State Rep. Samantha Kerkman, R-Powers Lake, sent a letter to University of Wisconsin System President Kevin Reilly Thursday questioning how many times the system has violated its own suspension of granting "backup" positions to new employees.

"My question is straightforward," Kerkman wrote. "How many exemptions or exceptions to the freeze of backup jobs have been made since you enacted the freeze?"

UW System spokesperson Doug Bradley declined to comment on whether or not exceptions have been made. He said Reilly was out of the office Thursday and also noted Kerkman made the letter available to the press before UW.

Reilly is expected to appear at the Capitol building Tuesday before the Legislative Audit Committee, of which Kerkman is a member. Reilly requested Aug. 23 that the committee conduct an investigation of system employment practices and policies.

"She is on the audit committee, so I would expect and hope that she would maybe bring her questions to hearing on Tuesday," Bradley said.

Public concern over backup positions largely stems from the scandal involving former UW-Madison Vice Chancellor of Student Affairs Paul Barrows, who is now employed in his backup position as senior administrative program specialist in the Office of the Provost at an annual salary of $72,881.

Barrows used seven months of accrued sick and vacation time starting in November 2004 to take leave from UW while maintaining his annual salary of $191,794. In the meantime, he applied for administrative positions at other universities and was a final candidate for at least one.

In light of the Barrows situation, the Board of Regents upheld a freeze of granting backup or concurrent appointments to new employees at its Sept. 9 meeting.

Though Kerkman's letter did not delve into specifics, she claimed to have been informed of "at least one example" where the ban on backup jobs has been waived for a "high-level administrative job search."

"[H]ighlighting reform on the issue of backup jobs, and then, behind the scenes, waiving the restriction is not what we had in mind when we pushed the Board of Regents to make long-overdue changes to its employment excesses," Kerkman said in the letter.

Sen. Carol Roessler, R-Oshkosh, co-chair of the Joint Committee on Audit, who received a copy of Kerkman's letter, said this was the first she had heard of possible exceptions to the backup-position freeze.

"I have simply not heard of the situation that she is referring to. … Obviously Rep. Kerkman did, so she took the responsibility of checking it out," Roessler said. "We will look for an answer to the question."

Roessler said Kerkman's concerns will "certainly" be a part of Tuesday's hearing.