UCSB Official Arrested on 11 Theft Counts

The administrator in charge of campus maintenance at the University of California, Santa Barbara, was arrested on suspicion of 11 counts of embezzlement Wednesday in what authorities described as a continuing investigation of financial irregularities at the school.

A Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s Department spokesman said more arrests are expected.

Holger Chris Ferdinandson, manager of the university’s Buildings and Grounds Division, was booked into County Jail and released on his own recognizance, said Santa Barbara County sheriff’s spokesman Tim Gracey.

“The charges generally stem from kickbacks involving contractors dealing with UCSB over the period of 1980 through 1986,” Gracey said.

Details of the case were not released, but Gracey said some of the charges “are related” to university-financed improvements to a home owned by former Chancellor Robert Huttenback.

Huttenback resigned under pressure in July after it was disclosed that he spent $174,000 in university funds on his home. Ferdinandson was arrested during the course of a Santa Barbara County Grand Jury criminal investigation into the financial activities of Huttenback. Gracey said Wednesday that the investigation is continuing.

Ferdinandson, 57, who has worked at the university for 15 years, will be arraigned Dec. 19 in Santa Barbara Municipal Court. A university spokesman said Ferdinandson was placed on leave from his $50,000-a-year job and it had not been determined whether he will continue to receive his paycheck.

Remodeling Job

Huttenback resigned after a University of California audit determined that he had misspent university funds, including money to remodel the kitchen, laundry room and “public area of his house.”

Huttenback said in a telephone interview Wednesday that he felt “somewhat vindicated” as a result of Ferdinandson’s arrest.

“A lot of people were outraged at the amount of money (the auditors contend he spent on the house),” he said. “I’ve contended that those figures were inflated and erroneous.”

Huttenback said his lawyer hired a private detective who investigated Ferdinandson. Huttenback said he “believed” that the results of the investigation were turned over to sheriff’s investigators. Sheriff’s Department officials declined to comment on whether they received anything from a private investigator.

The grand jury has subpoenaed campus records of Huttenback’s personal expenditures and all UCSB Foundation records pertaining to the former chancellor. Dodd Young, the grand jury foreman, said he “hopes” that the investigation will be completed by late February.

University of California auditors also concluded last summer 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.

Earlier in the month the state auditor general launched an investigation into the UCSB Foundation at the request of state Sen. Gary K. Hart (D-Santa Barbara), chairman of the Senate Education Committee.