WSU Staffer Voted On Award For Her Spouse Husband Eventually Was Given $1,000 For Employee Excellence

A Washington State University employee took part in voting for an employee excellence award that eventually netted her husband $1,000.

Frankie Harris, assistant director of the Women’s Resource Center and a member of the award committee, voted to have her husband, Bennie Harris, placed on the short list of candidates for the award.

Several committee members say she also took part in final secret balloting to choose five names to forward to WSU President Sam Smith for a final decision.

The committee chairman, after saying Frankie Harris had taken no part in the voting, later said “she may have voted.”

Harris denied casting a final ballot but acknowledged voting earlier on the semifinalists.

Bennie Harris, director of the WSU Human Rights Center and the university’s affirmative action officer, is central to a federal class action in which six women say he mishandled their cases of alleged discrimination and retaliation.

Frankie Harris and the award committee chairman, Ken Spitzer, said they were worried about a possible conflict of interest, taking pains to have her leave the room as her husband was discussed.

But Maureen Hart, senior assistant attorney general familiar with state ethics laws, cautioned against drawing a quick conclusion about what a conflict might be.

“A conflict of interest to you or me or the man on the street may or may not be a conflict of interest as the law defines it,” she said.

Declining to discuss the specifics of WSU’s case, she said the law recognizes that one spouse has a financial interest in the earnings of the other. Because of that, employees cannot contract with a spouse and shouldn’t have a financial interest that conflicts with doing their job properly, she said.

Bennie Harris this year was among 61 nominees for an employee excellence award and made his way to the short list of 10 or so candidates when the 15-member committee voted by a show of hands. Frankie Harris was appointed to the committee three years ago by Smith.

“Bennie didn’t receive many votes,” said one committee member, who asked to remain anonymous. “But Frankie voted for him.”

When the committee reconvened in February to discuss and vote on the finalists, Harris left the room as her husband’s name was broached, Harris and other committee members said. She returned before the discussion was over, according to one member. When ballots were handed out for the final five recommendations to Smith, Frankie Harris took one and voted, according to two members.

Both members refused to be identified. One cited a fear of retaliation.

Another one of the members said Harris may deserve the award, but said, “It’s unethical for her (Frankie) to be part of that committee.”

Last Thursday, Ken Spitzer, assistant dean of sciences and chairman of the award committee, said Frankie Harris had no role in her husband’s selection.

“In terms of conversations of Bennie, she left the room at the verbal part and she didn’t vote on it,” Spitzer said.

On Friday, Spitzer said, “she probably did” cast a paper ballot.

Harris said she felt it was OK to take part in the first round of voting, but declined to say how she voted.

“I don’t think I have to reveal how I voted,” she said. “That’s private.”

Spitzer last week said Bennie Harris was named by a clear plurality, although he could not remember the number of votes cast for him.

In March, the university announced that Smith had chosen Harris along with Marc Bates, manager of the WSU Creamery, and WSU Spokane’s Sherry Bye as this year’s winners. Each received a plaque and $1,000.

Bennie Harris declined comment and asked a reporter to call Smith.

Smith, in a prepared statement issued Monday, defended his selection and the process by which he and the committee made it.

“As in the past, the committee has used a completely thorough and fair process in its review of all nominees,” Smith said.

Selection for the award is based on an employee’s work and contributions to an improved workplace. Harris’s credentials include work on public service panels, the Phi Beta Sigma Fraternity, the Faculty Mentor program and the Black Male Orientation to Leadership Conference.

The women who named him in their complaint paint a different picture of him.

They claim he has an “apparent lack of understanding of the law” and appears to have gotten his job by being a “crony” of Ernestine Madison, vice provost for Human Relations and Resources.

Harris, who came with Madison from Mississippi State University in 1992, joked that she is “my greatgreat-grandmother” before saying they are unrelated. He denied being unqualified.

“I was very, very qualified for the job that I was hired for and I was very qualified for the job that I held,” he said.

In July, he will leave his $45,000-a-year post in the Human Rights Center for a $49,000 position as assistant director for Corporate and Foundation Relations at the WSU Foundation, the school’s private fund-raising arm. The job will include seeking funding to promote cultural diversity.