Free Republic

When Robert Dynes departed as president of the University of California, we hoped his pattern of outlandish compensation for his staff and others would depart with him. It didn't. It merely took another form, which became public in April when UC Berkeley Police Chief Victoria Harrison retired with a lump-sum package of $2.1 million and was immediately rehired as UC Berkeley police chief with higher pay than she had earned before her retirement. At the least, Harrison's rehiring broke the UC regents' rules, which limit retirees to one year of work and no more than 19 hours a week. It...

The University of California's governing Board of Regents, struggling last week to avert drastic state budget cuts and forestall tuition increases, approved a $100,202 severance package for Linda Williams, a close aide to former UC President Robert Dynes and a figure in the university's 2005 salary scandal. The severance is being paid to Williams several months after she left her job in the UC Office of the President in Oakland and took a higher-paying position on May 1 a few miles away at the UC Berkeley campus. Her payout was granted last Thursday - one day after the regents spent...