Rehired UC Employee Faces Criticism

Following a stricter employee-rehiring policy that was recently passed by the UC Regents, UC Berkeley Associate Chancellor Linda Williams is facing criticism for receiving $100,202 in a severance package from her previous post at the UC Office of the President.

Williams was the only UC employee out of 155 who received a severance package exceeding $100,000, a sum that under current policy required approval from the UC Board of Regents at their meeting on Nov. 20.

She served as associate president to then-UC President Robert Dynes from October 2003 to April 2008. She became UC Berkeley's associate vice chancellor of government, community and campus liaison in May.

Williams had applied to the UC Office of the President's severance program in January and received $100,202 in compensation upon leaving, a figure that the office determined based on years of service and salary.

Sen. Leland Yee, D-San Francisco, said that the university's approval of high employee compensation packages ignores the current financial strain felt by the UC system.

"This has been an ongoing problem of allowing people to retire with a fat pension, and then they come back with another full salary so they can make more money," he said. "At the same time, the university is asking students to tighten their belt so they can pay more tuition and more fees."

The regents instated a stricter policy on rehiring employees in September, stating they would reserve the practice for rare circumstances.

The new policy was passed after the UC system and UC Berkeley faced scrutiny in April for rehiring UCPD Police Chief Victoria Harrison back into the same post two months after she retired. Harrison, in addition to receiving a $2.1 million lump sum package, was granted a pay raise of more than $10,000.

Williams declined to comment on the severance program, saying she wanted to focus on her current position.

"I am really ecstatic to be here-it's a wonderful campus, and I plan to continue making my career in making contributions every way that I can," she said.

Dan Mogulof, the campus's executive director of public affairs, said Williams had not breached policy since she had accepted UC Berkeley's offer in February after deciding to leave the Office of the President.

"There's no problem with public discourse about a policy, but there is a problem with focusing on blameless individuals who did nothing more than comply in every way, shape or form with university policy," he said.

According to UC spokesperson Brad Hayward, Williams is one among 155 employees who elected to participate in the voluntary separation program for the Office of the President. Out of those participants, 16 were rehired within the university system.

Hayward said that these severance packages offered to employees electing to leave office would ultimately save money and aid the Office of the President's efforts to cut up to $30 million in overall costs.

"The whole goal was to free up more resources for other university activities," Hayward said. "You spend a little bit of money up front, but overall we're estimating these buyouts will be saving $5 million a year."

But Yee said that the situation is another breach of UC transparency.

"The university doesn't get it," Yee said. "They're not demonstrating much understanding for the times we're going through right now."

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