After over a month of denying that they had even a single document pertaining to the upcoming controversial visit by Sarah Palin, California State University Stanislaus officials are now offering to disclose “800 or 900” documents about the event, according to a report published in California Watch - a project of the Center for Investigative Reporting.
As chair of the Select Committee on Open Meetings and Public Record Laws, the latest revelation has prompted me to demand CSU Chancellor Charles Reed hold the campus administration at Stanislaus accountable.
The CSU administration has completely violated the public trust and California law. Chancellor Reed should immediately take action to hold these administrators accountable. It should not take an Attorney General investigation and a lawsuit from a nonprofit for the CSU to do the right thing. How many more scandals do we need at CSU before Chancellor Reed takes some responsibility?
On March 31, together with Californians Aware, made public record requests asking the university to disclose Palin’s speaking contract as well as any other documents pertaining to her visit.
On April 6, the Campus Compliance Officer responded with, “The University has no documents that are responsive to your request.”
My office, however, acquired an email correspondence dated March 29 from the Vice President for University Advancement who was attempting to justify the Palin event to other campus administrators and faculty members.
On April 9, CSU student Ashli Briggs was informed that suspicious activity (specifically, document purging) was taking place within the administration building. After seeing several administrators’ cars in the parking lot on the university’s scheduled furlough day, Alicia Lewis and other students found several public documents in a campus dumpster.
Many of the public documents were shredded, presumably by university personnel. Among the intact documents were financial statements, university spreadsheets, and staff assignments, as well as pages 4 through 9 of the Palin contract, which showed her visit requirements include a hotel suite, first class airfare or a private Lear jet, pre-screened questions, and “bendable straws.”
The series of events spurred Attorney General Jerry Brown to launch a formal investigation and Californians Aware to file a lawsuit in Superior Court.
While publicly denying that the university had documents pertaining to the Palin visit, CSU Stanislaus President Hamid Shirvani falsely asserted that foundation documents were not subject to the California Public Records Act, even if the administration had possession of such documents. A 2001 court case involving a foundation at Fresno State University completely contradicts such a claim. The Superior Court ruling specifically requires foundation documents to be made public when they are in possession of the university itself.
Shirvani also falsely claims that the foundation’s work is completely funded by private donations when in fact the CSU Stanislaus Foundation is entirely located within the public university using taxpayer-funded administrators, employees, and resources.
There is not a fine line or even a blurry line between the foundation and the public university; there is absolutely no line. While students are suffering, it is unfair that top executives at CSU Stanislaus are wasting precious dollars on legal costs and cover-ups.
For many students, the cost to attend college does not come easy. There are those who work two jobs to pay for college expenses, and support their families at the same time. Student fee increases alongside cuts to department and classes force students to enroll in the CSU system longer than the typical four-year completion time. The CSU system is also laying off workers to balance their budgets. In a system of higher learning where Asian-Americans account for more than a third of the student and worker population, we must stop the misuse of these public dollars and stop this game of charades. Protect our public education now.
As chair of the Select Committee on Open Meetings and Public Record Laws, the latest revelation has prompted me to demand CSU Chancellor Charles Reed hold the campus administration at Stanislaus accountable.
The CSU administration has completely violated the public trust and California law. Chancellor Reed should immediately take action to hold these administrators accountable. It should not take an Attorney General investigation and a lawsuit from a nonprofit for the CSU to do the right thing. How many more scandals do we need at CSU before Chancellor Reed takes some responsibility?
On March 31, together with Californians Aware, made public record requests asking the university to disclose Palin’s speaking contract as well as any other documents pertaining to her visit.
On April 6, the Campus Compliance Officer responded with, “The University has no documents that are responsive to your request.”
My office, however, acquired an email correspondence dated March 29 from the Vice President for University Advancement who was attempting to justify the Palin event to other campus administrators and faculty members.
On April 9, CSU student Ashli Briggs was informed that suspicious activity (specifically, document purging) was taking place within the administration building. After seeing several administrators’ cars in the parking lot on the university’s scheduled furlough day, Alicia Lewis and other students found several public documents in a campus dumpster.
Many of the public documents were shredded, presumably by university personnel. Among the intact documents were financial statements, university spreadsheets, and staff assignments, as well as pages 4 through 9 of the Palin contract, which showed her visit requirements include a hotel suite, first class airfare or a private Lear jet, pre-screened questions, and “bendable straws.”
The series of events spurred Attorney General Jerry Brown to launch a formal investigation and Californians Aware to file a lawsuit in Superior Court.
While publicly denying that the university had documents pertaining to the Palin visit, CSU Stanislaus President Hamid Shirvani falsely asserted that foundation documents were not subject to the California Public Records Act, even if the administration had possession of such documents. A 2001 court case involving a foundation at Fresno State University completely contradicts such a claim. The Superior Court ruling specifically requires foundation documents to be made public when they are in possession of the university itself.
Shirvani also falsely claims that the foundation’s work is completely funded by private donations when in fact the CSU Stanislaus Foundation is entirely located within the public university using taxpayer-funded administrators, employees, and resources.
There is not a fine line or even a blurry line between the foundation and the public university; there is absolutely no line. While students are suffering, it is unfair that top executives at CSU Stanislaus are wasting precious dollars on legal costs and cover-ups.
For many students, the cost to attend college does not come easy. There are those who work two jobs to pay for college expenses, and support their families at the same time. Student fee increases alongside cuts to department and classes force students to enroll in the CSU system longer than the typical four-year completion time. The CSU system is also laying off workers to balance their budgets. In a system of higher learning where Asian-Americans account for more than a third of the student and worker population, we must stop the misuse of these public dollars and stop this game of charades. Protect our public education now.
