Limos for [CU's Betsy] Hoffman CU Foundation paid $3,500 to hire cars that idled outside 10 events

Former University of Colorado President Betsy Hoffman "thought long and hard" before hiring a car last year to wait outside a donor dinner in Seattle for several hours, she said this week.

The $534 charge criticized by state auditors Tuesday was an unusual circumstance, Hoffman said. The house was hard to find, it was dark and she didn't want to be late.

But a Rocky Mountain News review of CU payments to limousine services shows hired drivers idled outside at least 10 events Hoffman attended, from a dinner at the Denver Museum of Nature & Science to the funeral of cattle baron Kenneth Monfort and a CU-Texas A&M football game.

The CU Foundation paid the bills - a total of about $3,500 - from the university's now-defunct "advancement fund," money CU transferred to the foundation to pay for fundraising and donor development activities.Hoffman said Wednesday she and her husband drove her car - which was donated by a Boulder car dealership - between 10,000 and 20,000 miles each year on university business. But from time to time she would hire drivers, particularly if it was late at night or she was in a town she wasn't familiar with.

In many cases, she said, her husband or office staff encouraged her not to drive.

"I'm a morning person," Hoffman added. "After nine at night, you don't want me driving. It's not safe."

CU Regent Cindy Carlisle said the Board of Regents wasn't briefed on the president's use of private cars and that it was "obviously not a proper use."

"The problem is, it's probably how it had been done (before Hoffman took office)," Carlisle said. "She stepped into it."

CU spokeswoman Michele McKinney said current CU President Hank Brown receives a $7,200 per year car allowance. He drives his own vehicle, a silver Volkswagen Beetle, to meetings and events - usually without an entourage.

Records obtained from CU show one of the first instances of Hoffman hiring a car was in October 2000, just months after she was hired.

A driver picked up Hoffman and her husband at 3:30 p.m. at their Boulder home, then waited outside the Denver Museum of Nature & Science while Hoffman entertained multimillion-dollar donors at her first Presidents Dinner, records show. The driver returned the couple home 7 1/2 hours later, at a cost of $375.Hoffman said Wednesday she booked the car because she was nervous about her first major event.

The situation was similar four years later when the annual dinner was held at the Wildlife Experience in Parker, Hoffman said.

While Hoffman's schedule for the day shows the university chartered a bus to take donors from Boulder to the event and back, Hoffman and her husband traveled separately. Total cost: $392.

McKinney noted it was a stressful time, as Hoffman was dealing with an ongoing football recruiting scandal and other controversies. By the end of the function, Hoffman added, she was exhausted.

In another case, Hoffman said she wanted to do something nice for donor Jane Butcher, whose husband was ill. The couple have donated about $2 million to CU for two symposia on genomics and biotechnology.So Hoffman arranged for a car to pick up both women at their Boulder homes, then wait while the two had dinner at the Flagstaff House, one of Boulder's finest restaurants.

At other times - such as the 2001 funeral for Kenneth Monfort - Hoffman said her schedule was so tight, she needed a driver, so she could conduct business over the phone while en route to Greeley.

The single most-expensive charge was for an "executive van" that picked up Hoffman, her husband, and two other people at the airport in College Station, Texas, then drove them to the CU-Texas A&M football game in October 2004.

CU documents show the driver was expected to go to the Hilton hotel during the game to pick up luggage for Michael Byram, president and CEO of the CU Foundation, who met the group at the game.

The car was arranged by the president of Texas A&M, who said traffic was too congested on a game day for the group to negotiate on its own, Hoffman said. In the end, however, it was CU that picked up the $663 bill.Carlisle said Wednesday that in some ways, Hoffman's actions are water under the bridge. Yet she also hopes current administrators and employees "take note."

Former University of Colorado President Betsy Hoffman said she occasionally used private cars because she was too tired to drive, unfamiliar with a town or bogged down with work. Here are a few examples of her trips, paid for by a university "advancement" fund.

What a difference a year makes.

Last November, the head of the University of Colorado Foundation was indignant at suggestions that all might not be right at the school's fundraising arm.

After a fraud examiner working for state investigators recommended a "complete, independent review" of internal controls at the foundation, the organization's president, Michael Byram, shot back, calling any suggestion that controls were lacking "both misleading and a lie."

But in a stinging report made public this week, state auditors made it clear that internal controls at the nonprofit foundation were not only inadequate but also unacceptable, insufficient and inconsistent. Those were just a few of the words criticizing the workings inside an organization that raises tens of millions of dollars a year in support of the state's flagship school.

"The foundation's review and approval processes are not sufficient to ensure all purchases are consistent with its stated policies and related to the foundation's core mission," reads one sentence in the 82-page audit, which included conclusions that were very different from those uttered in the repeated assurances over the past year that the foundation was running a tight, disciplined financial ship.

Also, foundation executives concurred with the auditor's findings, agreeing to adopt all 17 recommendations directed at the organization.

The audit, requested last November by then-CU President Betsy Hoffman, came in the wake of allegations over the role of sex and booze in recruiting football players to the school. It also came as the foundation was fighting a legal battle with the news media to keep its records private.

But much has changed since then:

• The foundation was once so bitterly opposed to opening its records that it filed a pre-emptive lawsuit in fall 2004 to stop the Daily Camera of Boulder from obtaining them. It also refused to provide records sought by the Independent Investigative Commission looking into CU's football recruiting practices. Now, the foundation publicly praises the new state law requiring openness and posts public records requests - and responses - on its Web site.

• Byram once accused the state auditor of an "arbitrary abuse of power." But now he gushes at how helpful the audit process has been in ushering in improvements, while state lawmakers heap praise on the foundation for its "full cooperation."

• Byram once boasted at how "seriously" the foundation's accounting staff scrutinizes expenditures, such as restaurant bills. He now acknowledges that the audit shows "a number" of examples where spending wasn't appropriate.

• Foundation officials last year pointed to an independent audit showing, in the foundation's words, "a consistently high level of accounting standards and execution of fiduciary responsibility" when it comes to properly directing donor dollars. Now, the foundation accepts the state auditor's findings that it failed to keep adequate records showing donor intent, sent donations to the wrong gift funds and failed to document that money was spent the way donors wanted.

When asked Tuesday to explain the gap between the foundation's past assurances of sound practices and the auditor's findings, and its once-hostile view of the state auditor to its now-cooperative stance, Byram largely deflected the questions, but did concede that the inquiries were "fair enough."

He preferred to emphasize the future and didn't talk about questionable spending practices. He said the audit will lead to improvements in controls and procedures.

In one response to reporters' questions about audit findings, Byram said: "You look at . . . those expenses, we need to make sure not to try to change the past, but in the future handle all these expenses responsibly."

Byram did show some foresight in his earlier comments. Late in 2004, when questioned by reporters about foundation expenses, he made a statement similar to the more diplomatic sentiments he voiced after absorbing the findings of the state auditor this week.

"Nobody enjoys all the scrutiny," he said in December. "But the benefit of going through this is, everybody looks at it again, so you look back over what could have been an established practice 20, 30 or 40 years ago, now you have a very healthy discussion."

CU spending scandal report 7 days AFTER election

There is outrage here in Colorado. One week after the election on Refs C and D a report has now been released that reveals out of control spending at the University of Colorado. Part of Ref C, as promoted by interm President of CU Hank Brown, was to save higher education because of spending cuts. The Rocky Mountain News links:

Limos for Hoffman http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/local/article/0,1299,DRMN_15_4227011,00.html

Foundation's assurances ring hollow http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/local/article/0,1299,DRMN_15_4227012,00.html

Littwin: Audit has audience cringing in the seats http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/news_columnists/article/0,1299,DRMN_86_4226727,00.html

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Jon Caldara, talk show host on 850am KOA and President of the Independent Institute here based in Golden, Colorado talked about this last night during his show. Jon led the effort against C and D. He was beside himself on the air last night over this revelation.

Jon's KOA webpage: http://www.850koa.com/shows/caldara.html

Independence Institute: http://www.i2i.org/

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