News

Such Harsh Punishment!

Byuclafaculty

The University of California, Berkeley, has demoted and reduced the salary of a veteran administrator accused of improperly giving pay raises to an employee with whom she was having a sexual relationship. Diane Leite, 47, a former assistant vice chancellor in the Research Enterprise Services department, pushed through five raises in two years for Jonathan Caniezo…  Caniezo, a 30-year-old purchasing manager, saw his pay rise from less than $70,000 in 2007 to more than $110,000 in 2010, according to university records obtained by the newspaper.  Caniezo’s direct supervisor had opposed the raises, arguing that he had not earned them, according to a report by school investigators…  After…

State Budget News Through February Not So Good

Byuclafaculty

The latest state controller’s report through February on cash flows into and out of the general fund indicates that we are down about $6.5 billion in revenue from last year.  Most of that drop is due to the fact that the governor did not get the tax extensions he proposed when the budget was finally enacted.  But about $800 million is below the projections he made in the budget documents that accompanied his January proposal for next year’s budget.  Spending came in somewhat under his January projections. The controller’s latest report is at:http://www.controller.ca.gov/Files-ARD/CASH/fy1112_feb.pdf Maybe it’s just February:

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Hard to Keep the Hotel Secret from the Regents When It’s on the Front Page

Byuclafaculty

The business plan for the hotel/conference center is still being withheld.  And it is not yet on the Regents website for the upcoming March meeting.  But with the story on the front page, surely the Regents now know that something is coming.  Excerpts from story are below: Westwood Innkeepers See No Room for UCLA Hotel By Jacquelyn Ryan, 3-12-12, LA Business Journal (excerpts) A proposed UCLA hotel and conference center – newly scaled down and moved to satisfy upset faculty and neighbors – is finally heading to the UC Regents this month for review.  But even if the $152 million…

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Time Challenged in Murphy Hall?

Byuclafaculty

Time is a complicated thing to understand.  For example, today in the LA Times today you will read that:Daylight saving time began at 2 a.m. Sunday morning, meaning the clocks “spring forward” one hour. The change will mean that there will be more hours of daylight…  (italics added) http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2012/03/daylight-savings-time-today-.html And just as the LA Times seems to be chronologically (and astronomically) challenged, so, too, does whoever is hanging on to the top secret business plan for the hotel/conference center.   To get the plan before the Regents meeting in late March, it will have to be released this coming week. The…

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Business Plan for Hotel/Conference Center Cries Out to Be Released

Byuclafaculty

The revised business plan for the proposed UCLA hotel/conference center – now to replace parking structure #6 – is reportedly due to be unveiled to the Regents at their meeting in late March.  The deadline for getting the report on the agenda for that meeting is fast approaching.  Campus Academic Senate review is also needed. And requests have been filed by the Faculty Association and others for a copy of the plan.So far, no plan has been released.  But you can hear it calling out from Murphy Hall:

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President Yudof Responds to Three Pension Questions

Byuclafaculty

On March 2, President Yudof answered questions in a live-streaming format from UC employees.  You may have received an email referring to an edited version of some questions – including three on pensions – that appeared in UCLA Today.  Because the UCLA Today versions were edited, some nuances on pension issues were lost. Below is the UCLA Today version in regular type and then a comment from yours truly and the actual transcript in italics.  Also, the audio (a video with a fixed picture) is at the bottom of this posting along with various links. Question: What is the impact…

In Limbo Waiting for CalPERS Decision on Projected Earnings: How Low Can You Go?

Byuclafaculty

Defined-benefit pension plans such as CalPERS and UCRP have to forecast what their earnings on their assets will be over extended periods of time.  A lower forecast will produce a higher estimate of their unfunded liability.  In turn, a higher estimate of the unfunded liability will likely trigger higher employer and/or employee contributions to the plan. It is important to note, however, that changing the forecast does not change the future in the sense that the earnings rate will be what it turns out to be.  If the forecast of the earnings rate over time seems to be too low…

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Golden Rule Not So Golden, Judge?

Byuclafaculty

From time to time, yours truly has protested in this blog and elsewhere about the willy-nilly online publication of pay and pensions of public workers by various newspapers by name, including those at UC. It is quite possible to provide public information by job title and through charts and graphics summarizing averages and other descriptors without naming names. The state controller, for example, has a database that just gives pay by job title at the local level. Publication by name is an invasion of privacy and invites ID theft. So far, no newspaper has been willing to put their own…

Political Side of State Budget is Uncertain

Byuclafaculty

Governor Brown has an initiative in circulation that would impose temporary taxes on the upper brackets of the income tax but also involves the more generally-paid sales tax.  As readers of this blog will know, his January budget plan assumes that voters will approve the initiative in November.  If it is not approved, his budget would impose large trigger cuts in spending that are focused on K-12 schools.  So the budget (which must be enacted by the legislature) and the initiative (which must be enacted by voters) are intertwined. The governor’s tax plan was designed in accordance with public opinion…