November 8, 2006
Dear Colleague:
I am writing on behalf of the Board of Regents to inform you about an
important new step we are taking toward full disclosure of UC
compensation and to share with you a new preliminary report on 2005-06
fiscal year payroll data.
It was about this time last year that the San Francisco Chronicle
published its first story regarding compensation at UC, based on its
Public Records Act request for and receipt of the University’s
systemwide payroll database for the 2004-05 fiscal year. You may recall
that the story centered on “above base pay” -- compensation provided to
employees that was in addition to base pay.
A detailed analysis of the payroll data showed that the majority of this
“above base pay” went to health sciences faculty for treating patients
or conducting research, and to campus faculty for additional teaching
and research they do during the summer. The analysis also showed that
above base pay paid to senior managers was less than 1% of the total.
Through extensive external, internal and state audits, we also
discovered cases of inappropriate pay that were either exceptions to
University policy or not properly approved by the Board of Regents.
The University has responded aggressively by implementing new approval
requirements for exceptions to policy, and The Regents have adopted new
policies for public disclosure of compensation information, open-session
committee votes of The Regents on compensation items, new policy
compliance mechanisms and oversight positions at the Office of the
President, and new requirements governing employee agreements, among
other things. We have further reported total compensation for those
positions approved by The Regents, and have committed to full annual
reporting of total compensation for the entire senior leadership group.
We remain committed to openness and transparency, and for that reason
have decided to take two additional steps:
First, in keeping with our trust to the public, we will be making
public, effective immediately, total compensation for all University
employees. Compensation for members of the senior management will be
immediately posted online at
Compensation for all other employees will be immediately available in
hard copy at the Office of the President and at the Sacramento Office
of State Governmental Relations, and by November 14, 2006, in each of
the campus libraries.
While we are aware that some employees may regard this as an intrusion
of their privacy, please remember that you are public employees working
for a public institution – and as such, your compensation, under the
California Public Records Act, is considered a public record.
This is outlined in the staff personnel policy in Personnel Policies for
Staff Members (PPSM) 80(C):
“Information which is public information and which should be released
upon request includes name, date of hire, current position title,
current salary, organizational unit assignment, date of separation,
office address and office telephone number, current job description,
full-time or part-time, and appointment type.”
The academic personnel policy, Academic Personnel Manual (APM) 160-
20(b)(4): http://www.ucop.edu/acadadv/acadpers/apm/apm-160.pdf
states that any “non-personal” information “is public information and is
available upon request to any person or entity without limitation.” It
defines “non-personal” academic personnel information as including name,
date of hire or separation, current position title, and current rate of
pay.
Many other public institutions follow this practice as a matter of
course, and it is the view of The Regents that the University of
California must follow suit.
While a complete review of the 2005-06 payroll will not be final until
mid-December, the report provides a preliminary analysis of some of the
bigger elements. Here are a few highlights:
- Like last year, the vast majority of “above base pay” for 2005-
06 (nearly 80 percent) went to employees in academic occupations –
professors, clinical professors, other teaching faculty, research
titles, and a variety of other academic titles – and nearly 50 percent
of the funding for this compensation came from medical compensation
plans and other activities associated with UC’s teaching hospitals.
- “Above base pay” for UC senior managers remains essentially
flat in 2005-06.
- UC continues to implement reforms to compensation programs to
provide for policy compliance and appropriate public disclosure.
We would like to underscore two very important points about this
information.
First, the vast majority of the issues identified by the audit and task
force findings concerned lack of compliance with internal approval and
reporting protocols, not excessive compensation. Indeed, many of the
findings confirm UC’s need to pay competitive compensation and benefits
and acknowledge that compensation levels for many employee groups
continue to lag the market, significantly so in many cases.
Second, there is nothing inherently inappropriate suggested by the
growth in payroll generally and the amounts of “above base pay”
specifically. As detailed in the report, there are appropriate and
legitimate reasons why our payroll has grown. Moreover, we should and
hopefully will see increases in our payroll from one year to the next
as the University continues to grow in order to better serve more
California students and teaching hospital patients.
As a public institution, UC has an obligation to be transparent and
publicly accountable for its conduct, including the way it compensates
its faculty and staff. The University has expended enormous effort this
past year identifying and implementing needed reforms to its
compensation-related policies and practices. While much has been
accomplished, there remains more to do, and we remain committed to
doing everything we can to maintain the public’s trust.
