University Times

Former head football coach Walt Harris topped the list of Pitt’s five highest paid non-officer employees during the 2003-04 fiscal year, which ended June 30, 2004.

Harris, who left the University in January, earned $562,104 in salary compensation, $35,993 in employer contributions to benefits plans and $12,012 in expense account and other allowances in FY 2003-04.

Nos. 2-5 on the list of highest paid employees were:

• Ronald B. Herberman, professor of medicine and associate vice chancellor for cancer research, Health Sciences — $503,451 in salary and $70,436 in employer contributions to benefits plans.

• James P. Dixon II, head men’s basketball coach — $486,853 in salary, $35,457 in employer contributions to benefits plans, $7,091 in expense account and other allowances and $2,792 in educational benefits.

• Thomas Detre, Distinguished Service Professor of Health Sciences — $424,544 in salary and $53,264 in employer contributions to benefits plans.

• Massimo M. Trucco, professor of pediatric medicine — $395,225 in salary and $34,256 in employer contributions to benefits.

Compensation figures for those five employees appeared on Internal Revenue Service forms filed this month by Pitt. IRS form 990 requires tax-exempt, private corporations to reveal compensation figures for their five top-earning, non-officer employees.

None of the top five highest-paid employees appeared on last year’s 990 forms (covering fiscal year 2002-03), which, for reporting purposes, combined Pitt salaries plus income employees earned for clinical work through the University of Pittsburgh Physicians (UPP) practice plan.

This year’s Pitt and UPP figures were filed separately, according to Robert Hill, vice chancellor for Public Affairs.

(The Health Sciences News Bureau did not return phone calls requesting information on UPP and UPMC 990 filings.)

The IRS 990 form also requires Pitt to file salary compensation, employer contributions to benefits plans and expense account and other allowances information for the chancellor and six other senior officers for 2003-04.

The University releases salary, benefits and allowances figures for the senior administration following action by the Board of Trustees compensation committee, which annually sets the officers’ salaries, bonuses and special benefits.

Those figures, which cover the fiscal year that began July 1, 2004, were published in the Dec. 9, 2004 issue of the University Times, available at: http://www.umc.pitt.edu:591/u/FMPro?-db=ustory&-lay=a&-format=d.html&storyid=2333&-Find.

Pitt also is required by the IRS to file compensation figures for the five independent contractors that received the most money from the University during the 2003-04 fiscal year.

Those firms were:

• Architects Payette Associates Inc. of Boston ($3,889,301).

• Consultants Hornby Zeller Associates Inc. of Troy, N.Y. ($1,340,466).

• Investment advisers Capital Guardian Trust Co. of New York City ($1,025,858).

• Engineering firm ZBA Inc. of Cincinnati, Ohio ($987,745).

• Computer consultants PeopleSoft Inc. of Pleasanton, Calif. ($945,492).

The University also paid 108 other unspecified contractors more than $50,000 each for professional services, according to information provided to the IRS.

—Peter Hart