Every day is a fresh start for James H. Ammons, whose three-year contract as president of Florida A&M University is renewed each morning.
The “evergreen” nature of Mr. Ammons’s contract is just one of many perks he secured when a divided board hired him more than four years ago, and the university’s trustees are now second-guessing whether Mr. Ammons holds too much power.
Borne from a contentious battle that ended in his appointment as president in 2007, Mr. Ammons’ employment agreement grants him a level of job security seldom seen in higher education. He is theoretically president-for-life at Florida A&M, unless he commits egregious or criminal acts that warrant termination, or a supermajority of the board fires him without cause and pays him severance equivalent to three years of presidential compensation.
“It strikes everybody as the tail wagging the dog,” said Solomon L. Badger III, chairman of the board. An ad hoc committee of trustees will discuss Thursday night whether changes can be made to Mr. Ammons’s contract, and Mr. Badger said he hopes the full board will vote on an altered contract at its December meeting, if not before.
The very nature of the ad hoc committee’s deliberations highlights an imbalance of power that, in many ways, gives the president the upper hand over his own employers, the board. Unless the board seeks to terminate Mr. Ammons, there is no way to reopen a negotiation of his contract without the president’s permission. That is because, unlike a fixed-term contract, Mr. Ammons’ agreement provides no clear mechanism for revisiting the terms of his employment.
In short, the president gets to decide if it is in his best interest to reopen talks with his bosses.
“He calls that shot, so to speak,” Mr. Badger said.
Moreover, Mr. Ammons’ contract leaves ambiguous whether the trustees could ever deny him an annual bonus. The board has never given him a bonus of less than 25 percent of his $325,000 base salary, and there is room for debate about whether they could go below that amount if they wanted to.
Mr. Ammons declined to comment for this story, saying through a spokesperson that he never discusses his compensation.
Contentious Beginnings
A bit of history is required to understand how and why Mr. Ammons secured this deal. He was by all accounts walking into a hornets’ nest in 2007, and job security had to have been foremost on Mr. Ammons’s mind. The board narrowly voted to appoint him in a 7-to-6 decision, and the six members of Mr. Ammons’s opposition did little to hide their displeasure. Indeed, four of them resigned, including the chair.
Mr. Ammons came to the Florida A&M presidency from North Carolina Central University, where he was chancellor. But his ties to the historically black college in Tallahassee, Fla., go back a long way. He earned his bachelor’s degree from Florida A&M, returning as a faculty member in the 1980s, and rising to the position of associate vice president for academic affairs. For any other candidate, this past affiliation might be an asset. For Mr. Ammons, however, it was a liability.
The trustees who opposed Mr. Ammons said he was too closely linked to the university’s old guard, which was criticized for financial mismanagement and helped land Florida A&M on probation with its accreditor, the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools’ Commission on Colleges.
Viewed with skepticism, and charged with resolving Florida A&M’s issues with its accreditor and state auditors, Mr. Ammons was on shaky ground from the start. During contract negotiations, he was represented by Raymond D. Cotton, a lawyer in Washington who specializes in presidential contracts.
Mr. Cotton would not comment on his deliberations with Florida A&M officials, other than to say, “It is my responsibility to get the best contract I can for my client.”
Elizabeth Threatt McBride, Florida A&M’s former general counsel, recalls “heated” exchanges with Mr. Cotton over the contract. She said in an interview on Wednesday that she advised the university’s trustees against the “evergreen” provision, saying it was always a bad idea for a taxpayer-supported institution to enter into an agreement that would require a big buyout for terminating the president.
Evergreen contracts are not unheard of in higher education, but no other university president in Florida has one, and experts say it is rare for a three-year employment agreement to renew each day.
The Florida A&M board went along with the provision despite Ms. McBride’s reservations.
“You never know why boards do what they do, just like you never know why jurors do what they do,” said Ms. McBride, now associate counsel for the Palm Beach County School District.
W. George Allen, who was among the trustees to oppose Mr. Ammons, said the presidents’ supporters “would’ve given anything” to Mr. Ammons. Mr. Allen, who resigned shortly after Mr. Ammons’s appointment, said he sees “a lot of irony” in the fact that the board now wants to undo provisions of the contract.
“They are getting what they asked for,” said Mr. Allen, a lawyer in Fort Lauderdale, Fla.
Mr. Ammons’ contract was ratified by Florida A&M trustees on March 8, 2007, and minutes of the meeting show no objections from anyone, including Mr. Allen. Explaining his silence on the matter, Mr. Allen said, “They had the votes. To just continue to fight would be futile.”
The composition of the board has changed considerably since Mr. Ammons’s contract was approved. None of those who opposed Mr. Ammons remain on the board. Just two of Mr. Ammons’ supporters, C. William (Bill) Jennings and Spurgeon W. McWilliams, are still serving.
Mr. Jennings’ deferred to the board’s chair for comment, and Mr. McWilliams could not be reached.
Bonus Guaranteed
Through years of economic challenges and tuition increases, Florida A&M trustees have dutifully provided Mr. Ammons with bonuses ranging from $81,250 to $113,750. While board members are pleased with Mr. Ammons’s performance, says the board’s chairman, Mr. Badger, trustees feel hamstrung by a contract that appears to guarantee a bonus of some kind for the president.
“The board needs to have some leverage there, a bit more leverage than they have right now,” Mr. Badger said.
Based upon completion of his goals, Mr. Ammons “shall receive an annual performance bonus” of between 25 percent and 35 percent of his base salary, according to the contract. While there is language in the contract that suggests only a portion of the bonus must be given if goals are not met, the trustees have in practice worked only within the wiggle room of 25 percent to 35 percent.
Mr. Ammons’ protections against termination are also a matter of debate. Unless there is cause, which includes “gross negligence” and commission of felonies, a supermajority of nine of the board’s 13 members have to approve dismissal. Two other colleges in Florida require similar supermajorities for dismissal, but none of those presidents’ contracts renew daily.
Rian M. Yaffe, a consultant who advises colleges on compensation and governance, reviewed Mr. Ammons’ contract and identified a number of potential problems for the university’s trustees.
“For a board to be in a position where it’s so difficult to terminate a president or modify the contract, to me, is the board having agreed to something they never should have agreed to,” he said. “They never should have agreed to a guaranteed minimum bonus. People just don’t do that.”
If the trustees want to alter the contract, however, they will have to provide Mr. Ammons something in return, Mr. Yaffe said. “I wouldn’t expect him to say ‘OK, I’ll just agree to any changes you like.’ He’s not stupid.”