Kansas University athletic director Lew Perkins received a 5 percent pay raise this month, as did a handful of his senior staffers.

Perkins, who came on the job a year ago this month at an annual base salary of $400,000, will earn $420,000 during the KU Athletic Corp. fiscal year that runs from July 1, 2004, to June 30, 2005.

The base salary is a large portion of Perkins’ compensation iceberg, but not all of it.

According to information supplied to the Journal-World by the KU Office of Business and Planning under the Kansas Open Records Act, Perkins also is guaranteed no less than $100,000 a year in multimedia payments.

Perkins, 59, does a weekly radio show produced by ESPN Regional, which owns the Jayhawks’ broadcast rights. Perkins’ other perks include two automobiles, memberships in two country clubs and two season tickets to men’s basketball games.

Perkins also is believed to receive additional compensation in the form of an annuity that the university has declined to divulge. The Journal-World, 6News, the Associated Press and the Kansas Press Assn. have filed suit to obtain that information.

As the suit stands now, university attorneys have until July 27 to mail documents making arguments why they shouldn’t have to release the information. The media attorneys then will have 15 days to respond. Douglas County District Judge Jack Murphy has scheduled a Sept. 3 hearing on the arguments.

Big boost for Hadl

While most of Perkins’ senior staff also received raises of approximately five percent, there was one notable exception.

John Hadl, associate AD for development, earned a 46 percent pay hike. Hadl’s base salary was boosted from $120,000 to $175,000. Hadl, a former KU football All-American who has played a major role in fund-raising, becomes the highest-salaried member of the athletic department after Perkins.

Hadl leapfrogged four senior staffers who were hired by Perkins — Larry Keating, Jim Marchiony, Kelly Mehrtens and Sean Lester, all of whom were in the five-percent raise range.

Keating, whose title is senior associate AD, climbs from $145,000 to $152,250.

Marchiony, associate AD for external affairs, goes from $140,000 to $147,000.

Mehrtens, the department’s senior woman administrator, went from $138,000 to $144,900.

Lester, associate AD for internal affairs, was boosted from $125,00 to $131,250.

Perkins also has three administrators in the $90,000 range.

Brandon Macneill, assistant AD for strategic planning and administration, now makes $99,750, a raise of $4,700. Terry Hines, associate AD for compliance and legal affairs, now earns $95,000 (up from ($85,975) and Paul Buskirk, associate AD for student support services, $90,000 (up from $81,441). The pay hikes for Hines and Buskirk are approximately 8 percent.

No survey has been conducted, but Perkins is believed to have the highest base salary of any athletic director in the nation. His base salary is the highest in the Big 12 Conference. Also, only Texas, the largest public university in the country, has more high-salaried senior staffers among Big 12 schools.

Self tops chart

Still, Perkins is not the most heavily compensated employee of the KU athletic department.

Men’s basketball coach Bill Self is guaranteed a minimum of $1.136 million a year under terms of his contract. Self’s salary is $135,849 — the lowest, incidentally, among men’s basketball coaches in the Big 12 — but his outside income is easily worth more than $1 million.

Self is guaranteed at least $400,000 from radio-TV, $350,000 from equipment and apparel pacts, and $250,000 from his lucrative summer camps. In addition, the athletic department pays the premiums on a $2 million term life-insurance policy, provides him with two automobiles, gives him membership in two country clubs and pays for his wife and children to accompany him to road games.

Football coach Mark Mangino has the same base salary as Self, but his outside income is about half of what Self commands. Mangino is guaranteed at least $475,000. Otherwise, he has the same perks as Self.

So does first-year women’s basketball coach Bonnie Henrickson. However, her salary is $129,300, and her outside income guarantee is listed as at least $275,000. Marian Washington, Henrickson’s predecessor, virtually had the same base salary ($129,380), but Washington was promised only $35,000 in additional income.