UC chancellor's $97,500 relocation allowance is average

0 Comments | Oakland Tribune, Feb 22, 2006 | by Michelle Maitre, STAFF WRITER

When the University of California lured Robert Birgeneau from his Toronto job to become chancellor at UC Berkeley, they offered him a $97,500 relocation allowance in addition to his then-$390,000 annual salary.

Months later, the university paid a private moving company $20,615.40 in actual costs associated with moving Birgeneau's possessions to Berkeley. The total bill included $3,413.15 to move some items to Weston, Mass., where Birgeneau and his wife, Mary Catherine, own a home, and $17,202.25 to bring the rest to Berkeley.

Relocation allowances are paid separately from actual moving expenses and are intended to help new hires adjust to higher living costs in California, UC spokesman Paul Schwartz said.

In Birgeneau's case, he used his relocation allowance to buy a car and furniture for his private apartment at University House, the chancellor's on-campus residence that also serves as a public venue for receptions, parties and staff meetings, among other events.

Once Birgeneau arrived, the university spent $131,703 to remodel his California Hall office, according to information released as part of a public records request filed by the Tri-Valley Herald.

University officials also spent $76,945 on deferred-maintenance repairs and renovations to both the public and private portions of University House, in addition to other annual maintenance costs.

Later, they would spend $69,306 on six area rugs for the public area of the home. A campus spokeswoman said the rug purchase was not affiliated with Birgeneau's hire and was part of continued upgrade and maintenance at the home.

Both the office renovations and improvements to University House were financed through the Edward F. Searles Fund, established in 1919 as an unrestricted gift to be used to finance the general purposes of the university which cannot be covered by state funds, Schwartz said.

While Birgeneau's package seems consistent with those offered other UC chancellors -- and in some cases is below -- such spending has raised public eyebrows and landed UC in hot water with legislators.

Today, the Senate Education Committee holds its second hearing on executive compensation at UC after a series of newspaper articles revealed the system spent millions on bonuses, relocation allowances and other stipends last fiscal year, sometimes without the knowledge of UC's governing Board of Regents.

"The basic point here is that, at the end of the day, there is no disclosure, no transparency and no accountability," said Sen. Abel Maldonado, R-Santa Maria, who said he intends to ask pointed questions today of Regents Chairman Gerald Parsky, expected to testify at the hearing.

"UC is a world-class system," Maldonado said, "but the business side of the university is run very poorly."

UC officials have promised to reform their policies and have taken a number of steps to address public concern, including an internal task force that's looking into compensation issues. Parsky also has ordered an independent audit of UC executive pay going back 10 years.

"We need to offer competitive compensation in order to keep UC competitive," Schwartz said, "but it's clear we also need to do a better job explaining our compensation policies and practices, which we are committed to doing."

In Birgeneau's case, his relocation allowance and other expenses are allowed under UC policy, and regents approved his moving expenses and relocation allowance when they hired him in July 2004.

UC policy caps relocation allowances at 25 percent of an executive hire's base annual pay, Schwartz said in an e-mail.

University records show that Birgeneau made $417,843 in total compensation in the 2004-05 fiscal year, his first on the job. The figure includes $313,183 in base salary, the relocation allowance and a $7,160 auto allowance. He also receives $19,500 a year in deferred compensation.

Birgeneau joined the campus in September 2004, partially into the fiscal year that began July 1. He was recruited from the University of Toronto, where he was president of the three-campus system.

In November 2005, Birgeneau and other UC executives received a 2.5 percent raise, which takes his annual salary to $400,000.

Birgeneau was out of town Tuesday and unavailable for comment, but he provided a statement that said he negotiated a deal with UC that was roughly equal to his total compensation in Toronto, where he was president for four years and earned $420,000 a year, in Canadian dollars.

Salary negotiations with UC took about five minutes, Birgeneau said.

"I just asked them to take a look at my entire package in Toronto and make me whole," he said in the statement.

Renovations to Birgeneau's office included new lighting; new marble counters and sills costing $8,636, including labor; and the installation of cream-colored, acoustic paneling worth $13,500. A design consultant was hired for $12,000.

Maldonado called the expense "unbelievable, especially when they're looking to raise tuition for kids who go to Berkeley."

UC Berkeley spokeswoman Marie Felde defended the renovations, saying much of it was deferred maintenance on an office that hadn't been renovated since the 1960s.