UC Regents

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Listen to Regents Meeting July 17, 2012: Hotel Approval

Byuclafaculty

The UCLA hotel/conference center was approved by the Regents Committee on Grounds and Buildings.  That outcome was not unexpected, despite the many concerns that have been raised in the past.  Among other items, and probably most important, was a letter UCLA solicited from the Luskins saying essentially that the proposal was what they wanted and anything else would be a breach.  President Yudof was careful not to say that their original intent was so specific.  He said it is now specific.  It would be unusual, to say the least, for the Regents to walk away from $50 million. The recording…

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Preview of Coming Campaign for Prop 30: Governor’s Tax Initiative

Byuclafaculty

Here is a preview of what the coming campaign for Prop 30 – the governor’s tax initiative – will look like.  The YouTube video (scene at right; link below) runs over one and a half minutes so it probably won’t air in full on TV (where 30 second and 60 second ads are the norm).  But similar themes are likely to be struck in the pro-Prop 30 campaign. We have not yet seen what the anti campaign will look like. The Regents are likely to endorse Prop 30 at their upcoming meeting. You can see the video below:[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RtO1xsnWsw4&w=320&h=195]

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Regents to Discuss UCLA Hotel Legal Issues Behind Closed Doors

Byuclafaculty

Yesterday, we posted a listing of discussion behind-closed-doors of litigation that the full Board of Regents will be discussing.  There will also be such a closed-door session of the Committee on Grounds and Building to discuss legal matters related to the proposed UCLA hotel/conference center – which, indeed, as this blog has noted – has “issues.”  The closed-door agenda – listed as a “session added” on the Regents’ website – is below: =================  NOTICE OF MEETING The Regents of the University of California COMMITTEE ON GROUNDS AND BUILDINGS Date:   July 17, 2012 Time:   2:25 p.m. Location:  UCSF–Mission Bay Community Center…

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Regents’ Litigation Agenda: Behind Closed Doors

Byuclafaculty

Behind closed doors on July 18th, the Regents will be discussing various items of litigation.  The doors are locked but we do know the items: AUTHORS GUILD, et al. v. HATHITRUST, et al. – The case has to do with digitalization of “orphan” works at university libraries, not just UC, a project generally supported by university libraries around the U.S.  “Orphan” works are older books that are out of print and either out of copyright or whose copyright holders cannot be determined.  BAKER, et al. v. KATEHI, et. al. – Mediation Scheduled – Constitutional and State Law Claims Arising from…

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Who’s in Charge? Lessons from the Penn State Scandal for UCLA and Its Hotel Proposal

Byuclafaculty

The news has been full of the Penn State University scandal in which a serial child abuser was protected by high university officials until suddenly the matter became public.  A report by a former FBI director was commissioned and put the blame on all involved in running the university including the trustees (equivalents of the Regents) for not asking questions and not doing the right thing.  Much ink was devoted to the scandal at Penn State in the LA Times and other newspapers.  But the most compelling analysis came on July 12 from the Times sports columnist Bill Plaschke.  Here…

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Tax Initiative War Shaping Up Could Hurt UC

Byuclafaculty

There are three tax measures on the November ballot.  Prop 30 – the governor’s tax initiative – is a temporary increase in income taxes and sales taxes.  If it doesn’t pass, there will be trigger cuts including a $250 million cut to UC.  See prior blog posts for info including the Regents’ likely endorsement of Prop 30.  The tax proposition most in competition with Prop 30 is Prop 38 sponsored by Molly Munger.  Earlier in the game, the governor tried to make a deal with Munger so that her initiative would not appear.  That attempt failed.  Now it is being…

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LA Councilman Cautions UCLA on Hotel Tax Liability

Byuclafaculty

In prior blog posts, we have noted that UCLA’s proposed hotel/conference center depends on filling its 250 rooms for financial success.  But it can’t take commercial business and be tax-exempt or depend on tax-exempt financing.  We also noted that other related UCLA facilities’ policies with regard to taking in guests tax-free could be at risk if there is scrutiny of what is planned for the hotel.  LA Councilman Paul Koretz has notified the Regents of UCLA’s potential tax problems with the City and the issue of a public tax-free hotel competing with private tax-paying hotels.  He points to what seems…

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Doubt

Byuclafaculty

One of the routine things the Regents do when they meet is approval of the minutes.  As they reconsider the UCLA hotel/conference center proposal, they will have the benefits of minutes from their March 28th meeting at which they refused to endorse the project. Of course, they could instead just listen to their meeting on this blog where the audio is preserved.  But seeing it in print is also instructive.  All of the doubts are there from the tax issues to the why-don’t-you-just-buy-a-hotel questions.  Since the new proposal is much the same as the old (see our earlier blog post),…

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The Hotel: It’s Twins!

Byuclafaculty

UCLA’s Plan C for the hotel/conference center and the July Regents meetings has now been released.  It’s basically Plan B – the version prepared for the March Regents meeting – with different text.  Here’s the thing: As long as it’s a 250-room hotel (or whatever euphemism is used to avoid the word hotel), it has the same flaw.  How are you going to fill up all those rooms without taking commercial business?  And if you start taking questionable business, the local commercial hotel owners have every incentive to call the IRS.  Of course, any occupancy rate can be assumed for…

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Will the UCLA Hotel Pass the Sniff Test in November?

Byuclafaculty

We noted in a blog posting yesterday that the UCLA proposal for a 250-room hotel/conference center is back on the Regents’ July agenda.  Also on the agenda is discussion of the recently-enacted state budget and the governor’s November tax initiative.  The Regents are likely to endorse the ballot initiative which, as prior posts have noted, is not polling as well as it should at this stage. So an interesting question for the Regents is whether the hotel passes the sniff test for wise spending of UC (and UCLA) resources.  Given all the fiscal difficulties UC has faced in recent years,…