Regents Vote to Reaffirm Gardner’s Pension Package : Education: Governor, Speaker support the UC president, who says he won’t step down early.

With passionate statements of support from Gov. Pete Wilson and Assembly Speaker Willie Brown, the UC Board of Regents on Monday reaffirmed the controversial retirement package for UC President David P. Gardner but promised to act more openly on compensation issues in the future.

Then Gardner, in a moment of high drama, announced that he will remain on the job until his previously scheduled Oct.1 resignation date, squelching wide speculation that he would step down early as a result of the furor surrounding his severance benefits.

Asked whether he had considered leaving immediately, Gardner told a press conference after the meeting at UC San Francisco: “I thought about a lot of things. But I did not offer my resignation.”

The governor led the charge in backing Gardner at a meeting interrupted by laughter and hooting from UC students outraged by the deferred pay and pension at a time of large fee increases and other austerities. Wilson, an ex-officio regent, said the action by regents, which gave Gardner $857,000 he otherwise would not have received, was “certainly a moral obligation and arguably a legal obligation as well.”

Brown, a Democrat, joined the Republican governor in offering extraordinary support for Gardner, saying the UC president “does not deserve one iota of criticism based on the package. . . . He does not deserve to have his career tainted by any action of this board.”

Sixteen regents voted to reaffirm and two, Jeremiah F. Hallisey and Yvonne Braithwaite Burke, voted no. Lt. Gov. Leo McCarthy and Gardner, both ex-officio regents, abstained, as did Regent Glenn Campbell.

In a closed-door meeting last month, the regents granted Gardner a three-month administrative leave, which was to begin after his Oct. 1 resignation date, and changed the vesting dates of his pension. The results were an extra $857,000 for Gardner and a hike in his annual pension from $104,000 to $126,000 if he begins to draw it in 1993 at age 60. The large one-time payment had been reported earlier as $797,000, but UC officials said Monday that it was actually $60,000 higher because of deferred pay linked to the leave.

Gardner’s base UC salary is $243,500, making him the highest-paid California public official. He also receives about $53,800 a year in housing aid, plus other perquisites. UC officials have defended his compensation, saying it befitted the head of an exceedingly complicated university system with a $6.5-billion budget.

UC officials say critics have misinterpreted the retirement package as a gift, when in fact it only allowed Gardner to tap funds that were being put aside for him over five years according to longstanding policy. Because of the timing of his retirement and complications of tax code, he would not have qualified for the full benefits unless the regents changed his vesting dates, the officials said.

During the unusual public session, more than a dozen speakers urged the regents to reverse their March votes. One of the most stirring statements came from Marisela Marquez, president of the UC Students’ Assn. “You have added the university to the list of institutions that people have lost their faith in,” Marquez declared.

To enormous dismay and sympathy nationwide, Gardner announced in November that he would resign Oct. 1 because the death of his wife last year left him unable to continue in the job he has held since 1983. He recently announced that he would become president of the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation in Menlo Park in January.

UC Irvine Chancellor Jack W. Peltason, who was named Gardner’s successor earlier this month, will take over the presidency of the nine-campus, 165,000-student system on Oct. 1 as planned.

Informed UC sources said that Gardner was on the verge of retiring last week to spare UC any possible harm in the Legislature, but on Thursday Wilson persuaded him not to. “It was back and forth, back and forth,” said one official.

After Monday’s meeting, Wilson and Gardner would only confirm that they had had dinner together and that “some discussion” of the pension debate took place. Wilson insisted that the talk did not violate open public meeting requirements.

Last Thursday, state Sens. David A. Roberti (D-Los Angeles), who is Senate president pro tem, and Quentin L. Kopp (I-San Francisco) asked fellow legislators to approve an auditor general investigation into benefits for top UC administrators. Their move came after public release of a previously confidential transcript showing that regents had discussed in closed-door session last month how to restrict the release of information about Gardner’s extra benefits.

Gardner and many regents conceded that they had conveyed an image of secrecy and subterfuge in their actions last month. “We should have fully disclosed it and promptly,” Gardner said in response to questions about the closed-door meeting.

In a formal statement read to the regents, Gardner said he accepted “my share of responsibility for the decision that led to concern and misunderstanding on the part of the public and the media.” Then, to murmurs of relief and surprise, Gardner ended speculation that he was quitting early. “I look forward to working with you through the remaining few months of my service as president,” he said.

Assemblyman Tom Hayden (D-Santa Monica) had urged the regents to rescind their action. After the vote, Hayden, who is chairman of the Assembly Higher Education Committee, said “I think they seem to be on another planet. It’s a planet of privileges and perks.”