SAN FRANCISCO
The University of California paid $23 million to hundreds of employees who left the university in recent years, including those who were laid off, fired without cause or had filed formal grievances, officials said.
In one case, UC-Berkeley struck a deal in 2002 with Kevin Reneau, an athletics department administrator, requiring he step down in exchange for $86,000 per year for more than two years.
In another example, UC-Davis agreed in March 2004 to pay Dr. Casey Daggett, an assistant professor of clinical surgery, $150,000 to resign and drop all his legal claims against the university.
Mostly small amounts were paid to 700 employees rather than top administrators, and payments reflected only a small portion of UC’s $7 billion payroll, university General Counsel James Holst said in a letter to the regents obtained by the San Francisco Chronicle.
None of the payments were presented to the regents for approval, and Holst’s letter does not say if any violated UC policy.
The revelation came in response to a public records request by the Chronicle, which has reported that university executives were granted bonuses and other perks beyond their publicly reported salaries, prompting legislative hearings and a number of investigations.
The so-called separation agreements over the last five years did not reflect deals with employees at UC’s three national laboratories or those involving existing litigation, university spokesman Paul Schwartz said.
— Associated Press
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