CA: Conflict of interest found for UC provost - Despite violations (got paid leave/offer of new job)

The University of California's former No. 2 official, who resigned under a cloud last month, violated conflict-of-interest rules by helping to create a management job for a friend with whom she owned rental property, a UC investigation concluded Wednesday.

In addition, UC investigators found that a subordinate for the former official, ex-Provost M.R.C. Greenwood, had improperly helped create an internship for Greenwood's son, though they couldn't find evidence he had done so at Greenwood's direction.

The subordinate, university Vice President Winston Doby, 65, remains on administrative leave while UC auditors look into two other hires in which he was involved.

UC said it started the investigation after The Chronicle asked about Greenwood's role in the hiring of two people: her friend and business partner, Lynda Goff, for a job at UC's headquarters, and Greenwood's son, James Greenwood, for a midcareer internship at UC Merced.

But UC won't take any action against Greenwood, 62, as a result of the investigation. In fact, a separation agreement that Greenwood and UC agreed to in November, a month before the investigation was completed, grants the former No. 2 official a 15-month leave at $301,840 a year. The money is a combination of the salary she earned as provost and in her previous job as UC Santa Cruz chancellor.

UC also promised Greenwood the right to return after her leave to UC Davis, where she worked years earlier, as a tenured professor of nutrition and internal medicine earning $163,800. In addition, UC agreed to give her $100,000 in research funding.

FRom the Oakland Tribune

Ex-provost censured for hiring friend But investigation finds former UC official not responsible for son's employment at Merced By Michelle Maitre, STAFF WRITER

http://www.insidebayarea.com/oaklandtribune/localnews/ci_3333488

Former University of California Provost M.R.C. Greenwood was in the wrong when she hired her business partner for a $192,000-a-year job and did not disclose their relationship, but she was not improperly involved in her son's hire for a specially created job at one of the university campuses, a pair of internal investigations have concluded.

The investigations, conducted by UC general counsel and released Wednesday, said Greenwood violated university conflict-of-interest policies when she hired a woman with whom she owned property, Lynda Goff, as an administrator at UC headquarters in Oakland.

In 2004, Greenwood appointed Goff to a temporary academic affairs position at the UC Office of the President, and in 2005, following the recommendation of a search committee, hired Goff as director of the Science and Math Initiative. The position reported directly to Greenwood.

Goff also received a $53,300 housing allowance and moving expenses.

Greenwood — who resigned as provost Nov. 4 — also did not disclose their business relationship on her annual statement of economic interest, as required by the state's Political Reform Act, the investigation found.

In a statement, Greenwood, 62, said she had informed UC of her real estate partnership with Goff in 2003 and believed she had taken the steps to dissolve the partnership in keeping withUC policy.

"I regret that I made an unfortunate and inadvertent mistake in how I handled the dissolution of that partnership in my efforts to avoid running afoul of UC's conflicts policy," Greenwood's statement said. "I honestly believed I had taken the necessary steps to dissolve the real estate partnership."

In 2003, Goff was vice provost and dean of undergraduate education at UC Santa Cruz, where Greenwood was chancellor.

In that position, Goff reported to the campus provost.

Greenwood's spokeswoman, Sigrid Bathen, said the former provost is revising her income statements to properly disclose the partnership.

Bathen said Greenwood did disclose assets she received from the partnership, namely rental income from a shared property in Davis, which she believed met legal requirements.

They no longer own property together.

A separate but related investigation into the hiring of Greenwood's son, James, as a paid intern at UC Merced concluded the provost held no sway over his appointment but said a second administrator exercised "poor judgment" when he created — and found funding — for the position expressly with James Greenwood in mind.

That administrator, Vice President for Educational Outreach Winston Doby, remains on paid administrative leave while university officials continue to investigate two additional hiring decisions uncovered in the process of investigating James Greenwood's hire, UC spokesman Paul Schwartz said.

Doby did not return a call for comment left at his home Wednesday.

UC said no policies were "intentionally violated" in James Greenwood's hire, but it presents the appearance of favoritism. James Greenwood, 43, makes $45,000 a year as a student-affairs officer at UC Merced, where he works with students and helps develop new programs.

Documents said Doby believed James Greenwood would be a positive addition to UC and, knowing that the system's newest campus in Merced needed new people but didn't have the budget to support them, he identified funding to support the position.

Total funding was $60,000 for benefits and computer equipment, the report said.

Reached at UC Merced, James Greenwood declined to comment.

Both James Greenwood and Lynda Goff remain university employees, and their job performance has not been questioned, officials said.

M.R.C. Greenwood is on a one-year sabbatical, making $301,840 before she returns to a faculty post at UC Davis. Her salary there will be $163,800 a year, according to UC documents.

The information released Wednesday comes as UC is weathering criticism over recent newspaper disclosures the system spent millions last fiscal year on bonuses and other compensation for highly paid employees, even as student fees went up and services were cut.

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