CSUN Workers Listed as Deadbeats Deny Debt

A dozen Cal State Northridge employees who say they never borrowed a dime from the school were singled out as deadbeats by campus finance officials who last year sought to write off a portion of $512,688 in outstanding employee advances.

CSUN officials identified 40 current and former workers who owed a total of $81,667.11 in a report sent to the state controller’s office last year seeking permission to write off the advances as uncollectable.

But the 12 current employees on the list, which is available through the controller’s office, said they never asked for salary advances, do not owe any money and are outraged that their employer would identify them as debtors without their knowledge.

The state ultimately approved the write-offs--$20,137.68 during the 1995-96 fiscal year and $61,529.43 in 1997.

“This is the first time I am hearing about it,” said Dr. Liucija Baskauskas, an anthropology professor and a 25-year CSUN employee. School officials listed her as owing $3,662.70 in salary advances taken between 1991 and 1994.

“I have never taken an advance. I have never received a notification that I owed money. . . . I have absolutely no idea,” Baskauskas said. She added that the administration refused to give her a copy of the list of debtors, citing confidentiality.

It is, in fact, public information.

The dispute between the campus officials and the employees follows disclosures last month in The Times that CSUN gave campus organizations and hundreds of employees $675,563 in salary, travel and hardship advances that remained unpaid and little noticed until flagged during a routine state audit that was released just over a year ago.

Of the total, $162,875 was owed by campus auxiliaries, such as the University Foundation and Associated Students.

Interviews with employees identified as owing money--who range from clerks to professors to a campus physician--raises doubts about the accuracy of the school’s financial records.

For example, Joyce Hagen, chair of the special education department, said that during her 30 years at CSUN, she had “never received an advance. I was never billed for any outstanding dues. I can’t imagine what it’s for.”

She said, as did the 11 others interviewed, that she would have settled the matter had she been told.

William P. Riley II, a part-time lecturer in the political science department, was listed as owing $3,706.71. “This is the strangest thing I’ve ever heard,” he said.

Anthropology professor Carol Mackey said she was baffled by her listed debt of $1,429.88. “I have no knowledge that I owed the university anything,” she said. “Of course, I would have given it back, had they called me.”

Last May, at the urging of state auditors, CSUN administrators reported that they had reduced the outstanding debts by nearly half, to $338,958.

President Blenda J. Wilson has ordered that an internal financial investigation be completed by Friday, presumably to determine how much of the outstanding debt was reduced through write-offs, whether the employees actually owed the money or whether some other accounting discrepancy is involved.

Wilson has not agreed to be interviewed since the controversy surfaced, but in a campus memo she acknowledged that it has raised questions about the school’s stewardship of public funds.

CSUN officials have said that about $275,000 of the original debt came from so-called hardship allowances to employees who needed cash for emergencies such as auto accidents and earthquake repairs. Another $150,000 was payroll advances given to employees whose regular salary checks had to be returned to Sacramento for correction or adjustments, school officials said. The rest was used for travel advances.

CSUN’s vice president of finance, Arthur Elbert, under whose watch the debt list was compiled and sent to the state controller’s office, has also refused comment.

However, Elbert said in an interview with the Daily Sundial, CSUN’s student newspaper, some of the outstanding debts involved temporary earthquake repair workers who had gotten paid twice for the same job, by the school and by the state. The workers should have returned the money but did not, the campus paper reported.

Meanwhile, employees last week began calling the school administration to find out why they were listed as having failed to pay their debts.

Part-time music teacher Glen R. Garrett, listed as owing $1,743.25, said he is “really upset and angry that I am on that list. I am not the kind of guy who takes advances. I don’t need it. I am a freelance musician. The university salary is only 20% of my income.”