Published: June 19, 2007 10:45 am      

Lawsuit settled

Former TxState administrator's 'whistleblower' claim dropped

San Marcos — Texas State University will pay a former high-ranking development officer about $215,000 to drop his claim that administrators fired him because he tipped off prosecutors about questionable handling of more than a half-million dollars from a scholarship endowment.

Carroll D. Wiley, who worked at the university for 28 years in positions including associate vice president of university advancement, said he was demoted and later fired for raising questions about the transfer of $560,000 from an endowment established by a prominent San Marcos benefactor.

A retired schoolteacher, Reed Brantley Parr left her and her late husband’s entire estate, about $1.2 million, to the foundation when she died in 1998. Most of the money was committed to the Lewis A. and Reed B. Parr Presidential Endowment largely for use as scholarships.

While executive director of the Texas State University Foundation, Wiley said administrators pressured him to get the foundation’s board to move the money from the foundation‘s to the university’s books. The transfer was then recorded as a direct gift to the university to meet matching requirements for a National Endowment for the Humanities grant for its Southwestern Studies program, the lawsuit claims.

After being removed from the vice president’s job in September 2004 and the foundation director’s job in April 2005, Wiley reported the transfer to the Travis County District Attorney’s office. He was fired from the last of his positions, director of planned giving, in November 2005 after his superiors found out he had been talking to law enforcement officials. Within weeks of his termination, Wiley sued the university in a Travis County district court, claiming his dismissal was a violation of the Whistleblowers Act that prohibits retaliation against government employees who report misconduct or crime.

“They are paying Mr. Wiley a substantial amount to settle his claims and he hopes, as a result of his lawsuit, the university will never again violate the trust of a donor. He hopes they will never again mishandle an endowment,” said Austin attorney Gregory D. Jordan, who represented Wiley. Now a San Marcos-based real estate and mortgage broker, Wiley could not be reached for comment.

In response to a request by the Daily Record under the Public Information Act, Texas State attorney William Fly on Monday agreed to provide a copy of the settlement agreement but it was not available as of this morning. The university did not admit wrongdoing in the agreement, Fly said, either in reference to Wiley’s firing or the donation’s handling.

“There was no violation of law,” Fly said. Whether the donation was handled according to university policy, he said, “There’s nothing in the agreement that speaks to that. It’s a disputed area. There are arguments both ways.”

University President Denise M. Trauth, who gave a deposition earlier this year during the lawsuit’s discovery phase, was out of town on Monday and could not be reached, said Robert Gatz, her special assistant.

Administrators used an array of gambits to force Wiley’s retirement, the lawsuit alleges, including banning him from Trauth’s exclusive skybox receptions held before home football games. When Wiley arranged a $1.4 million donation, the suit says, his supervisor intercepted his mail and confiscated the check. He was reprimanded for using large type in e-mail of which a high-ranking administrator disapproved; on another occasion, he was reproached for using blue type in his e-mail.

At one point, the lawsuit says, he was relocated to a smaller office where his supervisor then decided to store years worth of the foundation’s files in stacks of cardboard boxes.

“The boxes remained there from early fall of 2004 and were not removed until the university became aware that Mr. Wiley had reported unlawful conduct by the university to law enforcement agencies,” the lawsuit states. “The university must have been afraid Mr. Wiley would provide information contained in the boxes to law enforcement.”



bradrollins@yahoo.com