Bill addresses CSU finances

Press-Democrat 3/1/07

By Michelle Locke, AP

CSU, the nation's largest four-year public university system with more than 400,000 students, has faced criticism in recent months for the way it rewards top executives.

Among other things, the San Francisco Chronicle reported that CSU had quietly paid as much as $4 million over 10 years to departing executives, a period in which student fees increased significantly. CSU officials said most of the executives who were given what is known as "transition pay" were working on special projects, but two were paid after taking jobs out of state.

A bill introduced by Assembly members Anthony Portantino, D-La Canada Flintridge, and Julia Brownley, D-Woodland Hills, would require that CSU's governing Board of Trustees approve all executive contracts in public session, detailing all benefits.

The bill, AB1413, also seeks to add two new positions to the board, which now includes 16 members appointed by the governor as well as five ex-officio members and alumni, faculty and student representatives. The additional members would be legislative appointments, one from the Senate and the other from the Assembly.

The bill would require that executives who are paid for professorships must, in fact, teach and can't earn more than a full-time professor would for similar work.

At a news conference in Sacramento on Wednesday, Portantino said it's important to restore public trust in how taxpayer dollars are being spent at CSU.

CSU spokeswoman Clara Potes-Fellow said system officials won't have a position on the bill until they study it further. She noted that changes already have been made at the system, including a vote by trustees last November to limit the transition pay program and announce such arrangements in public session.

Criticism also has been leveled at the state's other public university system, the University of California, following revelations that millions were paid to executives above their publicly reported salaries.

State Sen. Leland Yee, D-San Francisco, previously introduced a bill requiring that CSU trustees and UC regents meet in open session when discussing executive compensation.