John B. Simpson currently receives the 16th-highest state salary at the University at Buffalo.
But John B. Simpson no longer works at the University at Buffalo.
Simpson's annual full-time state salary is listed at $265,000 in a document provided to The Spectrum by the university's Records Access Officer Brian Hines, who produced it in response to a Spectrum Freedom of Information Law (FOIL) request for the 20 highest-paid state employees at UB.
The document says the data is accurate as of Wednesday, and it lists Simpson's official job title as "executive officer" in the president's department. Simpson, formerly the president of the university, left UB last semester and was replaced by Satish K. Tripathi, who the document lists as making a state salary of $385,000 as "president."
Simpson's additional pay was guaranteed in his contract, according to university spokesman John Della Contrada.
"John Simpson's compensation was approved by SUNY in 2004 when he was appointed to UB. His contract provided that he would receive up to two academic semesters of pay upon completion of his role as UB president," Della Contrada said in an email. "Under this agreement, he receives a pro-rated annual salary for nine months, beginning on March 17, 2011, and concluding on Dec. 17, 2011."
That would put the actual compensation somewhere around $198,750 (three-fourths of $265,000).
The Spectrum FOIL request was limited to state salaries. Top-level UB officials have been known to collect additional compensation from the University at Buffalo Foundation, Inc. (UBF), which "manag[es] gifts and grants on behalf of the university," according to its website. UBF also includes UB Foundation Activities, Inc. (UBFA) and various other affiliated corporations. They are private entities that are not subject to FOIL requests.
For example, Artvoice reported in August that Simpson's state salary was only a fraction of his total compensation in 2009.
UBFA's 2009 IRS tax form (990) lists Simpson as one of its "highest compensated employees" and shows he received a total of $867,009 – including $225,560 from UBFA in "bonus and incentive compensation" – that year. The form is available at GuideStar.org, a website that "gather[s] and publicize[s] information about nonprofit organizations."
Adding the value of the UB president's complimentary house at 88 Lebrun Road – listed at $91,681 by UBF-affiliated FNUB, Inc. in its tax form from the same year – results in a total compensation of $958,690 for Simpson in 2009. The Artvoice report suggested that the final number could be over $1 million.
At UBF, the Compensation Committee "determine[s] compensation for the operating staff of the Foundation and its Affiliates," according to ubfoundation.buffalo.edu. It is chaired by Angelo M. Fatta (also chairman of the UBF board of trustees), and its only member is the president of the university.
That suggests that Fatta and Simpson himself are the ones who determined that Simpson would get $225,560 in "bonus and incentive compensation" in 2009.
Additional Reporting by Rebecca Bratek and Madeleine Burns
Email: news@ubspectrum.com
