Days Earlier, Pair Received Warm Letters

Mary Piccione and Herb Spiwak, beleaguered officials of UCI Medical Center who got the ax Thursday following weeks of scathing headlines, received glowing notes from the university’s second in command, Sidney H. Golub, just days earlier.

The letters of sympathy and praise were sent shortly after the two executives suffered withering questioning during a June 14 state Senate inquiry into UCI’s fertility scandal and after a university investigation found that the pair had retaliated against whistle-blowers.

At the time, Golub acknowledged that some whistle-blowers had endured retaliation when they should have been thanked for raising allegations against the fertility clinic of improper transfe1920147567ible for the retaliation.

“Dear Mary,” begins a note Golub wrote to Piccione on his official university stationery, “I am sorry that I did not have a moment to talk to you after the hearings. I wanted to express my concern and affection. I know this entire affair has been a horror for you. I want you to know that I admire what you have accomplished under trying circumstances. You are a real pro. With warmest best wishes, Sid.”

To Spiwak, Golub wrote: “Dear Herb, I am sorry that I did not have a moment after the hearing to express my support. I thought you handled yourself very well. The entire affair was a nightmare but none of it can take away what you have accomplished. Best wishes, Sid.”

Golub said late Thursday that the notes were simply “personal expressions of empathy” that were not intended as actions of an official nature.

“I sent similar notes to a number of other people who testified that day,” Golub said, describing the hearings as “nine grueling hours and a very trying day.” Golub said he sent no notes to the whistle-blowers, only to “people in the University of California system.”

Golub said law regarding personnel matters prevented him from commenting on whether he helped decide the pair’s dismissal, but added that he saw no contradiction in hailing their talents because “I do admire many of the accomplishments they’ve made in their jobs.”

Pointing out that he had not given permission for the notes to be released, Golub said, “It’s the proof that no good deed goes unpunished by a lawyer.”

In addition to the Golub notes, Frank Quinlan, attorney for both deposed employees, provided letters from UCI Chancellor Laurel L. Wilkening to Spiwak stating that investigations had cleared him of financial and “clinical” wrongdoing allegations lodged against him under the state’s Whistle-blower Act.

Fran Tardiff, a Wilkening spokeswoman, said those letters referred to investigations that in fact had cleared Spiwak, but that a subsequent investigation and report released to the public June 14 found that the administrators retaliated against the whistle-blowers who reported wrongdoing at the fertility clinic. Tardiff said the documented retaliation was one of the grounds for firing the executives.

Piccione, who had been executive director of the UCI Medical Center, and Spiwak, her deputy, have both been accused of mishandling reports of wrongdoing at the UCI-affiliated Center for Reproductive Health, a fertility clinic.