News

Hotel/Conference Center Documents to Date

Byuclafaculty

Following yesterday’s posting of the proposed UCLA hotel/ conference center, it may be useful to have a source of past documents that relate to the proposal.  If you have tracked this issue, you know that the original plan was to demolish the Faculty Center and replace it with a 280+ room hotel/conference center. After protests, the location was shifted to Parking Structure 6. Below is a set of documents that relate to the entire history of this project, or at least those documents that have come to light.

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The Hotel Blender

Byuclafaculty

The business plan for the hotel/conference center is now on the Regents’ website.  In essence, the plan is made to work by blending the hotel/ conference center with the guest house and the Lake Arrowhead conference center. In effect, the operating surplus of these other operations is used to cover the initial shortfall relative to debt service in the proposed hotel/conference center. The new hotel runs at 60% capacity initially and rises to 70% by year 3 of its operations although it cannot take commercial business due to its tax exempt financing.  Blending the hotel with the other operations –…

Warning on Phishing

Byuclafaculty

You may have received emails purporting to be from UCLA such as the one below. Don’t respond.  Don’t click. Just delete the message. Someone is trying to steal your ID information (phishing). Dear User, We have observed suspicious activities from your Internet account. Kindly click on ucla.edu or copy and paste this link http://(address removed)  on your browser to verify your account now in orders to avoid disconnection of service. Regards, Web Admin.

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Somewhere Inside Murphy Hall Is the Hotel Business Plan…

Byuclafaculty

But although it has been apparently sent to the Regents for approval, requests for it remain unanswered and unfulfilled. Today, the UCLA Faculty Association renewed its request from last November: Text of email sent to Aimee M. Felker Director Records Management & Information Practices, Corporate Financial Services3-18-12 Dear Ms Felker, Lots of time has passed, and you have not responded to the request of the FA for a public document, the business plan for the proposed UCLA Conference and Guest Center. I have offered several times since your communication to pick up the document in your office, but you have…

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Will There Be a Pension Lawsuit Over the Cap for the Highly Paid?

Byuclafaculty

The upcoming Regents agenda contains a mix of open sessions and closed sessions.  One closed session involves a sensitive pension issue to be discussed in private by the Committee on Compensation. Readers of this blog with long memories will recall a controversy that erupted when certain highly-paid UC administrators complained that a cap – based on IRS rules – on their pensions should be removed.  The cap limits the amount of the basic pension to the first $245,000 of pay.  Essentially, back in the day when folks didn’t worry much about pension funding, the Regents applied for an exemption from…

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If you’re telling them about the UCLA hotel, could you let us in on the secret?

Byuclafaculty

The Regents agenda is now posted and includes the proposed UCLA hotel/conference center.  But no plan is attached to the agenda item.  No plan has yet been received by the UCLA Faculty Association although a public documents request was filed by the Association and others some time back. Below is the agenda of the Regents’ Committee on Grounds and Buildings which contains the so-far-secret plan.  The full Regents’ agenda is also reproduced below. ==== NOTICE OF MEETING The Regents of the University of California COMMITTEE ON GROUNDS AND BUILDINGS Date:  March 28, 2012 Time: 2:15 p.m. Location: UCSF–Mission Bay Community…

Hold (Some of) the Pepper

Byuclafaculty

Yesterday, there was a news report that the UC-Davis pepper spray report was likely to be released unredacted, based on remarks made by the judge in the case. Today, however, it is being reported that the judge OK’ d only a redacted report and it is unclear exactly when even that will be released. Was there a judicial change of mind?  Or did the news report get it wrong? Yours truly has no special insight. But you can read the latest report at:http://www.sacbee.com/2012/03/16/4343670/much-of-uc-davis-pepper-spray.html Sometimes it’s hard to know what was said:[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_UE-OK7aY2I&w=320&h=195]