Posted on 05/12/2006 7:07:30 AM PDT by NormsRevenge
The Chronicle has notified the University of California that it will ask an Alameda County judge today to order a UC Board of Regents committee to meet in public next week when it votes on pay proposals for high-ranking officials, according to the newspaper's lawyers.
In a suit to be filed in Superior Court, The Chronicle argues that a closed-door committee meeting scheduled next Wednesday violates the state's open-meeting laws. The newspaper's lawyers plan to ask for a court order at a hearing today to require a public session.
--snip--
In response, the university's general counsel, James Holst, said the law -- which requires open meetings on any "action by the regents'' affecting the pay of certain executives -- applies only to the final vote on pay at a meeting of the full Board of Regents.
The committee "merely considers and makes a recommendation to the board'' and thus may meet in closed session, Holst said.
--snip--
Regents Chairman Gerald Parsky said in a statement that the board, while committed to keeping the university open and accessible to the public, was "equally obligated to ensure that employees' rights to privacy under the law are honored.''
The regents' long-standing policy of recommending personnel actions in closed session and taking a final vote in public "appropriately balances those two obligations,'' Parsky said.
At Wednesday's meeting, the regents' Special Committee on Compensation is scheduled to consider compensation for the university's acting secretary, its acting general counsel, and a vice president of business and budgeting.
The committee is also slated to vote on UCLA Chancellor Albert Carnesale's salary when he steps down next month to become a professor of public policy and engineering. The agenda additionally includes "recommended compensation and personnel actions'' related to recent audits of UC's pay and expense records.
(Excerpt) Read more at sfgate.com ...
Its about time the SF Chronicle did something worth while.
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