In a sharply critical analysis of past actions regarding
compensation and accountability, a task force reported Thursday
that the University of California has failed in its obligation for
public disclosure of its employees’ compensation.
The report, using language that repeatedly emphasized the
failures and shortcomings of UC officials, was conducted by the
task force on UC Compensation, Accountability and Transparency.
It prescribed reforms dealing with wide-ranging aspects of
compensation ““ from consequences for policy violations to
more frequent audits to general accountability to the public.
“Trust and confidence in the administrative leadership of
the university have declined precipitously over the last six
months,” the report read.
“Necessary steps must be initiated immediately and at all
levels to remedy the problems.”
Regents met via teleconference to hear task force co-chairs
Robert Hertzberg, former speaker of the California State Assembly,
and Regent Joanne Kozberg present the results of the five-month
investigation which was sparked by criticism from lawmakers on the
UC’s transparency following several media reports.
A November article in the San Francisco Chronicle reported the
UC had given out millions in undisclosed payments.
However, the UC said some parts of the Chronicle’s account
are misleading.
Since then, the State Senate Education Committee held two
hearings during which UC President Robert Dynes apologized for the
UC’s lack of transparency and resolved to improve the way the
university informs the public about compensation.
“It is clear that the current situation is wholly
unacceptable,” Hertzberg said. “Neither the executives
nor the board have done all they could have done to fulfill their
responsibilities.”
The task force also criticized the lack of consequences for
failing to comply with compensation policies and the use of policy
exceptions to circumvent certain restrictions.
“At the heart of these recommendations, we need to
identify a range of consequences for violating policy … from
reprimand to dismissal,” said Regent Gerald Parsky.
Additionally, policies on executive compensation are not clear,
the task force said.
“(Policies) are confusing, duplicative, overlapping, and
sometimes conflicting,” Kozberg.
But the task force and the regents stressed that while policies
of executive compensation need to be reviewed, they did not find
employees were being paid too much.
Hertzberg said the task force was “sensitive to
compensation”, and that the issue was not that UC employees
are overpaid, but the “work-arounds and
non-disclosures.”
Parsky said he would not ask Dynes to comment despite his
presence at the teleconference, as he had just received the report,
but Dynes released a statement later in the day.
“This honest and hard-hitting report represents a good
road map for getting where we need to go in overhauling our
compensation policies and practices,” Dynes wrote.
But Parsky did say UC officials would be asked to present a
response to the report in the regent’s May meeting, alongside
discussion of the recommendations and possible action items of the
agenda.
The report is one of several independent reports on the issue,
including an audit by PriceWaterhouseCoopers that will be released
April 24.
View the UC task force’s full report online
at:
www.universityofcalifornia.edu/news/compensation/taskforce.html.