Perks for UC Aides Disclosed

The University of California, under scrutiny by legislators and others for extravagance and secrecy in pay packages for senior executives, also gave unusually lucrative perks to two top aides of UC President Robert C. Dynes, according to documents released Friday.

The benefits were approved several years ago when the employees agreed to accompany him from UC San Diego, where he was chancellor, to Oakland and his new position as UC president. Dynes has led the 10-campus system since October 2003.

In the months before Dynes’ move, university officials at his request signed off on exceptions to UC policies to grant special benefits to Dynes’ top policy and administrative advisor, Linda M. Williams, and his office assistant, Eileen O’Callahan.

The benefits included subsidized mortgages and relocation allowances that are typically reserved for senior administrators and faculty.

O’Callahan, for instance, who keeps Dynes’ calendar and handles his correspondence, received a $26,563 relocation allowance, along with reimbursement of her actual moving expenses, and a 25% boost in salary to $106,250 a year, the documents show.

UC also agreed to give O’Callahan $10,000 and six months’ salary and benefits if she were to be fired during the first five years in her new job. A nearly 30-year employee of UC, she had been executive assistant to Dynes at UC San Diego.

Williams, whose title is associate president of the university but who is in essence Dynes’ chief of staff, received a $44,467 relocation allowance, actual moving expenses up to $12,000 and as many as three expense-paid trips to the Bay Area to look for housing, among other benefits.

She also was given a 21% raise, lifting her salary to $177,870 for the new job. During a 15-year career at UC San Diego, Williams worked in various administrative posts, including associate and assistant chancellor.

The relocation allowances were granted as exceptions to UC policy, which normally reserves such payments for new UC employees or those moving from out of state. UC officials also agreed to exceptions that allowed Williams and O’Callahan to join a low-interest loan program usually limited to senior executives and faculty members. The benefits were first reported Friday by the San Francisco Chronicle.

In a loan that just received final approval from Dynes in February, Williams borrowed $832,500 through the program. The UC president’s sign-off, which was not disclosed to regents at the time, came at a particularly sensitive moment for the university, falling between two Sacramento hearings at which he and other UC officials were grilled by legislators over executive pay and benefits.

On Friday, one of UC’s toughest critics at those hearings said he was outraged by the latest disclosures.

“This is one more example of UC doing what’s in the best interest of the office of the president and not in the best interest of the students or the taxpayers,” said Sen. Abel Maldonado (R-Santa Maria). “They have policies there for a reason, and they need to be followed by everyone in the UC system without any exceptions. And if they’re not followed ... there need to be consequences now.”

In a letter to UC regents this week, Dynes defended the pay packages as appropriate, emphasizing that both Williams and O’Callahan were part of his administrative team at UC San Diego and that he believed their continued service was important to his success as president. He also noted that both women’s salaries were comparable to those of their predecessors under former UC President Richard Atkinson.

Dynes expressed regret in the letter that he had not kept the regents informed, especially -- in light of its timing -- about his endorsement of the loan for Williams. But he said he believed he was legally bound to honor the loan commitment made to Williams in 2003 by UC senior vice president Joseph P. Mullinix, as a condition of her move.

“To the extent that this causes any embarrassment to the Regents

Several regents reached Friday also expressed concern.

Regent Judith Hopkinson, chairwoman of a new regents committee on compensation, said that although the aides’ salaries were similar to their predecessors’, Dynes should have discussed any policy exceptions with the governing board. “Those should have been approved by the regents,” she said.

Hopkinson said she has become increasingly concerned about UC’s frequent use of such exceptions in compensation agreements, many detailed in media reports in recent months.

“I think a practice developed over time that was very negligent and inappropriate and that just became a way of doing business,” she said. “It’s something that grew and happened and people didn’t deal with it.”

Regent Joanne Kozberg, the co-chairwoman of a task force that is reviewing the compensation policies, said she could not comment on the latest cases but said the panel would be looking carefully at such exceptions.

“A policy is a policy, but in many instances, we seem to have been treating it as a guideline,” Kozberg said. She said the panel, whose co-chairman is former Assembly Speaker Bob Hertzberg, was expected to complete its work by summer and would now have “a laser focus” on policy exceptions.