SAN FRANCISCO “”mdash; The UC Board of Regents voted on executive
compensation for the first time in open session and agreed to
settle two lawsuits against Enron during its meeting Thursday.
On Tuesday, Regent Chairman Gerald Parsky announced that from
now on the University of California regents will vote on all
executive compensation issues in open session, in stark contrast to
his previous statements asserting the board’s right to
discuss personnel issues behind closed doors.
The regents will still hold most of the discussion about
compensation in closed session, but holding the vote openly will
allow more public access to the proceedings.
Several final steps still need to be taken to wrap up the
compensation reforms, but Bruce Darling, executive vice president
of university affairs, said most of the reforms should be made by
early 2007.
The regents have retroactively approved all the controversial
executive compensation packages and made the necessary corrections
to employee tax forms.
Corrective action has yet to be taken against officials who
originally approved the expenses, said Regent Judith Hopkinson.
A comprehensive analysis of the way executives are compensated
still needs to be completed, and training for those who have the
authority to approve expenses will be a new requirement, Hopkinson
said.
Later in Thursday’s meeting the regents authorized
settlements in two lawsuits against Enron, in which the university
had invested before the energy company went bankrupt.
The first lawsuit was a class action suit against Enron’s
law firm, and the second was a securities fraud case against
Enron’s accounting firm.
The UC won a settlement of $13.5 million from the law firm and
$72.5 million from the accounting firm, totaling $86 million.
Both of the settlements are subject to approval by the courts,
and more than $7.3 billion was obtained for plaintiffs as part of
the UC’s class action suits.
Today the regents also approved the appointment of UC
Merced’s acting chancellor, Roderic Park, a former vice
chancellor at UC Berkeley and senior associate to the chancellor at
UC Merced.
A national search for a permanent UC Merced chancellor has
started.