Smith resigns from UNESCO
Monterey Herald 3/15/07
Smith, whose education sector's $2.1 million in no-bid consultant contracts were being examined in a special audit, will step down June 17.
He outlined the reasons for his departure in a Monday letter to the director general of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organizations, or UNESCO.
"For each of us, there is a limit to what we will endure in the name of 'doing the right thing.' The threat against my life, and the subsequent weak follow-up, has taken me past that limit at UNESCO," Smith wrote.
Smith, who left CSUMB in 2005 to become assistant director-general for education at the Paris headquarters of UNESCO, declined further comment in response to an e-mail message.
"Policy at UNESCO says I can say no more," he said. UNESCO officials were unavailable.
Smith's leadership of the international education agency came under fire from UNESCO employees after a wide-reaching reorganization was instituted last summer. In an anonymous memo circulated within UNESCO circles, Smith's reforms were attacked as representing a serious danger to the principles of the United Nations.
Late last year, UNESCO's executive board ordered a special audit of contracts with the Chicago-based consulting firm Navigant Consulting, which had been hired to help with the reorganization.
The audit report is scheduled to be presented to the UNESCO board during its April 10-26 meeting in Paris. No documents related to the audit have been publicly posted by UNESCO, but Smith alluded to apparent criticism in the audit findings in his letter.
"The findings of the external auditor have indicated that changes in the overall UNESCO procurement process should be made," Smith wrote. He agreed that "technical procedures in the contracting process can and should be improved."
Smith defended the education sector reorganization, saying he "spent the last 20 months working night and day to carry out this (reform). My team and I have done it well, thoroughly and on schedule."
Smith went on to say the "vast majority" of education sector employees supported his moves. But he said a small group worked steadily "to kill the reforms, by discrediting me, attacking you and demonizing America."
He said his critics employed tactics that included "anonymous hate mail attacking people by nationality, religion and alleged motivation, to the spreading of lies, unfounded rumors and innuendo in the halls of the executive board and even in the press."
Though top UNESCO officials approved the reorganization, Smith said the agency failed to answer the personal attacks against him. He said he received a written death threat Feb. 9 by mail at home.
There was "a weak follow-up" by UNESCO to the death threat, he said.
"I neither anticipated the viciousness of these attacks nor the organizational culture at UNESCO that tolerates such activities," Smith said.
Smith, who served one term as a Republican congressman from Vermont, is the highest-ranking American official with UNESCO.
Leon Panetta, a former Central Coast congressman and White House chief of staff, said Smith's stature as a high-ranking American in Paris may have worked against him at UNESCO because of America's bruised image abroad.
"Talking with other international diplomats, they say it's a lot more difficult dealing on the international front these days because of the Iraq war and feelings for the president," said Panetta, who worked with Smith in Congress and at CSUMB.
"You almost have to be more of a diplomat than an academic to deal with any kind of world organization," said Panetta, who with his wife, Sylvia, directs a public policy institute at CSUMB. "He obviously ran into trouble on that front."
The United States didn't participate in UNESCO between 1984 and 2003 because of political differences. The Reagan administration withdrew during a peak of Cold War tensions, while the Bush administration rejoined the agency as it sought international support for its hard line against Iraq.
Panetta said Smith was up against a tough challenge in the UNESCO post. "It's difficult to get the U.N. to operate in general, as we all know, because of the many diverse viewpoints," he said. "It's a tough challenge... and sometimes the challenge beats you."
Smith was the founding president of CSUMB and served for 10 years.
Panetta said: "He really got this university off the ground. I'm sorry that he had to leave this job under obviously difficult circumstances."
Some of the problems from the Seaside campus during Smith's tenure -- specifically a $2.5 million settlement in 2002 between the university and three Latino employees who alleged discrimination -- continued to dog him in Paris with UNESCO.
A French news magazine, writing about the UNESCO turmoil, commented on the CSUMB discrimination case, saying "this news did not enhance the already low prestige of the American."
Another knock was that Smith received about $157,000 from CSUMB as "executive transition" pay when he left the school, which his UNESCO critics claimed violated the international agency's ethical rules.
UNESCO officials said the payment -- which is being challenged in a pending lawsuit over executive pay to Smith and several other California State University officials by the California Faculty Association -- didn't violate UNESCO rules.
Under California State University rules, Smith is entitled to return to the university within five years of his departure to a faculty position.
In his resignation letter, Smith said he has "a firm offer of employment as well as other opportunities that I am considering," but offered no specifics.