SACRAMENTO, Calif. _ Top aides to University of California President Janet Napolitano interfered with a state audit of her office, suppressing campus criticism of its services and operations, according to findings of an investigation ordered by the UC Board of Regents.
Napolitano approved a plan to instruct administrators from the UC system's 10 campuses to submit responses to confidential questionnaires about her office for review by her aides before returning them to the state auditor, according to the fact-finding review obtained by the Los Angeles Times.
"Based on the foregoing review, we conclude that members of the president's executive office did interfere with the surveys," stated the investigative report, which was conducted by former state Supreme Court Justice Carlos Moreno and the law firm of Hueston Hennigan. It added: "We further conclude that two members of the president's staff undertook these actions with the specific purpose of shaping the responses to be less critical of" the UC president's office.
While Napolitano knew about the plan to review the survey responses, investigators said there was "insufficient evidence to conclude that she was aware of (the aides') conduct in purposefully and systematically targeting unfavorable responses."
Napolitano's two top aides who were found by investigators to have interfered with the surveys _ chief of staff Seth Grossman and deputy chief of staff Bernie Jones _ resigned last week. They told investigators the plan to review the responses was a "bad decision and an error in judgment."
Napolitano told investigators that she regretted approving the plan to review survey responses and said the intent was not to interfere with the surveys, but to make sure any campus responses were within the scope of the audit and accurately reflected the chancellors' opinions.
"She said she regrets the allegation of interference because that was not the intent and it detracts from the fact that (the UC president's office) accepted all of the state auditor's recommendations in her audit report and has changed its procedures," the investigative report said.
The survey results were not included in the audit because Howle determined they were tainted by the interference.
Howle's audit found in April that Napolitano's office paid excessive salaries and benefits to its top executives and did not disclose to the UC Board of Regents, the Legislature and the public $175 million in budget reserve funds that could have helped stave off a 2.5 percent tuition increase scheduled for this fall.
Grossman said through a spokesman that he did nothing wrong and had cleared his conduct with university attorneys and internal auditors. His spokesman said he resigned to take a job in Washington as chief of staff and counselor to American University President Sylvia M. Burwell.
Jones told the Times in April that allegations of improper interference were groundless, but he did not respond to an email last week asking if he had resigned because of the investigation.
Officials at some of the 10 campuses surveyed told investigators that Grossman and Jones instructed them during a phone conference call that they should not "air dirty laundry," and suggested revisions to negative responses. The two aides said they did not recall making that comment.
The two aides sought to conceal their efforts from the auditor, the review found. Grossman sent a text message to Jones to keep communications "off of email." He later sent a text message to Jones saying, "Don't want anything in email that could be problematic if made it (sic) way back to auditor," the investigative report said.
The interference "was likely to, and in at least one case did, chill campuses' responses to the state auditor," the investigation concluded.
In an interview with investigators, Napolitano described the relationship with the state auditor's office at the time of the audit as "toxic" because of a previous negative audit on nonresident college admissions that university officials felt was rife with inaccuracies.
Although Napolitano's staff ran the basic review plan by the university's general counsel, the attorney was not asked if the office could have negative comments removed from the survey responses, the investigation found.
The investigators said putting campus chancellors on notice that their survey responses would be reviewed by the president's office had an intimidating effect.
"In adopting such a plan, (the UC Office of the President) was affirmatively notifying each campus chancellor that he or she would be seen as the responsible party for any statement critical of UCOP in the survey responses," the report said.
"Numerous campus witnesses, including at least one chancellor, stated that the knowledge that UCOP would be reviewing their responses caused them to respond to the surveys differently than they otherwise would have," the report said.
The report laid bare tensions between Napolitano's office and chancellors. Some chancellors, campus officials have said, have chafed under what they regard as a top-down, heavy-handed management style by Napolitano and Grossman, especially in controlling information and messaging to the public. Former UC President Mark Yudof, a lifelong academic, was characterized as less intrusive in campus affairs.
The report also detailed numerous witness accounts of efforts by the president's office to control the campus survey responses, some of which Napolitano and her aides denied or said they did recall.
A witness at a Nov. 10, 2016, meeting with Napolitano told investigators the UC president was "very upset" about the conduct of auditors.
"This witness recalls the president asking how UCOP could get more 'control' over the surveys," the report said, adding that Napolitano didn't recall making that comment.
One chancellor told investigators that Napolitano said at a Nov. 15 dinner that campus officials should not be overly negative in responding to the surveys. Napolitano denied making that comment.
After Jones flagged a comment in one draft survey response that a UCOP program was ineffective, the campus removed it.
A senior official in the UCLA chancellor's office said they rewrote their survey response after Jones allegedly said that negative reviews "could be used politically to reduce funding" to the office of the president and the campuses. The remarks were interpreted to "absolutely be a threat to the campus," the report said. Jones told investigators he did not recall making that statement.
The UCLA official also alleged Jones warned him by phone that "the president might need to personally intervene," and the official was told "we wouldn't want to have that happen."
When the office of UC Santa Cruz Chancellor George Blumenthal sent the survey to auditors without first having it reviewed by the president's office, the chancellor said Napolitano called him and was allegedly "furious," telling Blumenthal to recall the response from auditors.
Blumenthal told investigators he revised the response to address concerns by Jones.
"President Napolitano's activities in connection with the survey responses from UC Santa Cruz are the strongest evidence on which to conclude that the president understood that members of her staff were systematically highlighting and sanitizing critical comments from the campuses," the report said.
However, Napolitano told investigators she used a "measured tone" with Blumenthal and her concern was that his campus' survey had been returned without his review.
Still, the various comments Napolitano allegedly made to campus officials affected the responses, investigators found.
"Once that happened, regardless of UCOP's intent, a 'chilling' effect upon campus responses was inevitable," the report said.
The regents will vote Thursday on corrective actions, including a proposal to bar UC employees from any attempt to "obstruct, interfere or in any way attempt to coordinate requests for information in regards to any state audit."
A new law approved by the Legislature and taking effect Jan. 1 also makes interference with auditors an offense subject to fines.
George Kieffer, UC board chairman, said it was "unfortunate" that the report was leaked and said he would not comment further until regents reviewed and discussed the matter on Thursday. Napolitano was not available for comment.
