In a bipartisan and unanimous decision, the Joint Legislative
Audit Committee voted Tuesday to conduct a “comprehensive
review” of the University of California’s compensation
practices.
In a review that will likely be completed within a couple of
months, the Audit Committee will look at salary schedules for UC
employees, the way certain pay raises are decided upon and how
different compensation packages are put together, said Richard
Stapler, spokesman for Assembly Speaker and Ex-Oficio Regent Fabian
Núñez who requested the audit.
The audit will attempt to determine the UC’s
accountability in compensation decisions and how much money is used
toward compensation for top faculty and staff, Núñez said
in a presentation Tuesday, during which he requested the audit.
Additionally, the committee plans to look at what written
requirements the UC has concerning compensation and disclosure, and
determine whether those have been adequately followed.
Nuñez called for the audit in light of allegations in a
Nov. 13 San Francisco Chronicle article that the UC paid employees
an unreported $871 million in raises, benefits and other forms of
compensation, $599 million of which went to more than 8,500
employees who received at least $20,000 more than their regular
salaries.
“There has been a flagrant disregard for the use of
taxpayer dollars by the UC president’s office,”
Nuñez said in his presentation to the committee when he
requested the audit Tuesday.
“Tax dollars and student tuition are being used to fill
executives’ pockets without any oversight by the regents or
by the Legislature,” he told the committee. “This
audit, we hope, will be the best way to whip the UC into
shape.”
Other policy-makers have also responded to the report. Sen. Abel
Maldonado, R-Santa Maria, has called for a Senate Education
Committee hearing on the issue. Sen. Jeff Denham, R-Merced, has
introduced Senate Bill 1117. If passed, the bill will require the
UC to change its compensation practices.
But Paul Schwartz, a spokesman for the UC Office of the
President, said he believed the audit would “show no such
abuse.”
Ruth Obel-Jorgensen, organizing director of the UC Students
Association said the audit was “much needed” for
“the UC, for the state, for the students (and) for California
families.”
“Having an audit is a really good way of just shedding
more light on a situation,” Obel-Jorgensen said.
But some UC officials have questioned whether it is necessary
for the Legislature to open up the UC’s policies, and have
pointed to flaws in the Chronicle report, which spurred the request
for an audit.
“I don’t know that we need the Legislature to
undertake this investigation, since the UC is undertaking its own
investigation,” said Adrienne Lavine, chairwoman of the UCLA
Academic Senate.
And though Schwartz said the UC “welcomed the opportunity
to discuss with the state our ongoing challenge in keeping UC
competitive,” he also challenged the accuracy of the numbers
used by the Chronicle.
“A lot of the compensation information that the Chronicle
continues to cite does not go to top administrators at all, but
rather the bulk of it goes to doctors and clinical faculty in our
hospitals for treating patients and doing important
research,” he said.
According to a UC report on compensation practices, this made up
$600 million of the $871 million.
Lavine said another substantial portion went to professors for
teaching during summer, which is not included in their regular
salaries, and came from federal and private research grants.