UCSB Figure Named in Kickback Scheme

The administrator in charge of campus maintenance at the University of California, Santa Barbara, is suspected of overcharging the school more than $100,000 in a kickback scheme with private contractors, according to court documents made public this week.

The documents, affidavits filed in support of search warrants, were unsealed Tuesday and for the first time shed light on the amount of money involved in the alleged kickback scheme.

Three more contractors have been arrested in recent days on suspicion of overcharging the university, and individuals from two other firms were granted immunity. This brings to six the number of suspects in the case, including Holger Chris Ferdinandson, manager of the university’s buildings and grounds division, who was arrested last month. Ferdinandson’s preliminary hearing is scheduled for Jan. 28 in Santa Barbara Municipal Court.

According to the search warrant affidavits in the Ferdinandson case, the groundskeeper falsified university purchase orders and devised a kickback scheme with Pacific Acoustics North Inc. of Santa Barbara. The documents said that Ferdinandson arranged for Pacific Acoustics to do $45,637 in kitchen remodeling on his home and then paid for it with false university purchase orders. In addition, Ferdinandson received $40,500 out of a $48,784 payment from the university to Pacific Acoustics in a separate transaction, according to the affidavits.

Officials at Pacific Acoustics were granted immunity in exchange for testimony about Ferdinandson, according to Santa Barbara County Assistant Dist. Atty. Patrick McKinley.

And, according to the affidavits, Ferdinandson split between $60,000 and $100,000 with Ruben Gomez, owner of Gomez Painting in Santa Barbara by “adding to legitimate contracts Gomez had with UCSB. Gomez usually wrote Ferdinandson a company payroll check to make it appear as if Ferdinandson was doing estimating work for Gomez.”

The contractors who have been arrested in connection with the kickback scheme are: Gomez; Rudy Mosel, owner of Goleta Plumbing & Heating Service Inc.; Dan Rodriguez, manager of Griffin Tree & Landscape Co. in Santa Barbara, and Joan M. Bregante and Ronald M. Caird, part-owners of Griffin Tree & Landscape.

Officials at Hayward’s of Santa Barbara, a home furnishing store, also were granted immunity in exchange for testimony.

Probe to Broaden

Ferdinandson and the contractors were arrested during the course of a Santa Barbara County Grand Jury criminal investigation into the financial activities of former Chancellor Robert Huttenback.

McKinley said the investigation into the university’s buildings and grounds division is almost complete. Then, he said, the investigation will focus on Huttenback and the UCSB Foundation, the main fund-raising arm of the university.

Huttenback resigned under pressure in July after it was disclosed that he had spent $174,000 in university funds on his home. And UC auditors concluded that the UCSB Foundation violated sound business practices by making an unsecured $9,000 loan to Huttenback.