Ex-UC Santa Barbara Chief Subject of Criminal Probe

The Santa Barbara County Grand Jury, with the assistance of the Sheriff’s Department, has initiated a criminal investigation into the financial activities of former UC Santa Barbara Chancellor Robert Huttenback, who resigned under pressure in July after it was disclosed that he spent university funds on his home.

University of California auditors last summer determined that Huttenback had misspent $174,000 of university money on his personal residence. Auditors also concluded that the UCSB Foundation, the main fund-raising arm of the university, violated sound business practices by making an unsecured $9,000 loan to Huttenback.

The grand jury has subpoenaed campus records of Huttenback’s personal expenditures and all UCSB Foundation records pertaining to the former chancellor, said Robert Kroes, vice chancellor for administrative services. The records were essentially the same material already scrutinized by the auditors, he said.

“We’re just making sure that everything is investigated thoroughly,” said Sheriff’s Detective O.B. Thomas, who has been assigned to the case. “We’re interviewing people more in depth than the auditors did.

“An audit just insures that proper financial procedure is followed and all the dollars and cents are reconciled. We’re keeping an eye open for any criminal violations. We’re going at it from the perspective of trained criminal investigators. The audits gave us a place to start.”

Thomas and personnel from the district attorney’s office have interviewed about 50 people, including contractors who worked on Huttenback’s house, UCSB Foundation officers and other university employees.

The university turned over the subpoenaed financial records at the beginning of the month and the investigation is expected to be completed by January, said Dodd Young, foreman of the grand jury. Young and district attorney’s office personnel refused to comment further on the investigation. Huttenback, who remains eligible to teach at the university but is on a leave of absence, could not be reached for comment.

After the UC audit, Robert Tuffnell, the university auditor, said he found “no willful intent to deceive or to cover up on anyone’s part,” but he did point out “inappropriate and unauthorized” expenditures, as well as procedures not in accordance with university policy.

For example, Huttenback spent $154,895 on remodeling the kitchen, laundry room and “public areas” of his house but failed to follow university procedures for getting competitive bids from contractors before the work was undertaken, Tuffnell said.

The audit also found that Huttenback had charged to university accounts $4,200 to reupholster two couches, $300 for a vase, $847 for a bed.

In defense of the $174,000 spent on his household expenses, Huttenback has said he used the house extensively for university purposes, including fund raising.

Following a separate audit of the UCSB Foundation, auditors recommended that in the future the foundation should obtain permission from the president of the 11-campus system before making a loan to a chancellor.

Huttenback had been a controversial figure during his eight years at UC Santa Barbara, but last spring the problems peaked.

The UC administration began its investigation into his use of university funds for personal household expenses. Then nine UC Santa Barbara professors sent a letter to University of California President David P. Gardner suggesting that Huttenback consider resigning, and the university’s students, by a 3-1 margin, gave Huttenback a no-confidence vote.