UC issues annual compensation report on time
San Francisco Chronicle 3/14/07
The report, covering total compensation and paid service on corporate boards of directors, has been required annually for years under policies approved by the regents and the university's president. But in 2006, the most recent report on the topics covered the 2002-03 fiscal year, when Richard Atkinson was UC president. President Robert Dynes took over in October 2003.
After The Chronicle reported in 2006 that UC had fallen far behind in producing the annual reports, UC finally gave the regents reports covering 2004 and 2005.
UC is now required to provide reports on compensation not only to the regents but also to the Legislature after a furor over its pay practices when it was revealed that some employees were secretly paid more than allowed under policy and that extra compensation was sometimes not disclosed to the regents or the public.
The report was released on the first day of the regents' three-day monthly meeting at UCLA. The compensation scandal came at a time when students were facing skyrocketing fees. The regents are expected to vote today to again raise undergraduate and graduate fees for fall by 7 percent. Counting a temporary $60 surcharge, the increase would total $495 a year for undergraduates, bringing their average annual tuition cost to $7,347 when campus fees are included. The increase with the surcharge would be $543 for graduate students, bringing the average cost to $9,481 with campus fees included.
The report released Tuesday covers compensation for 275 senior managers for the 2006 calendar year. The report listed everything from salary and stipends to auto allowances, low-interest housing loans and deferred compensation.
Many of the perks have been previously reported by The Chronicle in a series unveiling the compensation practices. Not previously reported was the pay of John Garamendi II, the vice chancellor of university relations at UC Merced and son of Lt. Gov. John Garamendi, now a regent by virtue of his position. The younger Garamendi earned $195,000 in base salary, plus 5 percent in deferred compensation and an $8,916 auto allowance.
The report does not include some other forms of related compensation, such as the hiring of a spouse. It also excludes such things as subsidized campus housing, which some top executives receive.
UC spokesman Michael Reese said UC had been making the reports regularly in the past but missed a couple of years because of staffing issues in the human resources office where they are prepared.
"If you look at this report, it is the most detailed report of its kind of any other public institution," Reese said. "It goes further than any other institution."
A UC statement issued with the report says that salaries for Dynes and various campus chancellors lag the pay given to counterparts and similar university systems.
"Given California's high cost of living, being able to pay market-competitive salaries to employees -- at all organizational levels -- is critical to UC's recruitment and retention efforts, and maintaining institutional quality," the statement says.
But UC has been unable to compare its full compensation to other institutions at levels below the chancellors because it is unable to get the information from other universities.
Many of UC's executives supplement their income by serving on outside paid boards. The board report released Tuesday showed that 80 of the 275 senior managers were paid for work on outside boards.
In January, the regents unanimously approved a new policy to limit university executives to serving on no more than three for-profit corporate boards.
The policy, which is temporary and is in place as UC overhauls all its policies, attempts to ensure that outside work does not infringe on the time and responsibilities of top executives.