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.