Top Regent Says Board Unaware of Lavish Pay

University of California Regents Chairman Gerald L. Parsky, testifying before a state Senate panel investigating reported extravagance and secrecy in UC’s pay practices, said Wednesday that the regents were initially unaware of the details of several controversial compensation and severance packages provided to UC executives.

Parsky said UC leaders’ failure to keep the governing board informed about such deals appeared to violate the “letter and spirit” of policies adopted by the regents in 1992 after a similar controversy. And he pledged action to prevent a recurrence.

“We will hold people accountable,” Parsky said. “If that means firing people, we will.”

But he also emphasized that several audits and reviews now underway must be completed.

The testimony came as the Senate Education Committee held its second day of hearings into UC’s pay practices, after media reports that the university in recent years spent millions on bonuses and other perquisites for top administrators while raising student fees.

The Legislature recently authorized an audit of the compensation issues, and other legislative committees also are planning hearings.

UC President Robert C. Dynes, who was grilled by the education committee members Feb. 8, again underwent sharp questioning Wednesday.

“I don’t think we’ve had world-class leadership” from the UC office of the president, said state Sen. Abel Maldonado (R-Santa Maria). Addressing Dynes, a former UC San Diego chancellor, he asked, “How would you grade yourself?”

Dynes, who had earlier apologized for his own and the university’s shortcomings, replied that he would give himself an incomplete, saying that the investigations were continuing.

Maldonado appeared ready to press further, but state Sen. Jackie Speier (D-Hillsborough) intervened: “President Dynes is a world-class scientist; he’s admitted some mistakes ... and I am not prepared to sit here and flog him for the next 20 minutes.”

Speier urged the legislators to focus on helping the university make reforms to prevent similar problems in the future.

But state Sen. Gloria Romero (D-Los Angeles) picked up the same theme.

“I think it’s a fair question to ask how you would grade yourself,” she asked Dynes. “Maybe you’ll come back to us with that at some point ... but an incomplete at the end of the day doesn’t pass.”

Dynes also provided new details about several compensation cases that have drawn criticism, including those of former UC Provost M.R.C. Greenwood and of Celeste Rose, a former UC Davis vice chancellor.

Greenwood, the system’s No. 2 official behind Dynes, resigned that job under pressure in the fall after UC started investigating an apparent conflict of interest involving the university’s hiring of two people -- her close friend and former business partner, and her son. Dynes took responsibility for the decision to pay Greenwood, who remains a UC employee, her $300,000-a-year administrative salary during her current sabbatical, rather than her lower faculty salary.

Dynes said he made the decision after he was advised that the terms of Greenwood’s sabbatical, with the higher salary, were legally binding.

In Rose’s case, Dynes for the first time said he considered her deal an out-of-court settlement and said it should have been disclosed as such to the regents.

Rose was forced to resign from her post but in an agreement reached with UC Davis officials was given a $205,000 annual salary for a job with no specific duties. The deal came after Rose, who is African American, threatened a discrimination lawsuit.