Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger vetoed a bill Friday that was sponsored by the California Faculty Association that would have created stricter guidelines for the way the CSU handles state resources and ensure that CSU funds are not wasted on executive compensation, salaries and perks.
Assembly Bill 1413 would “express findings and declarations of the Legislature as well as the intent of the Legislature relating to the executive compensations of top officials,” according to its text.
Paul Browning, a CSU spokesman, said that the governor was in agreement with the CSU board and that is why he chose to veto the bill.
“AB 1413 is largely rendered and redundant, as well as unnecessary,” Browning said. “It is a poorly written bill.”
During the past few years, the CSU was found distributing excessive compensation packages such as transition pay, “ghost professorships” and special benefits.
Of AB 1413, the CFA wanted the CSU Board of Trustees to approve all contracts while in public sessions during which they were awarding benefits. The bill also would have required the CSU Board of Trustees to eliminate the practice of “ghost professorships” and not allow replacements attend meetings instead of those who could not appear due to other important meetings they were required to attend.
“We practice a lot of things that are already in the bill,” Browning said.
In his veto announcement, the governor said, “CSU Board of Trustees’ meetings are already open to the public and therefore it is unnecessary to statutorily authorize a staff person to attend in a member’s absence.”
CFA representative and communication specialist Brian Ferguson said that the governor’s decision hurts the CSU system.
“The governor has shown an absolute disappointment to us of something that is beneficial that could improve the school system and the state,” said Ferguson.
However, the governor has signed Senate Bill 190, which requires the meetings of the regents of the University of California system and the CSU Board of Trustees to be open, and also focuses more on public votes regarding pay increases for the state’s top administrators.
The governor said he signed SB 190 because he said there needed to be more transparency in the state’s educational systems so that the public could have a reason to be confident in its public institutions.
