However, members of the public -- including WVU students and their parents -- don't know how much Clements will be paid or what benefits he will receive or how long the new contract will last.

WVU spokesman John Bolt said the university did not release the details of Clements' pending contract "because it's a personnel matter and it's not a final document until HEPC has approved it."

When the WVU Board of Governors hired Clements in 2009, it gave him a two-year contract with a $450,000 annual salary, and allowed for annual percentage increases when other nonclassified staff receive raises.

Clements received nearly $475,675 in 2010, according to the state Auditor's Office.

Often, details of a president's salary and benefits at a public university are made available once the school's board of governors has approved it.

In 2005, WVU Board of Governors members voted to increase former president David Hardesty's salary from $250,008 to $275,000. At the time, they also extended Hardesty's contract until 2010 and asked the WVU Foundation to pay half the salary increase with private funds, according to The Associated Press.

The proposed salary increase became public at that point, before the Higher Education Policy Commission approved it.

Hardesty later decided to retire during the summer of 2007.

Among other examples, West Virginia State University's Board of Governors agreed to increase President Hazo Carter's salary by 3 percent during a meeting in June 2008.

WVU's Board of Governors, however, has taken a different approach in revising Clements' contract. Members of the governing body gave board Chairwoman Carolyn Long the authority to negotiate the contract, Bolt said.

In the minutes from a Feb. 4 Board of Governors meeting, board members permitted Long to "take all necessary steps to negotiate and complete" an agreement on the contract.

The Board of Governors allowed Long to "forward a resolution of the board to the Higher Education Policy Commission, and to prepare, execute and/or transact any other communications and documents [Long] shall deem necessary in order to complete this personnel action."

Before the Board of Governors decided to proceed that way, they discussed Clements' contract in closed session.

Long, a former superintendent of schools in Braxton County and a finalist for the state schools superintendent position earlier this year, did not return a phone message Friday.

If approved, Clements' new contract will take effect on June 30.

Bolt and HEPC spokeswoman Ashley Schumaker said they hope to release the terms of Clements' contract immediately after commission members vote Friday.

"We don't release any documentation until it's acted upon," Schumaker said. "That's what we do with all contracts and compensation."

Theresa Kirk, executive director of the state Ethics Commission, said the commission's Open Meetings Committee has never addressed whether the details of a state employee's contract should be publicly released before members of a governing body vote on it.

The committee, however, addressed a related issue in August 2008, Kirk said.

In that opinion, Ethics Commission members noted that there is no provision in the state Open Meetings Act that controls whether meeting documents other than an agenda must be released to the public. These same "pre-meeting packets" of information are almost always given to members of a governing body before a meeting.

"Generally, this issue is controlled by the State's Freedom of Information law, the agency's enabling legislation and applicable privacy laws," commission members wrote in the opinion.

The opinion notes that the state Attorney General's Office might offer further guidance.

Some public bodies, such as the Kanawha County school board, release many of these "other" documents before a meeting.

Deputy Attorney General Dawn Warfield said Friday she would not issue an opinion to the news media over the phone. Generally, she said, personnel laws are not applicable to the state Freedom of Information Act.

When the HEPC receives a recommendation from a school's board of governors, the commission members have the latitude to make changes to the proposal, Schumaker said, but that does not mean they will.

The ability to make those changes raised a general question from Kirk.

"I think it's interesting," she said, "because if they rejected [a contract], is that draft contract subject to exposure?"

Reach Davin White at davinwh...@wvgazette.com or 304-348-1254.