
PR. No, because he’s an employee of the law school.
Q. He’s an employee of the law school, but he has a contract with the foundation, sir.
PR. Uh-huh, that’s correct.
Q. He actually has a contractual relationship with the foundation, so I guess the foundation has assigned him to the law school, but in any event –
[discussion by lawyers]
Q. Okay, why do you say that it’s up to the Board of Governors? Is that just what you’re assuming as to whether Bernie will come back? Do you just assume that or has anybody told you that?
PR. No one has specifically told me that.
See also the original AveWatch article:
“Dean Has Private Contract With Board Chairman’s Foundation”
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