California lawmakers are proposing a change to the state Constitution and a new budget measure that would help them wrest control of spending by University of California President Janet Napolitano’s office.
The moves come after state Auditor Elaine Howle advised the Legislature to establish oversight of the UC president’s office in light of her discovery of problems there, including hidden funds and misleading accounting practices.
State Sen. Ed Hernandez, D-Azusa (Los Angeles County), introduced a constitutional amendment Tuesday that would, if passed by the Legislature, ask voters whether Napolitano’s office should keep its full budget autonomy.
The Assembly, meanwhile, is pushing a budget measure that adopts Howle’s oversight recommendation — by requiring the Legislature to directly fund the UC president’s office. The funding would give lawmakers oversight and control over how the UC president’s office spends those funds. The office would no longer collect campus fees, which give it exclusive control over how to spend that money.
Hernandez’s constitutional amendment would need a two-thirds majority vote in both the Assembly and state Senate before it could go to voters.
Source: San Francisco Chronicle
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